Do conversions automatically end civil law marriages? Hell NO.

The legal counsel for T.Saravanan, Subashini's estranged dubiously converted husband - submitted his argument yesterday. You can find it on Sun2Surf and Malaysiakini. Their headlines are ominous... Civil courts have no jurisdiction: Counsel and Subashini can "submit" to Syariah Court, respectively.

Apart from citing the arguments of Article 3(1) that Islam is the religion of the Federation and Article 121(A) regarding the jurisdiction of the syariah court over matters of Islamic law, he said:

...Saravanan could not subject himself to the civil courts because he had converted to Islam. However, Subashini could go to the civil court or choose to go to the syariah court.

Hence, he argued, the non-Muslim – in this case, Subashini -- should go to the syariah court instead of preventing the Muslim party from seeking justice.

Similar or better remedies were available to the non-Muslim spouse under syariah jurisprudence.

Just because the syariah court deems itself fit to make judgements over non-Muslims DOES NOT mean that non-Muslims need to submit themselves to the judgements of the syariah court. As far as the Federal Constitution and non-Muslims are concerned, the judgements of the syariah court are as binding on non-Muslims as the raspy shouts of the my angry old neighbour are over where my dog takes a dump in my garden.

But here is the greatest FLAW in Saravanan's argument, which ironically is also its main thrust.

Haniff said the civil marriage between Subashini and Saravanan ended under Islamic law upon the husband’s conversion.

Uhhh... I'm sorry, I'm just as unversed in Conman Law as I am in Ekornomics.

Isn't a marriage a contract, an arrangement, an agreement between 2 parties? And being such, can one party take unilateral actions to change the terms of the agreement? Doesn't both parties have to mutually agree on any changes to the contracted terms?

Can someone like Saravanan come to my coffeeshop one evening and consume RM1,000 of Guinness Stout on his tab, then he converts to Islam the next day and reneges on his contractual obligation to pay his RM1,000 tab on the argument that Muslims are not allowed to be party to a contract that involves things that are haram? Notwithstanding the fact that he had already gotten nicely pissed drunk on my booze which he hasn't paid for yet? Is that fair?

So, we cannot, as decent, right-minded people accept such blatantly mischievous attempts by irresponsible persons to renege on their legal obligations by backdoor means, such as conversions. In addition, I am surprised no end, as to why the syariah court allows itself to be manipulated like a puppet on a string by insincere converts, time and time again.

May I submit that Saravanan's conversion does not end a civil marriage, but merely provides grounds for it to end within the confines and continued jurisdiction of civil law?

And if we take the indisputable logic of timeline further, isn't it reasonable to conclude that Saravanan's conversion is illegal in the first place, as he was still encumbered by his civil law marriage, before and at the time of conversion?

If his civil marriage was not important or 'haram' enough to void his conversion from the start, how can it now, suddenly be so important as to be automatically void due to the conversion?

For my view on how conversions needs to be in a civilised Malaysia, read A Solution to the Article 11 Impasse.

To read Subashini's argument, see 'Subashini matters'.

Here's other background reading on how all this impacts the lives and loves of non-Muslims in Malaysia: - http://sean-the-man.blogspot.com/search?q=subashini

Are you a Phantom Voter? Find out here.

This is a website that allows you to check your status as a voter. All you need to do is enter your IC number.

Mine looks okay, but apparently th blogauthor of Rocky's Bru found out that he's a voter in Gopeng / Simpang Pulai (Parlimen / DUN) when he's never even registered as a voter. He's not even from nor ever resided in Perak.

So, since the website's just... like sitting there - take the 2 minutes and check if you're a PHANTOM VOTER like Rocky. Who knows? You might have voted BN for every election in the past without even knowing it!

Btw, you might wanna forgive the Election Commission for not being able to spell half their name correctly. The word 'Commission' is spelt as 'Comission'. EC's employing more 'glokal' graduates, I presume? Plus the fact that this webpage is for checking the 'Electoral' Roll, rather than the 'Electors' Roll.

Did someone do a Tian Chua of the flag-burning?

The UMNO-led outrage over the flag burning incident during the opposition protest where 2 unarmed protestors were shot shows no signs of abating.

Below is the photo that was carried by the mainstream press and broadcasters... and as someone must have calculated, sparked a big hue and cry over the alleged desecration of the Malaysian flag.

