Selasa, 30 Julai 2013

Anwar Ibrahim

Anwar Ibrahim


Winning Egypt’s Long War With Extremism

Posted: 30 Jul 2013 09:23 AM PDT

Huffington Post

In what looked more like a scene from “The Dictator” than real life, Egypt’s leading general and de-facto head of state Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi addressed cheering crowds in his full military fatigue and Gamal Abdel Nassir sunglasses on Wednesday. He congratulated them for “making their will known” to the world on June 30th (when mass protests began) and July 3rd (the day Morsi was ousted), and declared that “the will of the people” delegitimizes the results of elections. He then called on “all noble Egyptians” to march on Friday in the millions to give him “the popular mandate to fight terrorism.”

The Tamarrod campaign enthusiastically endorsed his call on their official Facebook page, encouraging Egyptians to support the army in “the coming war against terrorism” and its “cleansing” of the country, widely understood as references to cracking down on The Muslim Brotherhood.

The head of Egypt’s security apparatus does not need a popular mandate to pursue those involved in criminal activity. However, a ruling junta in the Arab world’s most populous country concerned with its global image does need the theatrics of “popular will” to use force to wipe out an entire political movement and its supporters, one that by the most conservative estimates comprises no less than a quarter of the Egyptian people. Not only is the general fanning the already white hot flames of anti-Muslim Brotherhood fervor in Egypt, but he is exploiting it to gain political cover for mass repression and violence. In the current climate of ultra nationalism and deep polarization, sadly, many Egyptians are all too willing to provide it.

Far from eradicating terrorism, such an approach would only empower those who call for violence against the state.

Unless Egypt’s military junta decisively corrects its current course, and pursues a peaceful, inclusive and reconciliatory approach to putting Egypt back on a democratic path, it will be feeding rather than draining militants’ ideological fuel.

This is because Al Qaeda was conceived in the prisons of Egypt, contrary to conventional wisdom, not the caves of Afghanistan. Gamal Abdel Nassir’s torture chambers produced Al Qaeda’s intellectual foundation, whose original target was not the United States, but corrupt Arab governments the superpower was seen as propping up. Sayed Qutb, whose writings inspired many militant groups, including Al Qaeda, was radicalized and eventually executed in Nassir’s jail. Decades later, Ayman El Zawahri, Osama bin Laden’s deputy and chief strategist, turned to militancy in these same confines, and went on to advocate for violence as the only way to correct perceived injustice.

The Egyptian people proved him wrong in the spring of 2011. Eighteen days of mass protests accomplished what decades of militancy could not: ridding Egypt of a thirty-year dictator. The January 25th revolt was the single greatest blow to Al Qaedaism since its bastard birth in Nassir’s jail. Islamists worked with liberals and leftists to rid their nation of a common enemy. When Iran’s supreme leader congratulated Egypt on its “Islamic Revolution”, it was the Muslim Brotherhood that corrected him. “This was an Egyptian People’s Revolution,” the Islamists declared. Former militants formed political parties, not terrorism cells, working within the system rather than seeking to destroy it. According to years of Gallup nationally representative surveys, while the majority of Egyptians (60 percent) said that “oppressed people can improve their situation through peaceful means alone” before the revolution, this number rose to 79 percent after it successfully ousted Hosni Mubarak, and to 85 percent after the first parliamentary elections. The January 25th revolution was a victory for not only “people power” but for peaceful means of change.

The threat to extremist ideology was apparently so acute that Ayman El Zawahri went out of his way in February 2011 to put out a statement responding to the Egyptian uprising, where he denounced democracy as unIslamic. It seemed that Egypt, the birthplace of Al Qaeda, would also be the land of its celebrated death.

After the military’s mass arrests and violent crackdown on supporters of the former president in the past weeks however, it might be El Zawahri who is celebrating.

