Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Marry a Lawyer? Proceed With Caution
Updated 6:12 PM, February 12, 2009
By Dr. Fiona Travis
In recent years, some of America’s most popular TV programs and films depicted lawyers winning in court but losing in love. A distortion of reality, or do lawyers really have problems building and sustaining relationships? Regrettably, the image is accurate.
It’s not that lawyers lack relationship-building skills. But, overworked, overburdened and squeezed by time – and now, the worst downturn in two decades – lawyers do exhibit communication and intimacy breakdowns peculiar to their education, their professional training and work environment.
More to the point, the same traits that bring lawyers success in the workplace also interfere with their achieving meaningful, intimate relationships in the home. And the profession works a special hardship on women lawyers. According to an ABA study, a third of all women lawyers have never married as compared to eight percent of male lawyers, and nearly half of the women lawyers report being unmarried, compared to 15 percent of the men. Furthermore, compared to female physicians and college professors, women lawyers are less likely to be married, have children, remarry after divorce and are significantly more likely to become divorced.
As a psychologist who has counseled lawyers and their families for more than 20 years, it seems to me that lawyer marriages are in trouble … perhaps even moretrouble than other professional couples.
There is no one explanation, but when one combines the lawyer personality with the lessons learned in law school, the combination makes for great courtroom drama … but is also counter-productive in an intimate interaction with one’s spouse. The biggest obstacle is the so-called lawyer personality.
Individual lawyers may not have all the characteristics, but – when they’re honest – they will recognize that they possess such marriage-straining attributes as ambition, narcissism, skepticism, defensiveness, perfectionism and the need to be in control. Furthermore, on personality tests, most lawyers score high on the “thinking” scales and low on the “feeling” scales. And it’s not something that happens only after a lawyer passes the bar. It goes all the way back to law school, where one learns to argue, cross examine, stonewall, delay, outwit, and avoid showing weakness to opposing counsel.
According to Susan Daicoff, author of Lawyer, Know Thyself, “Some of the traits compromising the lawyer personality appear long before law school, suggesting that those who are suited to practice law self-select into the profession.”
In short, a disproportionate number of people who are less emotionally astute gravitate into the legal profession. Ironically, it is this same personality type that creates great lawyers.
Let me repeat, the same qualities that persuade juries and win cases can also work like acid on marital relations.
For example, a prosecutor or defense attorney comes home on Friday nights all hyped up and argumentative, as if they were still in court. Or a corporate or real estate lawyer engaged in intense negotiations finds it hard to switch to a different mindset at the end of the work-week. But regardless of the environment in which lawyers work, the demands on their time put even the strongest marriage to the test. In the words of Chief Justice William Rehnquist, “ … Lawyers who work harder (to make partner, to earn more money), and then tell themselves they don’t have time now for family and friends, are on a very slippery slope. They may think they are only postponing the opportunity (to be a better parent, a more loving spouse), but in fact they are sacrificing that opportunity.”
Non-lawyer spouses have their tasks, too. They must learn to deal with the sacrifices of time and intimacy that the spouse’s law practice demands. Such sacrifices may include cancelled or postponed vacations, time spent with the children and involvement in child-rearing decisions, minimal emotional support, lack of deep conversations about feelings, and little patience for working through emotional problems. Of course, another major threat to lawyer marriages is substance abuse, and many an attorney’s filial difficulties begin with after-hours drinking with colleagues. It’s a lawyer’s way of dealing with the high stress, but the practice also creates more stress for spouses.
Lawyers who choose not to become aware of how their work interferes with having a healthy intimate relationship at home are at a higher risk for becoming a divorce statistic.
So, how can lawyers be better spouses?
– Listen with interest and without interruption. Don’t be a lawyer at home. Marriage should not be adversarial. It is not about “win at all cost” and “hardball ultimatums.”
