Sabra_and_Shatilla talk

Today, i had the chance of attending a seminar on Sabra and Shatilla remembrance (Palestinian Tragedy) held in UiTM Shah Alam. It was organised by the Faculty of Administrative Science and Policy Studies (Fakulti Sains_Pentadbiran dan Pengajian Polisi). Present at the talk were law professor and UiTM legal adviser, Prof. Dr. Shad_Saleem Faruqi, Mr Kassem_Aina, a leading Palestinian NGO leader based in Lebanon and a few Palestinian/Lebanese ladies as well. I presume the other members of the audiences were either students or staff of UiTM.

Mr. Kassem gave a welcome speech by thanking the people of Malaysia for our continuous support for the Palestinian cause. Prof. Dr. Shad (pic) later took the rostrum to begin his speech on the topic of 'Sabra and Shatila, September 11 and terrorism'. I used to remember watching him on TV2 'Global' talk show few years ago. And now i get the chance of listening to him live. Ok, since I'm kind of in a hurry, so i'll just gonna write out the main points in his speech.

- He bring up the issue of September 11. He said that the Sabra and Shatilla massacre also took place in the month of September, which the world hardly knew now.

- He spoke on the history of terrorism, apartheid and other war crimes against humanity. He reveal that according to the Human Rights Watch records, the number of violation of human rights are highest in western countries! and not in Asia or/and Africa.

-He said that the Bosnian ethnic cleansing by the Serbian regime during the early 1990s were not actually 'ethnic' cleansing. It was a 'religious' one, because some of them are in fact of the same ethnic but differ in religion. The genocide were based entirely on religion. In this case, Islam of course.

- Were the Serbs who were responsible for the killings of thousands of Bosniaks were branded as Christian terrorist? A clear-No; answer.

- Next, he talked on the Iraq War. One of the main points that i jot down was;

"..the same people who helped to destroy Iraq are now the same people who gets the contract to rebuild Iraq," How cool was that!

-He agrees that former Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein had terrorised his own people in the past. But, is it any better now that Iraq had been 'liberated' and currently under occupation by the USA?

- He continues to spoke on the hipocrisy of the West on the definition of terrorism. The western definition excluded the term terrorism if it is a state sponsored terror attack.

- He gave an example during the height of Iran-Iraq war in the late 80s, on how the US Navy perpetuated the bombing of an Iranian commercial flight but later the American government said that the airliner had been mistaken for an Iranian F-14 Tomcat.

Who do you think would want to believe this? It was a blatant deliberate attack.

- He later posed a question, should freedom fighters be considered a terrorist?

- If a war is being waged at a Muslim nation by the western countries, it is 'War of Liberation'. (Remember the propaganda of 'White Man's Burden' during the modern days of imperialism in early 20th century? It is now perhaps a case of history repeating itself) . But if a Muslim conducts such an attack, it is Muslim terrorism! Prof. Shad gives an example in India during the BJP ruling era, 300 000 Muslims were murdered, terrorised by the right-wing Hindu nationalist in the Gujarat province. The Gujarat state department too had a hand in it by supporting the Hindu fanatics by providing the state electorate list to search for the names of the Muslims and where do they live.

And because of the victims are Muslims, none of the world spoke or even knew of it. Again, any of you heard of them being called Hindu terrorist? No. And this goes to the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka as well.

-On the issue of the so-called 'Axis of Evil' which includes the state of Iran and North Korea. Previously Iraq was one of them too.

- He said, actually the real Axis of evil are the USA and its main allies, UK and Israel. And Australia as a junior member probably.

[Note:The term axis of evil was used by United States President George W. Bush in his State of the Union Address on January 29, 2002 to describe "regimes that sponsor terror". The states Bush gave in his speech were Iraq, Iran and North Korea (source:Wikipedia)]

- Another noteworthy comment by Prof. Shad that i managed to scribble down was;

"The Americans think locally and act globally,"

I like this one. You could see how they, especially after the collapse of the USSR Communist and the cold war, has been trying to be the world police and install their own kind of democracy to the whole world. Obviously, it won't work like the way they wanted. It will only result in anarchy and destability. (ie Iraq).

I'd like to quote Tun Dr. Mahathir's interview with Loren L. Legarda from the Manila Bulletin Online via Malaysia-Today. He said;

"Democracy must serve the country, not the country serve democracy. Equality is meant to benefit people, but if equality results in anarchy, then you’re not getting any benefit from the idea. The idea is to achieve something that is good. If that idea achieves something that is bad and you still cling to that idea, I think you are allowing yourself to be captive …In some countries they cannot even have a government for any length of time. The moment a new government is elected they take action to bring down that government."

- I can't agree more with that. I believe that democracy must have its own limitation. I don't believe in a total democracy system. I don't believe in a 100% free media and there is no such thing as a free media in the world. Even in the so-called free country, the Jews are controlling most of the media. Look at Singapore for example, how from a third world country they was, 30 years ago and now and proudly leaving Malaysia and other SE Asian nations trailing far behind.

I believe that in order to achieve peace, stability and development, one had to sacrifice a few things such as, mentioned above; limitations of democracy and etc.

- Lastly, come to think of it again, democracy itself is man made, therefore it is and never could be 100% right.

- During the Q&A session, he spoke shortly on local issues.

First, on how he oppose the 'Talibanisation' of Malaysia. He mentioned briefly of the acts by the state religious authorities (most likely he meant the infamous JAWI_raid in_Zouk early this year). This is one of the few things which i don't quite agree with him. He reminds me of Dr. Farish_A. Noor, a Malay academician based in Europe. The other notable Muslim Malaysian whom had written of the 'danger' of Talibanisation in Malaysia.

- I don't believe there is or would be such thing as 'Talibanisation' act in Malaysia by the Barisan_Nasional government. Period.

- Lastly, He spoke briefly on his opposition to the ISA law and that apostate should not be stoned to death.

[Note: Some facts may be slightly incorrect or were left unquoted. i don't have the time to double check all of them]

See ya later folks, i'll be back next week. InsyaAllah.

"jangan merindui daku terlalu lama, kerna ku akan pulang sebelum mimpimu sempat bermula, ...(tak ingat rangkap kedua)" -Petikan dialog teater Uda & Dara. kohkohoh. :P