But before you jump on the bandwagon and throw both your hands up wailing that the incident is a national insult by a member of the opposition party, a blogger named mohdnasir has posted an analysis of the photo on his blog.

He basically picks apart individual elements of the photograph and puts up some arguments as to why he thinks that it is a doctored, photoshopped picture comprising of superimposed images.

And I have to say, his conclusions are intriguing.

Kita lihat gambar bendera yang dipegang oleh pemuda itu. Ia jelas satu lukisan bukan satu imej bendera sebenar. Tone warna bendera itu sekata dan ini amat tidak realistik memandangkan suasana ketika itu adalah waktu malam.

Warna jalur merahnya, robekan bendera di sebelah bawah, lambang bulan-bintang berlatarbelakangkan biru dan asap apinya juga tampak jelas semuanya adalah dilukis dan rekaan semata-mata kerana satu hal yang tidak logik malah tidak mungkin sebaran asap itu mempunyai bentuk kaku yang tidak realistik. (lihat kawasan yang ditandakan dengan garis)

The colour tone of the flag is too uniform and unrealistic, since it was night time.

Many aspects of the flag, from the stripes, the folds at the bottom, the crescent moon, stars, blue background and the smoke are clearly drawn as a separate construct.

The frozen appearance of the smoke is unrealistic. Look at the area that has been outlined.

Kita lihat pula pemuda yang mencangkung seraya membakar bendera itu.

Imej pemuda itu jelas ditampal kerana kecacatan yang wujud di sekurang-kurangnya 3 tempat:

A. Tempelan adalah ketara di tangan pemuda itu dengan imej seluar dan kain pelikat dua orang pemuda di belakangnya.

B. Apabila imej itu diteliti dengan resolusi yang tinggi kita akan dapat melihat kesan tampalan di aliran badan pemuda yang mencangkung itu.

C. Kedudukan bayang-bayang pemuda itu salah kerana aliran cahaya dari hadapan tidak memungkinkan bayang-bayang untuk berada tepat di atas objek.

A. The hand of the flag-burning youth and the images of the trousers and sarong of the 2 people behind him are clearly superimposed.

B. When the image is viewed in high resolution, we can see the effects of superimposition around the silhouette of the squatting youth.

C. The position of the shadow under the youth is incorrect as it is impossible for the light source (which is in front) to throw a shadow that corresponds to a light source which is directly on top of the youth.

Close up of point (C).

Malaysiakini even goes so far as to post a 'reconstruction' of that night's events based on first person accounts - I'm not sure though if it corroborates this analysis of the photograph.

Not withstanding that, what do I think?

I think mohdnasir makes a very sound argument. I think we should all take this photograph with a large pinch of salt. If nothing else, the persistent efforts of UMNO to talk only about this flag burning (as if to crowd out all other current events that have cropped up since, from the public eye) DEMANDS that we place their efforts and hence, their 'evidence' under intense scrutiny.

Read here for Malaysia-Today's take on UMNO's insistence on pursuing the flag-burning issue. RPK makes an excellent point, which I'm about to paraphrase. Why does UMNO feel so angered and outraged by bloggers, youtube rappers and flag-burners (when these incidents are ultimately trivial and superficial) and yet, they feel no shame, nor experience as compelling a call to action when confronting rampant corruption, police shootings, racial & religious extremism and spiralling crime?

2008 F1 Race Calendar. S'pore GP on Sep 28.

Here's the 18-race calendar for 2008, with new street races in Valencia and Singapore on the agenda. Both new venues still require circuit approvals, while the Canadian Grand Prix remains provisional.

Revised 2008 Formula 1 calendar (source: itv.com)

Mar 16 - Melbourne, Australia
Mar 23 - Sepang, Malaysia
Apr 6 - Sakhir, Bahrain
Apr 27 - Barcelona, Spain
May 11 - Istanbul Park, Turkey
May 25 - Monte Carlo, Monaco
June 8 - Montreal, Canada*
June 22 - Magny-Cours, France
July 6 - Silverstone, Great Britain
July 20 - Hockenheim, Germany
Aug 3 - Hungaroring, Hungary
Aug 24 - Valencia, Europe**
Sep 7 - Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium
Sep 14 - Monza, Italy
Sep 28 - Singapore**
Oct 12 - Fuji, Japan
Oct 19 - Shanghai, China
Nov 2 - Interlagos, Brazil

* provisional
** subject to circuit approval

The Singapore F1 GP will be on 28 Sept 2008. Hotel rates are said to go up 4-fold during F1 weekend. So, I'm now taking applications for the use of the 2nd bedroom in my flat. Please include in the application a full-length picture, your vital statistics and what you'll be willing to do ;p

For other blogposts on Singapore F1 GP, see here.