– Become aware of your style of argumentation. You do not have to win at home. Take note if your critique of spouse and children comes across as if your belief is the only truth, and there is no other way to view the issue at hand.
– Make room for emotional support (especially if your spouse is a non-lawyer). Most lawyers are great problem-solvers, and they tend to rush in to solve family problems without considering their spouse’s feelings. This results in a disservice to the spouse, who feels that he or she hasn’t been heard or understood.
So, how do you leave certain behavior patterns in the office and adopt a more conciliatory behavior at home? To begin, it would be helpful to acknowledge that certain lawyerly goals and techniques are at cross-purposes with the behaviors that foster good marriages – for example, win (compromise), doubt (trust), cross-examine (discuss), argue (admit error), attack (accept fallibility in self and others), avoid vulnerability (concede), think for others (respect partner’s opinions and ideas), deny weakness (allow for vulnerability), hinder and delay (cooperate).
Lawyers, take note: Be aware that the adversarial, argumentative style that works at the office and in court works against you if used with your spouse and children. Awareness is the first step to successful change. So, practice taking a deep breath at the midway point between home and office, and as you exhale, let go of that lawyer style until you inhale it back again tomorrow on your way back to work. You are good at practicing law, try practicing love!
Dr. Fiona Travis, who practices in Ohio and is married to a former prosecutor, is the author of Should You Marry a Lawyer: A Couple’s Guide to Balancing Work, Love & Ambition. To order a copy, go to www.LawyerAvenue.com, and click on Bookstore.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
A Prayer For Eli Wong
be merciful to me and answer me.
My heart says of you, "Seek His face!"
Your face, LORD, I will seek.
Do not hide Your face from me,
do not turn your servant away in anger;
you have been my Helper.
Do not reject me or forsake me,
O God my Saviour.
Though my father and mother may forsake me,
the LORD will receive me.
Teach me Your way, O LORD;
lead me in a straight path
because of my oppressors.
Do not hand me over to the desire of my foes,
for false witnesses rise up against me,
breathing out violence.
I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD.
Psalm 27:7-14
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
Once upon the time, in a land called Media, there were a group of farmers living peacefully and minding their own fields. The angels assisted the farmers by singing praises to and calling upon the name of God. Sunshine and rain would pour from heaven at the right season. The farmers’ harvests were abundant and the farmers prospered.
Trembling before the king, the shepherds knew they have to come up with a brilliant excuse to preserve their lives. The smartest one among the shepherds, Cerdik, thought of a brilliant plan. He fell prostrate before the king and said, “Your majesty, please hold your wrath. We are not to be blamed. The angels are calling upon the name of God for the farmers. This has caused confusion to the weather. We failed to follow the time of the day therefore we fell asleep when we should be attending to your majesty’s flock.”
Upon hearing this, the king was furious. He issued a decree to stop the angels from calling upon the name of God from that day onwards. The farmers were devastated, they knew the harvests would never be the same without the angels’ songs.
The angels took pity on the farmers and went to see a wise man, Norman F, for advice. The wise man told the angels this (in the language of the wise):
Kita tidak perlu bersengketa
kamu dan saya
tentang empunya namaNYA.
Biarlah…
bila kamu dan saya
sampai di syurga
kita tanya pada pemilik nama
siapa antara kita
layak menggunakan namaNYA
kerana hanya empunya nama
boleh menjawab
boleh menentukan.
The angels knew that God is slow to anger but abounding in love. The judgment on the king and the shepherds would have to wait.
Monday, February 2, 2009
The Jews: Gandhi
Lord Bobo · Thursday, January 29th, 2009
Sharmila Sekaran wants us to re-read Mahatma Gandhi's views written some 70 years ago, taken from here
(Harijan, 26 November 1938).
Several letters have been received by me asking me to declare my views about the Arab-Jew
question in Palestine and the persecution of the Jews in Germany. It is not without hesitation that I
venture to offer my views on this very difficult question.