In the early morning on Monday, July 8th, several days after the fall of Morsi, the military opened fire on a pro-Morsi sit in at the Republican guard leaving 51 dead, one soldier and 50 Morsi supporters. A grainy video of the incident shows people running in a panic as soldiers blast the crowd with gunshots. Human rights groups, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as Western media outlets, including theNew York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Foreign Policy Magazine, reported the military used excessive force. Within hours, the military issued a statement saying it acted in self-defense. In response to the incident the armed forces made a number of arrests — not of officers allegedly responsible for the incident as a nod to accountability and reconciliation — but of senior Brotherhood leaders, including the Supreme guide Mohammad Badie, on charges that they incited their own massacre.

With few exceptions, Egypt’s so-called “liberals” hardly object. Many formally anti-military activists and human rights NGO leaders, who have themselves witnessed violence against protesters at the hands of Egypt’s security apparatus, now fiercely defend the military, scorning dissidents in their ranks. With eerie irony, Tamarrod spokesman has stated that, “Nassir’s Egypt will not tolerate the continuation of Morsi’s Egypt” apparently glorifying a time in the country’s history when it was anything but a democracy.

If democracy were established, Egypt could still be Al Qaeda's ideological death bed. But if the military pursues its current path, the country also has the potential to become the site of the network’s philosophical second coming. This risk was made clear in a social media exchange I had with a prominent Egyptian blogger named Ali shortly after the Republican guard shooting.

Ali: “They’re pushing us to be extremists, if they kept arresting pres. Morsy & refuse every democratic process" 

I responded in four parts:
“1. No one can force us to extremism. We have a choice. We must choose Islamic ethics over self defeating impulse. 1/4″
“2. Nothing would please your enemies more. Perfect pretense for mass repression and political exclusion. Choose wisdom. 2/4″
“3. Turning to extremism dishonors the blood of the martyrs. 3/4″
“4. Remember God said ‘don’t let a people’s hatred of you cause you to be unjust.’ God rewards patience. 4/4″

Ali:
“He also said “And if you punish an enemy, punish proportionally to that which you were harmed"[1]”

Me:
“Yes, within what is permitted. Responding in like in this case is wrong and unwise. Results disastrous.”

Ali:
“We are dying anyway, u should advise the one who kill not the victim”

Me:
“I have. See my timeline. They wish for nothing more than a pretense for more repression. Don’t give it to them.”

I might give Egypt's ruling generals, and their advisors in Washington and Brussels, similar advice: Ayman El Zawahri and those who agree with him wish for nothing more than a pretense for violence. Don't give it to them.

 
Dalia Mogahed is Chairman and CEO of Mogahed Consulting. With John L Esposito she co-authored “Who Speaks For Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think”

[1] The same verse goes to say, “But if you are patient – it is better for those who are patient.” It is understood to allow and limit Muslims to “proportional retaliation” in war, as opposed to massive or punishing retaliation, while encouraging forgiveness.

Anak Muda Kampung Nak Senang

Anak Muda Kampung Nak Senang


Zahid Hamidi kata kurang anggota punca jenayah sukar dikawal?

Posted: 30 Jul 2013 01:41 AM PDT




Adakah punca jenayah semakin meningkat sekarang ini berpunca dari kekurangan bilangan anggota polis dan kekurangan peralatan? Zahid Hamidi nak salahkan apa pula atau siapa pula selepas ini? Kenyataan dari seorang menteri sebegini hanya menambahkan lagi kerisauan rakyat. Ini bermakna selagi nisbah polis dan rakyat belum 1:35, maka selagi itu jenayah sukar dikawal. Berapa pula nisbah polis dan rakyat tahun 70an, 80an dulu?

30 Julai 2013 - Polis tidak boleh dipersalahkan dalam peningkatan kejadian pembunuhan menggunakan senjata api yang dilihat seolah-olah berleluasa sejak kebelakangan ini.

Menteri Dalam Negeri, Datuk Seri Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi berkata, sebaliknya semua pihak perlu memahami bahawa polis di Malaysia menghadapi kekurangan jumlah anggota dan peralatan berbanding negara maju.

"Sebagai contoh, di New York, Amerika Syarikat, seorang polis berkhidmat untuk 35 penduduk berbanding seorang polis di Malaysia berkhidmat untuk 700 penduduk untuk sesuatu kawasan," katanya.

