Handing of Joint Memorandum to Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz by Islamic NGOs at the Parliament House on March 20, 2006
by Puan Azra Banu
The turn out was excellent and the mood was one of enthusiasm and buoyancy.
Members from the various Islamic NGOs were seated very early, all impeccably dressed. From the onset, before the arrival of the Minister, it was quite clear that everyone shared a warm sense of camaraderie and it was almost already congratulatory for having come this far.
The Minister duly arrived and after brief formalities, Dr. Mazeni Alwi, Chairman of the Muslim Professionals Forum (MPF) started by thanking the Minister for his time and everyone else for their support and briefly outlined the objectives of the afternoon. The handing over of the memorandum then took place, following which the chair was handed over to Puan Farah Abdullah, a founding director of MPF who expounded the Executive Summary, a position jointly agreed upon by the Islamic NGOs involved.
The Minister then threw the session open to all present, encouraging them to voice any concerns they might have and there were a few raised. A few representatives expressed their disquiet at the interference of non-Muslims, ignorant in Islamic texts and jurisprudence, in what is clearly an Islamic issue.
The President of ABIM, Mr. Yusri questioned the attempt to base Islamic laws purely on human rational thinking with ill respect and regard for the hierarchy of the sources of knowledge in the divine text, traditions of the prophet and the consensus of classical scholars . Puan Soraya Khairudin of Islamic Information and Services Foundation, highlighted the funding of seminars, organized by certain Muslims on issues like apostasy and moral policing by foreign institutions like Friedrich Neumann and Konrad Adeneur Foundations. These institutions are clearly liberal and secular in nature and aim to promote their ideals, and it is alarming that they’ve been allowed a foothold here.
But the punching bag for the day was most certainly the press, with all who spoke taking their best shot. It started out tamely enough with polite requests for more balanced reporting on the part of the press.
Before long, stronger punches were being delivered. But the knock out blow was inflicted by Dr Musa Mohd. Nordin of MPF, when he said, unlike his colleagues who were being most polite, he was doing no such thing. He expressed his bitter disappointment as a citizen of this country at the total lack of professionalism he sees in the media. As a doctor, his profession is evidence based medicine reflected in best practice clinical guidelines. Unfortunately, he sees very little of evidence based journalism in our mainstream media, let alone being investigative reporting.
Letters in response to some very inflammatory articles never see the light of day, and when a few occasionally do, are so badly truncated as to render them diluted and often beyond recognition. He seemed to open the floodgates for other individuals representing the 43 organisations to ventilate their frustrations at the Islamophobic nuances of the mainstream.
Even the Minister jumped on the bandwagon, instructing the media to use better judgement in exercising their powers He warned, the government will not hesitate to take action against anyone inciting the sentiments of Muslims, adding he can say with absolute confidence that no Muslim has ever written to the media, insulting other faiths, and as Muslims we expect the same courtesy.
The discussion then took an amusing turn as the Minister touched on the handful of Muslims who have been opposing and running down the Islamic Family Law and in the process denigrating Islam, before focusing on an unnamed individual, referred to as ‘nyamuk’ who has been doing just this, even on the international arena.
This ‘nyamuk’ became the buzzword for the next few minutes. It was stressed that this ‘nyamuk’ does not represent the views of the majority of Muslims and if the press cared to look, they’ll find many “Sisters in Iman” right before them.
The press was accused of being ‘in love’ with this ‘nyamuk’ giving ‘it’ wide coverage. A recent rebuttal to one such ‘nyamuk’ by the MPF was completely ignored by our local press but was given wide coverage by the British and Australian press. Jonathan Kent of the BBC wrote to MPF “don’t say the BBC doesn’t strive to put across all views”
A member of the press then asked the Minster who might this ‘nyamuk’ be, but the answer was left to her intelligence.
The Minister then asked if the press had any questions and as if cowed into silence or shell shocked, only the reporter from Al Jazeera International managed one, asking how will the press know what they can print and not. Again, the answer being obvious, the Minister replied that as intelligent beings and citizens of this multi faceted nation, they shouldn’t have to be instructed.
The session ended soon after with the Minister thanking us for our support and saying he felt comfortable in our presence. He informed us that the Islamic Family Law will be tabled again in Parliament with amendments, and expects it to be passed without problems. In addition he stated that Article 121 1 (A), protecting the sanctity of the Shariah Court will not be repealed.
The delegation of NGOs was clearly satisfied with his statements and in return thanked him again. Right after his departure, there was much back slapping for a job well done as everyone agreed that it was a good meeting. And almost without exception we knew that we’ve still got a long road ahead but together we can ease the path, Insha Allah.
Puan Azra Banu
azrabanu@gmail.com
Representatives from the following media organizations attended the event:
- New Straits Times
- The STAR
- Utusan Malaysia
- Malaysiakini
- Sin Chew Daily
- Nanyang Siang Pao
- China Press
- Oriental Daily
- Bernama
- Al Jazeera International
- Channel News Asia International
- TV3
- MPF TV