My sympathies are all with the Jews. I have known them intimately in South Africa. Some of them
became life-long companions. Through these friends I came to learn much of their age-long
persecution. They have been the untouchables of Christianity. The parallel between their
treatment by Christians and the treatment of untouchables by Hindus is very close. Religious
sanction has been invoked in both cases for the justification of the inhuman treatment meted out
to them. Apart from the friendships, therefore, there is the more common universal reason for my
sympathy for the Jews.
But my sympathy does not blind me to the requirements of justice. The cry for the national home
for the Jews does not make much appeal to me. The sanction for it is sought in the Bible and the
tenacity with which the Jews have hankered after return to Palestine. Why should they not, like
other peoples of the earth, make that country their home where they are born and where they
earn their livelihood?
Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France
to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs. What is going on in
Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct. The mandates have no sanction
but that of the last war. Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so
that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home.
The nobler course would be to insist on a just treatment of the Jews wherever they are born and
bred. The Jews born in France are French. If the Jews have no home but Palestine, will they
relish the idea of being forced to leave the other parts of the world in which they are settled? Or do
they want a double home where they can remain at will? This cry for the national home affords a
colourable justification for the German expulsion of the Jews.
But the German persecution of the Jews seems to have no parallel in history. The tyrants of old
never went so mad as Hitler seems to have gone. And he is doing it with religious zeal. For he is
propounding a new religion of exclusive and militant nationalism in the name of which any
inhumanity becomes an act of humanity to be rewarded here and hereafter. The crime of an
© LoyarBurok · URL of this document: http://www.loyarburok.com/selected-exhortations/the-jews-gandhi/ · Document created: February 1st, 2009, 10:25 pm
obviously mad but intrepid youth is being visited upon his whole race with unbelievable ferocity. If
there ever could be a justifiable war in the name of and for humanity, a war against Germany, to
prevent the wanton persecution of a whole race, would be completely justified. But I do not believe
in any war. A discussion of the pros and cons of such a war is therefore outside my horizon or
province.
But if there can be no war against Germany, even for such a crime as is being committed against
the Jews, surely there can be no alliance with Germany. How can there be alliance between a
nation which claims to stand for justice and democracy and one which is the declared enemy of
both? Or is England drifting towards armed dictatorship and all it means?
Germany is showing to the world how efficiently violence can be worked when it is not hampered
by any hypocrisy or weakness masquerading as humanitarianism. It is also showing how hideous,
terrible and terrifying it looks in its nakedness.
Can the Jews resist this organised and shameless persecution? Is there a way to preserve their
self-respect, and not to feel helpless, neglected and forlorn? I submit there is. No person who has
faith in a living God need feel helpless or forlorn. Jehovah of the Jews is a God more personal
than the God of the Christians, the Mussalmans or the Hindus, though as a matter of fact in
essence, He is common to all and one without a second and beyond description. But as the Jews
attribute personality to God and believe that He rules every action of theirs, they ought not to feel
helpless. If I were a Jew and were born in Germany and earned my livelihood there, I would claim
Germany as my home even as the tallest gentile German may, and challenge him to shoot me or
cast me in the dungeon; I would refuse to be expelled or to submit to discriminating treatment.
And for doing this, I should not wait for the fellow Jews to join me in civil resistance but would
have confidence that in the end the rest are bound to follow my example. If one Jew or all the
Jews were to accept the prescription here offered, he or they cannot be worse off than now. And
suffering voluntarily undergone will bring them an inner strength and joy which no number of
resolutions of sympathy passed in the world outside Germany can. Indeed, even if Britain, France
and America were to declare hostilities against Germany, they can bring no inner joy, no inner
strength. The calculated violence of Hitler may even result in a general massacre of the Jews by
way of his first answer to the declaration of such hostilities. But if the Jewish mind could be
prepared for voluntary suffering, even the massacre I have imagined could be turned into a day of
thanksgiving and joy that Jehovah had wrought deliverance of the race even at the hands of the
tyrant. For to the godfearing, death has no terror. It is a joyful sleep to be followed by a waking
that would be all the more refreshing for the long sleep.
