In the mind of the ordinary rakyat, what we call the “government” usually equals the prime minister and his cabinet.
The government however further comprises “the entire federal public service from the highest to the lowest, including of course the police force and the armed forces”, according to Tun Mohamed Suffian Hashim, the late Lord President.
Tun Suffian also stressed that the government, although powerful, must nonetheless conform to the law.
Maintaining law and order
The job of the Malaysian government is to uphold and enforce Malaysian law – no ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ about it.
A Reuters report yesterday quoted Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as saying:
“Even though they [Rohingya] are a migrant community that is trying to enter the country illegally, and breaking immigration laws, their well-being should not be ignored.”
The two facts we gather from Zahid’s statement above are, (1) the Rohingya are illegal immigrants, and (2) they’ve broken our immigration laws.
Under Malaysia’s Immigration Act 1959/63, a person who enters the country illegally – if found guilty and convicted of the offence – can be fined up to RM10,000 or jailed up to five years, or both. He shall also be liable to whipping of not more than six strokes.
Rocky says “Please let the Rohingyas in”
No.
Rohingya are clearly lawbreakers if, in the guise of boat people, they attempt an unauthorized entry into our territorial waters. Other Rohingya have contravened Malaysian immigration laws by smuggling themselves here overland through the Thai border.
The Burmese government considers Rohingya to be illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and ethnic Bengali, i.e. a people originating from Bengal in the Indian sub-continent. Burma’s 1982 Citizenship Law omits Rohingyas from its list of 135 recognized ethnic minorities.
Every now and again we read about police operations to round up illegal immigrants. The Rohingya on the boats are illegal immigrants.
Why is it that they’re being treated differently just because they’re floating on water?
Regulations are regulations to be obeyed
Some excuses are being made for the Rohingya illegal immigrants such as pregnancy,
cf. LGBT activist Azrul Mohd Khalib’s column in The Malay Mail, “They had no qualms leaving pregnant women, children and infants to suffer and die on those fishing boats …”, “There are malnourished, sick, pregnant and dying adults and children on those boats.”
So, if a China national who is in Subang Jaya working illegally as a GRO gets herself pregnant, would she be given special treatment too, and her arrest waived?
Immigrant children are exploited by the beggar’s syndicate. That is human trafficking and an illegal activity also.
Fussing about how the West views us
Najib is too eager to convince the West that we are Muslim “moderates”. The reason a lot of Malaysians miss Tun Mahathir’s premiership is because he dared to thumb his nose at the Jews and the whites.
Rocky blogs that if reversing the decision taken by his own government is perceived as “a ‘weakness’ on the part of the prime minister, it is one that we should welcome with open arms” – see screenshot above.
Again no. The last thing we need is a weak PM. What we desperately need is a war general or else the BN is going to lose the next election.
Marina Mahathir: “We need to demand that our govt do the humanitarian thing. At least get pregnant women, kids, old and sick off the boats. Show leadership.”
Is the preeminent character trait of our cabinet members their bleeding heart or a safe pair of hands and adherence to the law?
The law is there as an infallible guide to how ministers should conduct themselves in carrying out their duties. Just follow the law, please.
Be they cabinet ministers or red ribbon social activists?
I’d be most appalled if the MPs and Senators who are entrusted with ministerial portfolios start to talk like they are Marina Mahathir. Please don’t! Ministers should stick to realpolitik.
If we must use the word ‘crisis’, it should just as well be Crisis of Confidence in the BN government. It does not inspire confidence when the country’s top leadership quickly make a U-turn upon being held to ransom.
Putrajaya is allowing itself to be taken hostage by the threat that some Rohinghya bodies may wash ashore and Malaysia would subsequently be labelled “inhumane” and “cruel”.
The truth of the matter is the Rohingya and Bangladeshis have already been there and done that. These two groups clashed viciously on board the boat off the Indonesian shore.
‘Kill or be killed’ choice on the boat
On the boat’s lower deck were the Bangladeshis while on the top deck were the Rohingya.
Bangladeshi Mohammad Murad Hussein related how the Rohingya were pouring hot water as well as water laced with pepper from their upper deck down upon those below. “Anyone who went up was hacked at with a cleaver,” said Murad.
The fighting with axes, knives and metal bars left between 100 and 200 passengers dead, survivors told AFP. Dead bodies and even the living were thrown overboard. See ‘Jump, kill or be killed on foundering migrant boat‘ (Bangkok Post, 19 May 2015).
Decisions that will factor when GE14 rolls around
Out of 860 respondents to my online survey asking ‘Should the Rohingya boat people refugees be allowed to stay in Malaysia?’, 60.5 percent or 520 readers said ‘No’. Six out of every 10 of those polled do not believe that the Rohingya should be allowed to stay in our country.
This is the voice of the silent minority.
Only 29.65 percent or 255 readers voted ‘Yes’, the Rohingya should be allowed to stay.
