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"Human actions are the hardest things to predict"
George Friedman in The Next Decade
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I recommended this blog just in case if you want to read an analysis on Malaysia's politics, foreign policy & social dillemas.
Because there are only few authentic , reliable and pleasant blog you can find on Malaysia’s politics.
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Recently I deactivated Facebook because the rumor has it. Okay, by the way I need a “long break”. I have a long-list reason doing so which I think does not necessarily to be tell cause it will take a long essay to go. But in short , I believe in the power of silence in a world that can’t stop talking.
xx
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I’m Muslim And I Know It.
Another from tweet to tumblr :)
LOLOLOL LOVE THIS.
I’m MUSLIM AND I KNOW IT ! <3 xx
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LoL
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"It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to talk and remove all doubt of it."
Maurice Switzer (via kari-shma)
(via quote-book)
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The Oldest University in the World : Al-Azhar
Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, is generally considered to be the oldest university in the world.* It was founded roughly the same time as the city of Cairo, in 969 AD. The first lecture was delivered in 975 AD.
Like many centers of learning, Al-Azhar University was originally intended as a place of worship and religious instruction. The mosque at Al-Azhar is one of the most famous in the Muslim world, and is still considered the seat of Sunni Islamic study.
The 9th Century BC towards 10th Century usually regarded regarded as a low point in European history that also known as Dark Ages.. In China it was also a period of political upheaval. In the Muslim World, however, it was a cultural zenith and a remarkable point, especially in Spain under the Caliphate of Córdoba.
The university pioneered systems of advanced academic instruction with its hierarchy of regular instructors and visiting professors. Its history follows the turbulent rise of the Islamic Empire, replete with political revolutions and competing religious philosophies. While Al-Azhar University has a storied history of religious instruction, it also boasts a robust secular curriculum, offering advanced degrees in engineering and medicine.
As with all matters medieval, historical facts and figures are up to academic interpretation. Qarawiyyin Mosque in Fez, Morroco, has also laid claim to the title of oldest university in the world.
Europe’s oldest university was founded in 1088 in the northern Italian city of Bologna. The United States’s oldest university, Harvard, opened in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1636, not long after the first English colonists arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
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Islamist threat forces Lady Gaga to cancel Jakarta concert
The decision came after a group called the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), which has described the pop diva as a “devil’s messenger” wearing nothing but a bra and panties, threatened to cause “chaos” if she entered the secular but mainly Muslim country.
The Islamic group reacted to the news with satisfaction.
“FPI is grateful that she has decided not to come. Indonesians will be protected from sin brought about by this Mother Monster, the destroyer of morals,” Habib Salim Alatas, the head of the Jakarta branch of the Islamic group told the AFP news agency.
“Lady Gaga fans, stop complaining. Repent and stop worshipping the devil,” he added, referring to thousands of messages on the website Twitter pleading with her to go ahead with the concert.
LOL.
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On Malaysia's Foreign Policy
Popular understanding of the foreign policy of Malaysia has mostly been fragmentary as the country is not only multi-ethnic, multi-faith and multi-lingual with many external linkages, but it is also geographically positioned as a critical crossroad of the world.
Moreover, there has been a lack of academic ambition to construct a overall discourse or narrative of the country’s foreign policy from a historical perspective with all its continuities and changes.
The highly acclaimed book “Malaysia’s Foreign Policy: The First Fifty Years – Alignment, Neutralism, Islamism” attempts to fill the gaps and provide a fuller picture.Malaysiakini interviewed its author, Dr Johan Saravanamuttu (left), who is former dean of School of Social Sciences at the Penang-based Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and currently a visiting Senior Research Fellow at Singapore’s Institute of South East Asian Studies (ISEAS).
Malaysiakini: In ‘Malaysia’s Foreign Policy: The First Fifty Years’, you observe that the foreign policy of Malaysia has gone through three stages, namely alignment, neutralism and Islamism. How do you characterise the essence of Malaysia’s foreign policy under PM Najib Razak?
Johan: First, let me stress the point that any prime minister’s role in foreign policy is a function of societal forces and political currents of the day and, most crucially, a representation of previous thrusts of foreign policy.
This said, there can also be departures to existing polices as shown during Tun Abdul Razak ‘s tenure when he shifted Malaysia’s policy from Western alignment to non-alignment.
Dr Mahathir Mohamad also made some significant departures from existing polices and paradoxically was responsible for the Islamist shift in foreign policy. This was consolidated by his successor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
My sense is that Najib will make few major changes to Malaysia’s foreign policy as I’ve said in the postscript of the book. However, like Abdullah and unlike Mahathir, he is shown to be not strident against the West and the US.
Indeed, most recently Najib has cozied up to the United States and was very happy to be invited by Barack Obama to the Nuclear Security Summit in April 2010.In appreciation, Malaysia passed the Strategic Trade Act which forbids trading in strategic material (as had occurred in the Scomi affair). The Act was passed just before the nuclear summit and it pleased the Americans.
Najib’s policy towards Singapore also shows a warming up, with some significant actions such as the Tanjong Pagar deal. However, the Singapore tilt is really a continuation of the earlier Abdullah approach.
But, especially with respect to Singapore, we have seen the interesting phenomenon – if not the spectacle – of a former PM sniping at his successors and objecting to their actions. This is brand new in Malaysian foreign policy and I would say a really bad precedent!
Back to the broad thrusts of Malaysian foreign policy under Najib, it should remained strongly non-aligned and with acontinuing orientation toward China economically – Najib was given special reception during his visit (to Beijing) in November 2009. However, there will be a great deal of ‘hedging’ with the West and the US.During Najib’s tenure, Islamism seems to have receded although it will always be there. What I find odd is that Wisma Putra (Foreign Ministry) calls Malaysia a “Muslim nation”. I think this is incorrect – we are a multicultural state with a Muslim majority.
Malaysiakini: In your observation, is there now tension within Malaysia’s foreign policy-making establishment between those who strive to retain the Islamist character and those who aspire to recalibrate a new balance between Islamism and Westernism/Americanism? If there is, what are the material and ideational forces, global or domestic, which have given rise to the tension?
Johan: My last point leads into the answer to this question. I do think such a tension exists, that is, between those who would like to keep foreign policy free of religion, Islam in particular, and those who feel Islam is the construct for certain stances and approaches in foreign policy be it in the political or economic realms.
I feel it is a mistake to drive foreign policy (and politics) on the basis of Islam – any religion for that matter. Religion should be something kept in the private sphere. Look at what is happening in Egypt today – a wonderful development – but the revolution is not driven by Islamism at all, it is driven by young people and progressive forces who want genuine democracy.
I think Turkey would be a good example of how we could maintain good moral stances on foreign policy which are consonant with Islam while keeping politics and foreign policy secular for all intents and purposes.
Abdullah Badawi may have tried to project a ‘moderate Islamism’ with his Islam Hadhari but he ultimately failed because his own government and its actions were riddled with ethical ellipses and missteps. He was saddled with the ramifications of the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder and the Scomi/Scope incident which involved the shady Bukhary Syed Tahir.For Malaysia, it is not so much the choice between Islamism and Westernism/Americanism in foreign policy but maintaining a non-aligned policy with nationally-driven goalsto serve the needs of all Malaysians regardless of creed and race and, for that matter, ideological persuasions.
The material force driving Malaysia today is a rising middle-class and the revolution of rising expectations which in turn drives the imperative for more democracy for its multi-ethnic society. Again, my thoughts turn to the Egyptian revolution which is many senses is like the Indonesian and Malaysian ‘reformasi’ movements.
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