It is hardly necessary for me to point out that it is easier for the Jews than for the Czechs to follow
my prescription. And they have in the Indian satyagraha campaign in South Africa an exact
parallel. There the Indians occupied precisely the same place that the Jews occupy in Germany.
The persecution had also a religious tinge. President Kruger used to say that the white Christians
were the chosen of God and Indians were inferior beings created to serve the whites. A
fundamental clause in the Transvaal constitution was that there should be no equality between the
whites and coloured races including Asiatics. There too the Indians were consigned to ghettos
described as locations. The other disabilities were almost of the same type as those of the Jews in
Germany. The Indians, a mere handful, resorted to satyagraha without any backing from the world
outside or the Indian Government. Indeed the British officials tried to dissuade the satyagrahis is
from their contemplated step. World opinion and the Indian Government came to their aid after
eight years of fighting. And that too was by way of diplomatic pressure not of a threat of war.
But the Jews of Germany can offer satyagraha under infinitely better auspices than the Indians of
South Africa. The Jews are a compact, homogeneous community in Germany. They are far more
gifted than the Indians of South Africa. And they have organised world opinion behind them. I am
convinced that if someone with courage and vision can arise among them to lead them in nonviolent
action, the winter of their despair can in the twinkling of an eye be turned into the summer
of hope. And what has today become a degrading man-hunt can be turned into a calm and
determined stand offered by unarmed men and women possessing the strength of suffering given
to them by Jehovah. It will be then a truly religious resistance offered against the godless fury of
dehumanised man. The German Jews will score a lasting victory over the German gentiles in the
sense that they will have converted the latter to an appreciation of human dignity. They will have
rendered service to fellow-Germans and proved their title to be the real Germans as against those
who are today dragging, however unknowingly, the German name into the mire.
And now a word to the Jews in Palestine. I have no doubt that they are going about it in the wrong
way. The Palestine of the Biblical conception is not a geographical tract. It is in their hearts. But if
they must look to the Palestine of geography as their national home, it is wrong to enter it under
the shadow of the British gun. A religious act cannot be performed with the aid of the bayonet or
the bomb. They can settle in Palestine only by the goodwill of the Arabs. They should seek to
convert the Arab heart. The same God rules the Arab heart who rules the Jewish heart. They can
offer satyagraha in front of the Arabs and offer themselves to be shot or thrown into the Dead Sea
without raising a little finger against them. They will find the world opinion in their favour in their
religious aspiration. There are hundreds of ways of reasoning with the Arabs, if they will only
discard the help of the British bayonet. As it is, they are co-shares with the British in despoiling a
people who have done no wrong to them.
I am not defending the Arab excesses. I wish they had chosen the way of non-violence in resisting
what they rightly regarded as an unwarrantable encroachment upon their country. But according
to the accepted canons of right and wrong, nothing can be said against the Arab resistance in the
face of overwhelming odds.
Let the Jews who claim to be the chosen race prove their title by choosing the way of nonviolence
for vindicating their position on earth. Every country is their home including Palestine not
by aggression but by loving service. A Jewish friend has sent me a book called "The Jewish
Contribution to Civilisation" by Cecil Roth. It gives a record of what the Jews have done to enrich
the world`s literature, art, music, drama, science, medicine, agriculture, etc. Given the will, the Jew
can refuse to be treated as the outcaste of the West, to be despised or patronised. He can
command the attention and respect of the world by being man, the chosen creation of God,
instead of being man who is fast sinking to the brute and forsaken by God. They can add to their
many contributions the surpassing contribution of non-violent action.
