Injustice

I read in the paper today that it has been eight months since the last arrival of aid to the Tsunami victims in Aceh Besar. Why? Is it because of inclement weather? Is it because there is no access to the site where the victims have taken refuge? Is it because of lack of manpower to distribute the aid or lack of transportation? None of the above.

The newspaper reports, "The Belawan Customs and Excise Office has detained 117 containers filled with tsunami aid such as food, clothes, medicines and generators, at Belawan Port in Medan for the past eight months due to 'inadequate documentation' ". And the acting regent of Nias Selatan who is also the secretary to the North Sumatra Disaster Management Committee said that there was a major likelihood that the tsunami aid officially being detained at the Balawan port could actually have been stolen. It doesn't say if he is taking any action on this disturbing news. The newspaper article also mentions that several months ago, canned fish donated by the World Food Programme to the tsunami survivors were instead found being sold in the Medan markets!

My question is, if all these things are known by the authorities, what the hell are they doing about it? How can a nation of over 200 million allow a few corrupt civil servants to do as they please at the expense of so many suffering survivors. Or is it because the corrupt number is not just a few but in fact a larger number? I wonder. This is one place where justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done to get back the confidence of its people and the international community in the elected government.

In the local scene our Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has stated that matters concerning religious conversion needed to be spelt out plainly in the Federal Constitution and other laws to prevent confusion among Malaysians. This is a timely statement especially after the ugly wrangle between family and religious authority for M. Moorthy’s soul.

One local daily reports that "For the family — Kaliammal’s and others in a similar predicament now and in the future — it has been shown beyond dispute that conversions to Islam can no longer be left as a private concern, as they can in legal systems where there is a clear separation of church and state." This country is multi-cultural, multi-religious and multi-lingual with some atheists thrown in. We need to have tolerence of each other's beliefs and customs. We cannot demand that one must adhere to the others' laws. It will never happen. History has shown us that there will be blood baths whenever religion and politics become bed fellows. Let's hope and pray that such a thing never happens to this country.

If the country is allowed to be run by religious characters who hide behind their 'holy books' or 'holy garbs' we are in for a terrible time. Take the fatwa issued by Rashad Hassan Khalil of Egypt, a former dean of Al-Azhar University's Faculty of Syariah. He says "being completely naked during the act of coitus annuls the marriage." For such a 'learned' man, couldn't he have explored something to improve the quality of life or encouraged his followers to be honest, sincere and caring to his fellow men so that such incidents like the tsunami aid being stuck at the Belawan port does not occur. What happens to a husband and his wife in their bedroom has become an international issue now! So, the message is very clear. Leave religion out of politics and leave politics out of religion. Otherwise we will have 'religious nuts' running the country. Vote wisely.