2010-02-05 : Noisy Protest Against Penang CM

Bernard Cheah and Wong Wooi Kean

GEORGE TOWN (Feb 5, 2010): Some 300 people held a noisy protest today against Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng’s state administration, causing an afternoon traffic jam around Komtar, where Lim's office is located.

Despite the fiery speeches that demanded the state do more for the Malays, the organisers at the end refused to hand over a memorandum to Lim’s officers, insisting he come down himself to collect it.

They instead burned Lim’s effigy; and Lim’s political secretary, Ng Wei Aik, who came down to collect the memorandum was turned away and heckled by the crowd.

The gathering, organised by the Peninsular Malay Students Alliance (GPMS) and the Penang Malay Chamber of Commerce, began at about noon, at the compound of the Simpang Enam Mosque at Macalister Road, about 150m away from the government office in Komtar, with fewer than a hundred people showing up.

Calling themselves ‘Sedaq’ (a slang of the Malay word ‘sedar’ or "aware"), they alleged the state government was victimising Malays by unduly demolishing unlicensed premises operated by Malay traders.

Chamber president Rizal Faris Mohideen also dismissed state government statistics that showed the Malays had not been marginalised. He said the chamber would come up with its statistical findings to clarify the matter soon.

According to state figures, of the unlicensed hawkers the Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP) had acted against in 2008 and 2009, only 1,600 were Malays compared to 2,809 Chinese and 443 Indians. It also said some 88% of the Penang government’s contracts though open tender in the same period were awarded to Bumiputra companies, while 76% were given to Bumiputras through call for quotations.

The event was also characterised by banners condemning Lim, warning him, among other things, not to challenge the "patience of the Malays", as they are the rightful lords of the land. There were also banners telling Lim to "go back to Malacca", his hometown. Pasir Mas MP Datuk Ibrahim Ali, who is also the president of Malay NGO Perkasa, arrived at about 1pm.

Police officers were deployed near the mosque to ensure there were no untoward incidents and to control traffic flow.

The event became slightly chaotic after prayers, at about 2.20pm, when the crowd swelled to about 300 and marched to Komtar following a brief speech by Ibrahim. Curious passers-by and tourists made the congestion worse.

Upon reaching Komtar, the group turned away Lim’s officers who had come down to collect the memorandum.

Police then warned everyone, including passers-by, to clear out; and the crowd dispersed without any untoward incident by 3.45pm.

2010-01-27 : Pig Heads Thrown Into Grounds of Malaysian Mosques

By Barry Porter

Jan. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Pig heads were found at two Malaysian mosques, the latest incident of desecration and vandalism following an inter-faith dispute over the use of the word “Allah” by non-Muslims.

Worshippers arrived for morning prayers at a mosque in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, to find the bloodied heads of two wild boars wrapped in plastic bags together with one-ringgit notes. Heads were also found in the grounds of a mosque three kilometers (1.9 miles) away, police said. Pigs are considered unclean animals in Islam.

“I advise the public to stay cool and not to react to certain people who are trying to stir the situation,” Selangor police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said in a telephone interview.

Acts of violence were reported against 11 Christian institutions, one Sikh temple and two Muslim prayer rooms in the past three weeks following a High Court judge’s decision to allow a Catholic newspaper to refer to God as “Allah” in its Malay-language section.

“These are attempts by certain quarters to create chaos in the country,” Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters in Kuala Lumpur today, pledging to track down those responsible.

Malaysia’s government banned non-Muslim publications from referring to “Allah” in 1986 on the grounds it could threaten national security and confuse the country’s Muslims, who make up more than 60 percent of the 27 million population.

“Any violence on a place of worship and prayer of any religion is in a sin of the highest order,” the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism said in a statement. “It is disappointing that such sins continue unabated. Don’t let the provocateurs succeed.”

Police Arrests

Police have arrested 15 Muslim men in connection with the church attacks and four other unidentified suspects linked to the attacks on Muslim prayer rooms.

Political and religious leaders have denounced the recent upsurge in violence, which follows decades of largely amicable inter-faith relations. The incidents, including a series of fire-bombings, add to a perception that Malaysia is coming under the influence of extremists.

Last year, dozens of Muslims paraded with a bloodied head of a cow, a sacred animal in Hinduism, to protest the proposed relocation of a Hindu temple to their neighborhood.

Pop star Beyonce Knowles canceled a concert in Kuala Lumpur last October without explaining why after an Islamic political party protested her revealing stage clothes. A young mother is awaiting a caning sentence to be carried out in Malaysia as punishment for drinking a beer.

To contact the reporter responsible for this story: Barry Porter at bporter10@bloomberg.net