Segaon, November 20, 1938
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 29th, 2009 at 7:00 pm and is filed under Selected Exhortations
Kematian Kugan: Suatu Tragedi Yang Menuntut Suatu Revolusi
www.loyarburok.com
Penulis: Amer Hamzah · Khamis, January 29th, 2009
Insiden kematian dalam tahanan (death in custody) bukanlah merupakan satu fenomena baru. Terkini,
masyarakat Malaysia dikejutkan sekali lagi dengan kematian seorang tahanan, Kugan Ananthan, semasa beliau
berada di dalam tahanan pihak polis. Terdahulu, terdapat beberapa insiden kematian dalam tahanan yang telah
dilaporkan di dalam media seperti kematian Francis Udayappan, Prakesh Moses dan Ulaganathan. Walaupun isu
ini telah acapkali dibangkitkan dan dibincangkan, namun fenomena ini masih tetap wujud. Persoalan yang timbul
kini adalah mengapakah perkara ini masih berulang?
Di dalam kita mengupas dan mengulas isu ini harus ditekankan pada luarannya bahawa kematian Kugan tidak
harus dijadikan suatu isu perkauman, walaupun ada sesetengah pihak yang mengambil kesempatan untuk
menjadikannya sebagai satu isu perkauman. Isu kematian Kugan dan juga mereka yang terdahulu darinya, adalah
suatu isu pencabulan hak asasi manusia yang harus diambil berat oleh semua lapisan masyarakat tidak kira apa
jua bangsa dan agama mereka dan tidak harus menjadi tanggungjawab sesuatu kaum sahaja.
Jika kita lihat pada statistik yang saya perolehi dari Suaram, jumlah kematian dalam tahanan polis yang telah
diketahui adalah seperti berikut:-
i) Tahun 2005 - 5 orang Melayu dan 6 orang India.
ii) Tahun 2006 - 5 orang Melayu, 3 orang India dan 2 orang Cina.
iii) Tahun 2007- 4 orang Melayu, 2 orang India dan 4 orang Cina.
iv) Tahun 2008 - 2 orang Melayu, I orang India dan 4 orang Cina.
Menurut statistik yang dikemukakan oleh Kementerian Dalam Negeri pada 8 Julai 2008 kepada Parlimen pula, dari
tempoh 2003 hingga 2007 terdapat 1531 kes kematian dalam tahanan dan daripada jumlah tersebut terdapat 85
kes kematian dalam tahanan polis.
Daripada maklumat-maklumat terhad seperti di atas, adalah jelas dan nyata bahawa isu kematian di dalam
tahanan bukanlah hanya tertumpu kepada sesuatu kaum sahaja. Seperkara lagi yang dapat diperhatikan ialah,
mangsa-mangsa kematian dalam tahanan polis adalah dari golongan bawahan ataupun golongan pekerja dan
bukannya dari golongan atasan ataupun golongan kapitalis.
Dari segi norma-norma hak asasi, apabila seseorang ditahan mengikut lunas undang-undang, adalah menjadi
kewajipan pihak berkuasa untuk memastikan sahsiah dan kebajikan tahanan dijaga dan tidak dicabuli. Hakikat
bahawa mereka ditahan bagi tujuan siasatan, tidak bermaksud bahawa pihak berkuasa mempunyai hak mutlak ke
atas tahanan-tahanan bagi membolehkan mereka diperlakukan sesuka hati tanpa peri-kemanusianan. Setiap
tahanan harus dilayan dengan sebaik mungkin dan mereka tidak boleh dikenakan sebarang bentuk penyiksaan
atau penganiayaan dari segi fizikal mahupun mental. Yang utama sekali adalah bahawa prinsip ini seharusnya
terpakai kepada setiap tahanan tidak kira samada mereka dari kelas bawahan/pekerja ataupun kelas
atasan/kapitalis. Tetapi sejarah telah membuktikan bahawa terdapat perbezaan di antara layanan terhadap
golongan atasan/kapitalis dan golongan bawahan/pekerja. Saya percaya Abdul Razak Baginda tidak menerima
layanan sepertimana yang diterima oleh Kugan semasa Abdul Razak Baginda berada dalam tahanan polis. © LoyarBurok · URL of this document: http://www.loyarburok.com/the-system/kematian-kugan-suatu-tragedi-yang-menuntut-suatu-revolusi/ · Document created: February 1st, 2009, 9:56 pm.