The voice of the vocal minority is similar to the likes of Marina, Azrul and Eric Paulsen.
The silent majority are double in number but deprived of media platform.
Najib’s administration must weigh whether it wants to listen to the sober voice of loyal BN voters or comply with the demands by liberal activists. Will the government defend the rule of law?
.
Rohingya
- Najib gomen caves in to pressure
. - “Racism”: Palestinians and Rohingya – one difference
. - Council of Churches says govt “inhumane”, wants more “compassion” to be shown
. - Rohingya suspected of bringing to M’sia their blood feud against Buddhists
. - Foreign NGOs criticize Malaysia’s Rohingya policy
.
- Leave your Prada at home, Hannah, and volunteer to cook a meal for the Rohingyas
. - Will Hannah Yeoh give the Rohingya work as her children’s babysitter?
. - Last time we didn’t allow Vietnamese boat people to stay either
. - Rohingya might want to sue the British ala Hindraf class action suit
. - Haruskah pelarian Rohingya dibenar untuk menetap di sini? (tinjauan pendapat)
Helen Ang 
I think I can agree with you. Lets arrest all these illegal immigrants and fine or jail them. More likely jail since these people cannot pay. Quickly, hurry, kasi tangkap semua dan masuk penjara. Bagi penalti maksima 5 tahun. :)
In memory of Irene Fernandez…
I hate n sync,
What is it with Najib that he is worried with what Western countries or NGOs said ?
We are the one tackling the issue. Not Western countries that are only good at preaching. People like marina, Hannah are only good at talking.
Why cant any Minister in PM’s bloated cabinet advise Marina to start cooking for these economic migrants. Include hannah Yeoh too. She has so much time to tweet. let her put her “masa lapang” to good use: Cooking for these economic migrants.
THE HABIT OF BEING APOLOGETIC must stop.
They look scary. Their eyes say it all….I won’t let them in.
Brilliant expose of the complete breakdown of law and order and the petty loyalties that fuels it!
The fact is as you indicate the Rohingya are lawbreakers. They are illegal immigrants and are a precedent we cannot afford to test for the floodgates it is likely to open.
Second fact Malaysia’s only obligation (a moral one at that only) is to treat them humanely and to afford them passage through or hold them till arrangements can be made to repatriate them to their country of origin or to a third country who will accept them.
If however they force themselves on Malaysia by entering its waters after being warned to stay out which is a lawful thing to do, they bring upon themselves the full weight and force of the law including having their craft destroyed at sea.
No one yet has sufficient no intelligence of the force and the movements behind this sudden flood of Rohingya in south east Asian waters. No one knows if they are indeed as some defence experts have suggested an advanced party of trouble makers with a convenient human shield of women, elderly and children to attract sympathy. The Tamil Tigers used that as a battle strategy against the Indian IPKF in the early 1980’s.
Neither Marina Mahathir nor the crowd of fleas she keeps company with have any authority, moral or otherwise to attempt to influence government and the public to take in the Rohingya. They are in search of economic opportunities, spurred by the instability in Myanmar and discrimination they face there fro a Buddhist majority and their clergy.
However if we apply this criteria to all of those the Marina Mahathir’s believe we should treat as exceptional, we will flood the nation with people of all races and become an over populated international slum where law and order could not possibly be maintained.
Marina Mahathir has no cause. Everything the government rejects, or does not approve of and regardless of the legality of the government’s position she will support because it contradicts the government’s position.
Marina Mahathir appears to be as much of a bag of hot air as the other bag of hot air Ambiga Sreenivasan. Two peas in a pod? Disappointing indeed.
one illegal , come, get caught, punished, prisoned, bla bla bal
2 to 10, came, get caught, advise, sent back wherever they came from,
10 – 1000, round up , caught, put in lockup, give food water and send back wherever they came. sometime go to western culture
more than 1000, humanitarian act, come here, give citizen, cherish them, not illegal, pity them
moral of the story, next time come to malaysia with more than 10 people. worst thing could happen to you is you get free food and flight back home. never come alone.
By now the news could be well spread around Myanmar and Bangladesh ,believe they will be more organised trip’s to come .
Country around the world are watching , maybe they will organize the same ,it’s will be a good replacement for those supposed to be Malaysian who feel that ,the have been deprive as citizen ,maybe they could organize the same.
Fact is, there are lives at stake today. People on boats who may or may not make it. No ones asking them to be allowed in to Remain. The decision is to get them off the boat. But Helen Ang being Helen Ang spins it once Again to an opposition-Chinese-Christian conspiracy. Karma is a bitch Helen. So are you.
re: “Fact is, there are lives at stake today.”
Like I said, they’re holding our government to ransom and creating a hostage situation. In such cases, when the powers-that-be take action, there is always the risk of casualties and even collateral damage. However the authorities should not be blamed for any deaths. It is the hostage takers who are responsible for putting lives at stake.
re: “People on boats who may or may not make it.”