Hussain Ahmad Najadi sokong kebangkitan Arab Spring?

Posted: 29 Jul 2013 09:47 PM PDT


Temuramah akhbar The Star pada 7 Mei 2013 dengan Hussain Ahmad Najadi , Pengasas Arab Malaysia Bank yang dibunuh mendedahkan bahawa Hussain adalah merupakan seorang pada usia mudanya seorang yang sering mengadakan demonstrasi terhadap pemerintah. Beliau telah dipenjarakan kerana mempersoalkan hutang seorang menteri yang sudah tertunggak selama sembilan tahun. Beliau juga secara tidak langsung menyokong kebangkitan Arab Spring. Apakah motif pembunuhan beliau yang sebenarnya?

By sharing his life, he hopes to create more understanding between Malaysia and the Arab world.
Tuesday May 7, 2013

It is the story of Hussain Najadi, a Bahrain-born commoner who founded the Arab Malaysian Development Bank – yes, the bank with the camel mascot! – in 1975.

Hussain was born in 1938 in Bahrain's capital, Manama.

As Ahmad's only child, Hussain displayed the same rebellious streak and, in his youth, joined the increasing number of people agitating for more personal freedom and liberties in then Britain-ruled Bahrain, resulting in repeated detentions.

After being caught leading several demonstrations, he was told to leave the country when he was 18 years old (in 1956), and he opted to go to Germany, where his training and career in business began.

And then, at the height of his professional success, the boy who came from nothing to gain so much was thrown into jail. He had had the temerity to ask that a loan, nine years overdue, be paid back – the problem was, the loan had been made to very senior Bahraini minister.

Knowing the political situation in Bahrain – it had gained independence from the British in 1971 but remains a strongly controlled Constitutional monarchy – why did Najadi make his demand?

Perhaps it had something do with his formative years when, unlike his peers, he was a voracious reader, and he had the good fortune of reading not just capitalist tomes, but also works by socialists and communists and other characters that are considered radical for capitalist-leaning Bahrain.

"My dad did say that one day, those books are going to get me into trouble. And he was right," Najadi says with a laugh.

By a stroke of luck, he was able to obtain an Iranian passport and fled as soon as he was let out of jail. Until today, Najadi remains persona non grata in his homeland and cannot re-enter Bahrain.

He does not shy away from talking at length about the rise of citizen movements like the Arab Spring demanding more democratic space in the Middle East.

"Bahrain is in turmoil now, and it is also running out of oil. It has had the same prime minister for the last 42 years. In a way, you could say that the Arab Spring started from Bahrain, and spread onwards from there, though the tsunami has yet to reach its conclusion."

While Najadi's life has centred on finance, The Sea And The Hills is not about making money.

"I have a zero ROI (return on investment) target for this book, which is purely about fostering better understanding between countries and civilisations. Malaysians still misunderstand the Arab world, and whatever they know about it usually comes from Hollywood movies and other Western perspectives of the Middle East."


Najadi Tokoh Kewangan Tersohor Dengan Gaya Hidup Ringkas, Sederhana
Selasa Julai 30, 2013

PETALING JAYA: Hussain Ahmad Najadi pernah tinggal di sebuah banglo mewah di Jalan Ampang, tetapi bertukar angin dan berpindah ke sebuah kondominium yang terletak kira-kira 15 minit berjalan kaki dari pejabatnya di Menara Haw Par.

"Pada usia saya, saya berasa lebih selamat tinggal di sana," katanya kepada The Star dalam satu temu bual pada 2 April untuk mempromosikan autobiografinya, The Sea and The Hills.

Dalam temu bual yang diadakan di pejabatnya yang serba ringkas dan sederhana, Najadi juga mendedahkan buku seterusnya akan bertajuk Decline of the West: The Enemy Within.

"Ia akan bercerita tentang bagaimana Barat jatuh melalui kemerosotan, seperti cara empayar Rome hancur, melalui kepuasan diri mereka sendiri," katanya.