A dead little girl in a gym bag and the Police Force.

Has it come to this? The new pages were once filled with news of women being raped, but now it's children being tortured?

The victim is aged between 8 and 10, is 150cm tall, fair skinned, weighs 18kg, has curly short hair, a sharp nose and a birth mark on her left thigh.

The child's naked body was found stuffed in a foetal position inside a gym bag on Monday morning. The bag was left in front of a shoplot in PJS 1/48.

-NST

The card reads "Rest in peace with god. Malaysians will not let you die in vain."

Petaling Jaya police chief ACP Arjunaidi Mohamed said a post-mortem conducted by the Kuala Lumpur Hospital showed that the girl died of an infection. Her intestines had ruptured after foreign objects were forced into her private parts. There was no trace of semen.

Arjunaidi said bruises on her body suggested that she was tortured before she died.

-NST did a very emotional piece today on this. Read also Malaysiakini and The Star.

I sincerely hope they catch the monster that did this. But alas, I fear we might have to... [ie. let her die in vain].

What is the PDRM doing about this? Why do cases need to be sensational and shocking before the police do their job like they are supposed to?

Were we not promised better public safety, faster investigations and higher criminal convictions after the recent spate of violent robberies and rapes?

What can we hope for from a police force that has only 7% of it's personnel actually investigating and fighting criminals? (source: DAP's The Rocket newsletter).

May we ask what the 33% actually do when they are classified under administrative staff? Collecting fines and processing salary increases?

And is our country so ridden with internal subterfuge and public disorder that you need to have 39% of the force doing Internal Security (33%) and Special Branch (6%)? Do we need 39% of the police force fully engaged in the govt's fight against bloggers, youtube rappers and alleged flag burners?

Maybe we do... a case in point is where the Johor police dept sent 100 officers to control merely 200 peaceful protestors just because they were protesting in front of the Menteri Besar's house. (Read To Protect & Serve... Who?).

How many more need to stabbed, robbed, raped and tortured before our boys in blue realise that there is something very wrong with a police force that allocates only 7% of their effort to protect the people against crime, but allocates 33% to paperwork and 39% to protecting politicians from the people?

Beer makes girls go for your crotch

Is it just me, or is that chickadee looking directly at the guy's crotch?

And does her hand look like it's reaching out to grab something.. and it ain't no bottle of beer?

It REALLY doesn't get any better than this, you know. Damn, I need to buy more beer. Need to attract more babes to my crotch ;p

One question though... does she need to drink the beer, or do I - in order to get the desired outcome?

This print ad should be all over the papers by today. IMHO, it'd make a pretty good cover for a Private (*wink*) DVD too.

Police refuse to accept UPM student's report of robbery by campus authorities

This follows my previous post on UPM: Universiti Perompakan Malaysia (trans: M'sian Univ. of Robbery)

In this Malaysiakini video, student Yee Yang Yang (damn... he must get loads of crap about his name) relates his story of what happened during "the robbery".


I reckon Yee's account basically re-confirms the high-handed thuggery and buffoonery that the public has come to expect from UPM's "authorities".

But did you catch the last few sentences of Yee's statement in the video... about his visit to the police station to make a report?

Kami pun bercadang pergi ke balai polis to melaporkan polis.

Masa ke balai polis, pihak polis pun cakap tadi pihak sekolah pun sudah ada call kami. Mereka janji akan bagi balik pada hari Isnin, iaitu hari ini. Jadi kami tidak dibenarkan untuk melaporkan polis.

- ad verbatim, Yee Yang Yang on Malaysiakini.

What?! TIDAK DIBENARKAN? Since when does the police have the right to refuse taking police reports? Isn't accepting and investigating police reports a basic and fundamental duty of the PDRM? The IGP needs to investigate and penalise (if necessary) the police personnel concerned... but I've got a bad feeling that we'll be watching cows come home instead.

Read here for more on the refusal of some police personnel to accept reports.

Subashini matters

Subashini, her converted-to-Muslim husband, and their 2 kids (whose religions are in dispute)... are in the news again.

