The greatest gift

IT’S Christmas time – there’s no need to be afraid At Christmas time, we let in light and we banish shade And in our world of plenty, we can spread a smile of joy Throw your arms around the world at Christmas time But say a prayer for the other ones At Christmas time It’s hard but when you’re having fun There’s a world outside your window And it’s a world of dread and fear Where the only water flowing is the bitter sting of tears And the Christmas bells that ring there Are the clanging chimes of doom Well tonight thank God it’s them instead of you And there won’t be snow in Africa this Christmas time The greatest gift they’ll get this year is life Oh, where nothing ever grows, no rain or rivers flow Do they know it’s Christmas time at all? Here’s to you, raise a glass for everyone Here’s to them, underneath that burning sun Do they know it’s Christmas time at all? I was emotive when I hear this song – Do They Know It’s Christmas – playing over the radio.

My heart said “switch it off” but the head said “keep it on. It is a timely aide memoire of a heavy but necessary cross to bear.”

This song by Band Aid was released on the Eve of Christmas in 1984. The charitable group of 40 mainly British and Irish musicians and recording artists, led by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, recorded it to raise money for anti-famine efforts in Ethiopia.

“Let us be reminded of the less fortunate,” the humble group of renowned artists likened themselves to putting a band-aid on a wound.

This is not Ethiopia but aren’t there wounds everywhere?

Today, Malaysia’s national debts stand at RM684 billion with interests estimated at RM25.44 billion a year.

The organisation National Debt Clock suggests that we can wrap around the Earth 595 times with the debt amount in RM1 bills or if we stake up the RM1 bills, its height will be 16,681km!

In the capital city of Kuching, the father of Jenny (not her real name) has been out of job for six months. The family lived in her grandfather’s old car for the past one month.

During the day, the father drove around the outskirts of Kuching, looking for bananas to sell to vendors in the city.

At night, the car was the home and beds for Jenny, his threeyear-old brother and their parents. The father’s miserable daily income was just too little for them to even rent a room.

At about 4am five days ago, tragedy befell the family when a car rammed into their stationary old car while everyone was sound asleep. It crashed into the side nearest where Jenny was sleeping and she has been unconscious since.

Jenny is four years old and she will wake up in an ICU bed, in grave pain, but too young to understand her wound, the family’s wound or that of the country.

The greatest gift Jenny will get this Christmas is her life! And we are indebted to the good doctors and nurses at the Sarawak General Hospital.

Jenny doesn’t have proper documents, not even a birth certificate because her mother is an Indonesian national. But Jenny was given the best medical care that the doctors and nurses can find. And the parents and her young brother are given temporary shelter at the welfare home at the back of the hospital.

I salute the SGH doctors and nurses who are the light that banishes the shade this Christmas Day.

I feel ashamed of myself as I have always thought that the politicians are the ones who lead to shine light to banish the shade. I can never be more doubtful.

Gritting their teeth to win the coming general election at all costs, the politicians are no bandaid to the country’s wounds. They couldn’t care less about inflicting more wounds.

The speeches and debates on Act 355 or the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965, which has merely three sections, are made obscure and mystifying, and will slit a deep gash – not just an ordinary wound – on the country.

The Syariah Courts, which are constituted in the states of the Federation, have jurisdiction over matters in List II of the State List of the Ninth Schedule to the Federal Constitution.

It concerns Islamic law and personal and family law of persons, professing the religion of Islam, enumerating the Islamic law, relating to succession, testate and intestate, betrothal, marriages, divorce, dower, maintenance, adoption, legitimacy, guardianship, gifts, partitions, non-charitable trusts, Wakafs, charitable and religious trusts, trustees and institutions operating wholly within the state.

Also covered are Malay customs, religious revenues, mosques and public places of worship, creation and punishment of offences by persons, professing the religion of Islam against the precepts of that religion, except in regard to matters included in the Federal List.

Matters relating to crime and security, civil and criminal law and procedures and the administration of justice, maintenance of order and security are enumerated in List I of the Federal List of the Ninth Schedule to the Federal Constitution.

The Federal Constitution is also clear in its command that any changes to the laws affecting matters enumerated in the State List must obtain prior consent of all states of the Federation and the Conference of Rulers.

This is consistent with the wishes and visions of our country’s founding fathers in maintaining the sanctity of the aspirations and hopes of the masses for a nation of plurality and diversity, a secular nation as our first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman recapitulated and reiterated during the last years of his life.

Our politicians have shown they are not concerned about the spirit of the constitutional federalism we embraced. The nation and her citizens are at risk of being divided, the inviolable notion of unity replaced by laughable and pathetic wits.

Datuk Haji Ahmad Maslan, Umno information chief and a deputy minister, said the bill to amend Act 355 was how Umno would cement its “unity” with PAS.

And he believes the bill is something that would be brought up in the afterlife.

“When asked (in the afterlife) what we did about the development of Islam in Malaysia, we can’t answer that we didn’t support amendments to Act 355,” he said.

He further elaborated the political philosophy of the ruling Barisan Nasional, stressing that BN component parties are compelled to support the bill as part of the ruling coalition.

Washing the tainted linen in public, he revealed: “Before this, we hear that MCA didn’t like (the planned amendments) to Act 355. MIC objected, and Gerakan objected too. When we asked them why they opposed, they answered ‘How can we not? (The bill) was brought by (PAS president Abdul) Hadi (Awang)’.”

Our former state senior minister who is also an MP was quick to reaffirm it, saying he, along with