I have been trained as a Journalist, so I will say I have protested many of his policies during his dictatorial reign as Prime Minister, BUT SOMETIMES he has been consistently and doggedly going against the popular thinking -- and when he spoke up as reported by The Malay Mail Online, I must say this "IS" the man yet being doggedly consistent, and he differed from the current PM Naib's defamation sut against malaysiakini.com.
I can believe the Doctor No More Aroud the Putrajaya House is to be taken at his word. I had served at Mkini as its inaugural News Editor, and there were times I was caught in the cross-hairs in the Malaysiakini-GeorgeSoros-FarEastern Economic issue when I challenged the Top Two at Mkini to come clean on receiving funding from George Soros, INDIRECTLY NO BOUBT, via the Media Development Loan Fund, a unit of Georgeyboy's OIpen Society Institute.
Okay, from the mmail.com:-
Dr M: They can call me what they want, I wouldn’t have sued Malaysiakini
The Malay Mail Online – 1 hour 54 minutes agoRelated Content
View PhotoFormer Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohamad conceded Najib had the right …
Wading into the row perceived as an attempt to muzzle the media over government reports, the former prime minister conceded Najib had the right to use the existing laws to defend his reputation.
“Ya, it is right,” Dr Mahathir replied when asked by reporters if the sixth prime minister was right in suing for defamation.
Despite that, the 88-year-old insisted he would not have taken the same action as Najib.
“I don't, I won't sue. They call me anything also, they can,” he said.
“This is politics. In politics, you get cursed. That’s alright,” added Dr Mahathir.
The nation’s longest serving former prime minister pointed out that he had been called many names in the past, including “jihadist” and “infidel”.
He also joked that he rarely goes to court because he cannot afford it, referring to his five-year RM100 million legal battle with political nemesis Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
He told reporters that even after the case was thrown out of court and Anwar had to pay damages, most of the money had gone to the lawyers.
“After he lost, I only got RM70,000. It was not even enough to pay the lawyers. Supposedly, if he sued me for RM100 million, then he should’ve paid me that much money when he lost. That would’ve been fair,” Dr Mahathir said jokingly.
He was speaking at a lecture in the International Islamic University Malaysia here, during which he mentioned the futility of restricting online media in protecting the faith of Muslims.
Umno, the country's largest political party, and its president Najib have filed a civil suit against news portal Malaysiakini yesterday over a series of readers' posts published on their website related to the recent Terengganu mentri besar saga.
The suit centres on two articles published by Malaysiakini during the brief leadership crisis in Terengganu last May, titled “A case of the PM reaping what he sows” and “How much will Najib spend to keep Terengganu?”
DESIDERATA: May I share some nuggets later IF I am still inclined?... That is if I see the sun rise tomorrow, INSYA-ALLAH!:)~~ YL, Desi, knottyaSsusual
******************************************
For second time in wan day, gifting credit to Dr Mahathior WHEN CREDIT IS DUE! Going by the quote, though I'm a PKR member, we don't have PERMANENT FREINDS OR FOES IN POLITICS, ONLY PERMANENT INTERESTS! So even when your enemy can teach your somethings, learn from him to arm yourself with better weapons to battle, eh!
Dr M: Jais wrong, should go back to Quran
Malaysiakini – 1 hour 24 minutes ago
Former
prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad today called on the Selangor Islamic
Affairs Department (Jais) to read the Quran again, as its stopping of a
wedding was a misguided move.
Mahathir said the Quran respects the rights of non-Muslims and religion should not be used to police others."This all comes from not adhering to the teachings of the Quran, but they are following the teachings of somebody.
"I suggest that they (Jais) go back to the Quran to find out what is the way to break such a situation," Mahathir told reporters after a lecture on 'Contemporary Muslim lifestyles' at Universiti Islam Antarabangsa (UIA) in Gombak.
Mahathir was commenting on Jais' action last Sunday in taking away a Hindu bride from her wedding ceremony, after it was learned that she had a Muslim name.
After Mahathir was told that the bride was a 32-year-old woman, Mahathir said Jais was wrong.
"You can investigate but you don't have to stop people getting married," Mahathir said.
The bride, Zarena Abdul Majid, was about to marry a Hindu man when Jais officers, with police waiting outside, moved into a Hindu temple in Petaling Jaya and took Zarena away to their office in Shah Alam for questioning.
It was later revealed that Zarena and her siblings were registered as Muslims in their identity card by their father, who is said to have abandoned them more than 20 years ago.
Zarena has said that she has been brought up as a Hindu by her mother, and that she had been trying to change her erroneous MyKad since seven years ago.
Jais action widely condemned
However, Jais officers were said to have intervened to prevent apostasy or an insult to Islam from taking place.
The move has recently been condemned by those who wanted to see a more secular Malaysia such as Persatuan Hindraf Malaysia, MCA, Sisters in Islam but it was lauded by others in PAS, who argued that Islamic laws rule above all else.
Mahathir said the Quran clearly states that "to you your religion, to me my religion."
He added: "You respect the other religions... you pray in your own way, we pray in our own way.
"The Quran does give full guidance as to how to conduct our lives... so go to the Quran and find out whether you are right or wrong or whether you follow the interpretation of some people and become fanatical."
Mahathir said such folly usually comes about when Islam is used as a political tool and when "people want to show that they are very Islamic."
"And if you say that what they do is non-Islamic, then they say that you are non-Muslim and that you have forsaken Islam so that makes people afraid of making any comment... including me," said Mahathir, who is considered a model Islamic leader by many Muslim-dominated developing countries.
'I am the brother of Nik Aziz'
Earlier, Mahathir also expressed disagreement with Islamist party PAS over hudud, repeating the same argument that he made 20 years ago.
He was responding to a UIA lecturer from Singapore, who proclaimed that he was neither PAS nor an Umno member.
The academic pointed out that after also meeting a PAS leader recently, he found Mahathir and PAS spiritual leader Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat to be very similar.
"As a Muslim, I am the brother of Nik Aziz, but beyond that, when you do something wrong, I can't accept," Mahathir said.
"I believe religion should not be made use of in politics. You are bound to make mistakes," he added.
Mahathir then pointed out that the PAS move for hudud would pervert justice in Malaysia by creating two very different punishment regimes for Muslims and non-Muslims.
In its desire to see the hudud type of punishment for crime, PAS has missed this point, Mahathir said.
"If it is not justice, it is not Islamic. The stress is on justice and not punishment, but they like punishment," he added.
"On that, I differ with Nik Aziz - my brother."
Related stories
'Marriage, not conversion, so Jais has no standing'
Jais raid shows injustice of unilateral conversions
'Selangor MB must answer for Jais action at wedding'
Respect one another's choice of religion
No comments:
Post a Comment