Read the Bangkok Post link. An estimated 100-200 passengers already have not made it. The Rohingya passengers and the Bangladeshi passengers slaughtered each other on the boat.
And in Penang, Muslim Myanmar nationals are murder suspects for slitting the throat of their Buddhist countrymen.
Malaysian cabinet ministers did not cause any illegal immigrants to die. Those illegal immigrants perpetrated the killings themselves.
re: “No ones asking them to be allowed in to Remain. The decision is to get them off the boat.”
Wrong. Plenty of bleeding hearts are saying the Rohingya can be absorbed. As a comparison, the Australian government has towed immigrant boats out of the country’s waters.
re: “But Helen Ang being Helen Ang spins it once Again to an opposition-Chinese-Christian conspiracy.”
The headline has Marina Mahathir’s name. She is neither Chinese nor Christian. And inasmuch as her populist causes may be hijacked by the opposition, there’s no indication as yet that she is. That’s why in the photo above she is not wearing a yellow (Bersih) t-shirt.
re: “Karma is a bitch Helen. So are you.”
Screaming “bitch” is not an argument. It just makes you sound like a pansy.
“Screaming “bitch” is not an argument. It just makes you sound like a pansy.”
It is really pathetic, kan? These DAP/evangelists seem to resort to intimidation and insidious name-calling in order to rule the discourse in social media whenever they run out of anything intelligent to say.
Guess that’s how these people operate. So much for “love”.
In this particular case, I don’t think ‘DOD’ is pro-DAP or evangelista or Chinese or Indian.
He’s one of those well-educated, liberal professionals.
‘He’s one of those well-educated, liberal professionals’
Ye ke? Hari-hari surrounded himself dengan jalangs kut?
The Rohingya crisis from the viewpoint of the Buddhists: Wahhabism, al-Qaedah and their global political intrique
https://themuslimissue.wordpress.com/2014/10/08/no-rohingya-muslims-in-myanmar-before-1948-while-80-of-greater-asia-once-buddhist-have-been-forced-to-convert-to-islam/
Prohibition of Harming One’s Neighbour:
The Prophet, (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “By Allah, he is not a believer! By Allah, he is not a believer! By Allah, he is not a believer.’’ It was asked, “Who is that, O Messenger of Allah?’’
He replied, “One whose neighbour does not feel safe from his evil.”
(Sahih Bukhari)
http://www.halalmonk.com/abdal-hakim-murad-authority-within-islam
Sheikh Abdul Hakim Murad of Cambridge University:-
“If you look at the Ottoman Empire, for example, nobody ever was ‘against’ Sufism. This concept of Islam being anti-Sufi is there because of Saudi puritanism. But that’s a very recent evolution. And even Saudi Arabia is full of Sufis.
If you have not seen the saint, you have not seen the sunna (of Sayyidina Muhammad s.a.w.) But it’s above all important to remember that it’s not so much about Sufism itself.
Sufism is just a name. The ultimate proof of the religion is the saints. They are the miraculous expressions of divine love. As such, the saint in Islam is the one who shows you the greatness of the prophet because his life meticulously conforms to the last detail of the sunna out of total love and surrender. The self is gone and only the prophetic form remains. The dignity, the ancient wisdom, the selflessness, the love for others … you see it in the prophet and you see it in the saint.
So the saints remind us that religion is about consciousness and remembrance now and in every moment. They remind us that it’s about constantly being in God. When you see them, you discover what love is really all about.
Our culture sings about love endlessly because it actually doesn’t have any of it. It became the basis of our society but it’s a kind of coitus interruptus: the slogan of ‘love is all you need’ is everywhere on the covers of magazines, in music and soap-opera’s but it’s not really there. People need it, they have the yearning, but nothing is giving it to them so they’re sort of endlessly trying new things.
A saint is beyond that sort of narrow minded egocentrism and shows us what real divine love is about.
Q. “Could I conclude then that the true spiritual authorities in Islam, according to you, are in fact the saints?”
Like I often say: “If you have not seen the saint, you have not seen the sunna.”
Liew Chin Tong on RMK11
” Najib has Pemandu, Talent Corp, Teraju, UKAS (Public-Private Partnership Unit), and many other new agencies which compete for influence with EPU. In particular, Pemandu has an unjustifiably huge budget to implement the various alphabat soups like NKRAs, NKEAs.
Third, the undemocratic outsourcing of thinking to private consultants.
With so many competing agencies, one would think that the Government with its in-house talents should produce a more meaningful document with plenty of opportunities for ministers, civil servants, state governments, the opposition, and the people to contribute ideas. Sadly it is not the case. The government just refuses to think.”
Ajib’s Pemandu and CONsultants kena tempiak. Hahaha.
Thanks Mulan for the tip. Have posted, https://helenang.wordpress.com/2015/05/21/rancangan-malaysia-ke-11-konsultan-didahulukan/
Najib is recasting the Malaysian political economy into the mould of the global elitists, with plans to merge with the Singapore TPPA model.