Sekiranya, kita masih ingat lagi tidak lama dahulu kerajaan telah menubuhkan Suruhanjaya DiRaja Pembaikan
Perjalanan dan Pengurusan Polis DiRaja Malaysian (Suruhanjaya Polis). Banyak isu dan aduan telah
dikemukakan dan salah satu aduan yang dikemukakan adalah berhubung dengan isu kematian dalam tahanan.
Walaupun Suruhanjaya Polis telah membuat laporan berhubung dengan isu ini dan telah mengusulkan beberapa
cadangan, namun seperti kelazimannya, cadangan-cadangan yang dikemukakan tersebut hanya menjadi
cadangan dan retorik sahaja. Selain dari Suruhanjaya Polis, institusi-institusi lain dan juga organisasi-organisasi
bukan kerajaan seperti Majlis Peguam, SUHAKAM dan Suaram juga telah memberi cadangan dan kritikan
membina. Namun kesemuanya umpama tindakan mencurah air ke daun keladi.
Berapa ramai nyawa yang harus dikorbankan sebelum satu langkah konkrit dan drastik diambil oleh pihak yang
berkewajipan? Adakah kerana mereka yang menjadi mangsa hanya merupakan golongan rakyat biasa yang tidak
mempunyai kedudukan dan darjat dari kacamata kerajaan, maka nasib mereka dan ahli-ahli keluarga mereka tidak
diendahkan dan diperkotak-katikkan? Perlukah anak seorang Menteri ataupun kerabat diRaja mati dalam tahanan
sebelum perubahan akan dilakukan?
Apa yang perlu dilakukan adalah suatu revolusi - revolusi dari segi penstrukturan masyarakat, minda dan juga
pentadbiran negara.
Dari konteks penstrukturan masyarakat, memandangkan majoriti rakyat mendokong fahaman kapitalisma, maka
sebarang isu yang tidak menjejaskan ekonomi ataupun peluang untuk memperkayakan diri tidak dianggap sebagai
suatu perkara yang serius dan utama. Secara khususnya, golongan atasan dan kapitalis tidak memandang serius
isu kematian dalam tahanan kerana kebanyakan mereka berpendapat bahawa harta-benda dan kapital mereka
tidak akan terjejas. Tambahan pula, golongan atasan dan kapitalis sentiasa beranggapan bahawa mereka berada
di atas undang-undang ataupun sistem undang-undang tersebut boleh dimanipulasi melalui korupsi. Oleh itu
struktur kelas yang sedia wujud harus dihapuskan kerana selagi ada sistem kelas, maka selagi itu akan adanya
korupsi dan proses memanipulasikan sistem undang-undang oleh pihak atasan dan kapital. Akhirnya yang
menjadi mangsa adalah rakyat jelata - golongan pekerja.
Revolusi minda juga adalah perlu, di mana kita tidak harus membiarkan isu perkauman atau agama menjadi batu
penghalang kepada sesuatu isi pencabulan hak asasi. Acapkali isu-isu pencabulan hak asasi disadurkan dan
dikaburi dengan isu perkauman dan agama. Contoh yang nyata sekali ialah isu kemanusiaan di Gaza di mana
pihak-pihak tertentu dengan segera menjadikannya suatu isu agama. Begitu juga dengan isu kematian Kugan.
Kita harus peka dan tidak harus cepat melatah dan melaungkannya sebagai isu perkauman. Kematian Kugan
adalah suatu tragedi yang harus ditangisi oleh semua lapisan masyarakat kerana beliau adalah warganegara
Malaysia dan kematiannya adalah simbol kegagalan sistem yang sedia ada dan juga kerakusan pihak berkuasa ke
atas rakyat jelata.