The Sun: http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=19371
Malaysiakini: http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/72506

[Subashini's] argument would revolve around the jurisdictional issue between the civil and syariah courts. [T]hey would submit that the High Court, and not the syariah court, had the jurisdiction to decide on disputes involving non-Muslims.

Subashini is seeking a divorce from Saravanan, who had embraced Islam, custody of their two young sons and maintenance payments. She is also challenging his right to convert their first son without her consent.

The high court had earlier rejected her application for an injunction to restrain Saravanan from proceeding with his plans to annul their marriage and seek custody of the older child, as Saravanan had already filed a similar suit with the syariah court.

However, the high court granted her a temporary injunction pending her appeal to the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal, in a majority decision on March 12, turned down her appeal for an injunction against her husband.

However, on March 30, another panel of judges gave her a temporary injunction pending the outcome of her leave application to the Federal Court. The Federal Court allowed the application and the appeal proper was briefly heard yesterday. It resumes tomorrow.

If you were in a vacuum of socio-political awareness for the last 6 month's or so, here's some background reading and how all this impacts the lives and loves of non-Muslims in Malaysia: - http://sean-the-man.blogspot.com/search?q=subashini

Read also: A Solution to the Article 11 Impasse on how religious conversions in Malaysia need to be tightened and restricted.

Manhunt - Ladies' guide to snaring her man

It's probably also the men's guide as to why sweet young things tend to often transform into something... ummm, less sweet after marriage ;)

UPM: Universiti Perompakan Malaysia (trans: M'sian Univ. of Robbery)

What do you call it when someone forcibly takes away your possessions and keeps it against your will?

If 'you' are a criminal and 'someone' means the police AND they have a court order... that's called appropriation of evidence.

But when 'you' are a student and 'someone' means the school jaga (ie. university 'security') and the only authority they have is a nightstick... that's called ROBBERY.

Everyone's putting in their 2cents about political conspiracies and campus elections. To a simple t-shirt and shorts kinda guy like me.., it's just robbery, pure and simple. And robbery's exactly what we've got in UPM or Universiti Perompakan Malaysia.

Firstly, a bit of background from screenshots:

According to documentary evidence made public, so had begun interference by university personnel, who tactically harassed student groups who are non pro-establishment

Friday night, 4 staff members of the student affairs department (HEP) in Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang, raided the room of Yee Yang Yang, a first-year student in Hostel 13 who is a member of a pro-student grouping.

He was interrogated from 11pm to 1am, and his laptop, handphone, MP4 player, 2 pendrives, leaflets and personal documents were confiscated.

Via Malaysiakini: According to Yee, the security guards were conducting a spot check on two rooms in his hostel with his room being one of them.

Yee was then subjected to a interrogation session where the security guards had allegedly demanded to know why he was involved in politics.

“I asked them: You (security guards) said earlier that you were looking for a stolen mobile phone, why are you asking me about politics?” said Yee when contacted.

The HEP staff, commanded by a UPM personnel identified as Jamali of the Unit Tugas Khas, left without giving any written acknowledgment of the items confiscated.

The following morning, other students went to the HEP office and demanded that the university's personnel give the raided student a written acknowledgment.

Here's the video and blurb on Malaysiakini:

This video depicts several Universiti Putra Malaysia students confronting university's security personnel for refusing to issue an inventory of possessions following confiscation of a student's belongings.

When UPM security 'special duties unit' supervisor Zamali Haji Samsi refused, the students formed a human shield to stop him from leaving in a chauffeured car.

The students called in the police but they did not intervene. A police report was subsequently lodged over the incident.

On Friday (Sept 14) campus security had allegedly broken into the room of a student related to the group depicted in the video, and confiscating the student's laptop computer, MP4 player, pendrive, mobile phone and some documents.

The student was also allegedly interrogated on his involvement in campus politics between Friday 11pm until 1am the following day.

Harassment of students is common during campus election seasons. Campus polls are expected to be announced soon.

In the beginning, there was Rukun Tetangga trying to out-police the police. Then there was RELA. The police then showed them who's boss by shooting a couple of unarmed civilians. Now it's campus renta-cops?!

So, you still wanna study at UPM?

Additional reading: Other posts on UPM, including the infamous racist bullying incident in their canteen, which was subsequently given the faculty's stamp of approval:
http://sean-the-man.blogspot.com/search?q=UPM