Yang paling mustahak sekali adalah revolusi dari segi pentadbiran negara. Hakikat bahawa terdapatnya insideninsiden
kematian dalan tahanan jelas menunjukkan satu corak kepincangan dan kegagalan dari segi prosedur dan
dasar di dalam pentadbiran dan pengawal-seliaan oleh pihak berkuasa. Ianya menghendaki suatu perubahan dan
sebarang bentuk perubahan positif memerlukan daya politik (political will). Keengganan pihak pemerintah untuk
menjanakan perubahan positif demi kebaikan rakyat memerlukan suatu tindakan drastik dari rakyat. Sepertimana
yang telah dinyatakan tadi, cadangan-cadangan telahpun dibuat namun tiada tindakan yang diambil. Dalam situasi
tiada daya politik untuk melaksanakan perubahan oleh pihak yang berkuasa, maka rakyatlah yang harus
menggerakkan perubahan tersebut melalui satu revolusi, sebagai contohnya rakyat telah berjaya untuk mendesak
supaya post-mortem kedua dijalankan ke atas Kugan. Sedikit sebanyak ianya telah menghantar suatu mesej yang
jelas kepada kerajaan bahawa rakyat tidak mahu lagi ditindas.
Adalah memalukan bagi sebuah negara berdaulat, seperti Malaysia, sekiranya isu ini tidak dapat ditangani.
Pepatah ada mengatakan bahawa tahap ketamadunan sesuatu negara boleh diukur melalui cara tahanan di
dalam negara tersebut dilayan. Oleh yang demikian, sekiranya kita mengambil statistik yang sedia ada dan
dengan perkembangan terkini, apakah nilai ketamadunan kita dan kemanakah hala tuju kita? Sama-samalah kita
fikirkan dan bertindak bagi menggerakkan perubahan yang positif. Kuasa bukanlah terletak di tangan pemerintah,
tetapi di tangan rakyat. Marilah kita sama-sama tunjukkan kekuatan rakyat - rakyat berani, petualang akan lari.
Salam revolusi.
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 29th, 2009 at 1:00 pm and is filed under Bolehland, The System
Catholic Paper Defies Malaysian Government Ban On 'Allah'
Agence France-Presse - 1/20/2009 7:27 AM GMT
A Catholic newspaper in Malaysia has defied a ban on using the word "Allah" as a translation for "God", in a row with the government which has threatened to close the weekly publication.
The editor of the Herald newspaper, Father Lawrence Andrew, said this week's edition uses the banned word and that he intends to continue doing so until the courts rule on the issue next month.
"We find this restriction on the use of 'Allah' unacceptable when we have been using it as a translation for 'God' for centuries in Malaysia," he told AFP.
Authorities have said the word should only be used by Muslims.
The government last month ordered a ban on the Herald's Malay edition until the court makes its decision, as part of conditions for it to be allowed to continue printing its editions in English, Chinese and Tamil.
But after the newspaper warned it would take legal action to overturn the ban, the home ministry backed down and said it could continue publishing as long as it did not use the disputed translation.
"Munshi Abdullah, the father of modern Malay literature, translated the Bible into Malay in 1852 and he also translated 'God' as 'Allah' so there is strong historical proof of what we have been using for centuries," said Andrew.
The Herald, circulated among the country's 850,000 Catholics, nearly lost its publishing licence last year for using the disputed word.
Religion and language are sensitive issues in Malaysia where 60 percent of the nation's 27 million people are Muslim Malays.
The rest of the population takes in indigenous tribes as well as ethnic Chinese and Indians, variously practising Buddhism, Christianity and Hinduism among others.
Minority groups complain of increasing "Islamisation" of the country and say their rights are being eroded.
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