Fellow Malaysian-in-Indonesia and mountain biker Mat Salo thinks that Indonesia is in another fit of Malaysia Bashing. Is he right or has he been exiled in Borneo too long? Read his post below.
Hmmm, more “Malaysia-bashing”, so what else is new?
Perhaps Malaysia deserved to be bashed. . .
Luthfi Assyaukanie’s analysis, entitled “The growing discrimination against minorities in Malaysia” is strongly critical of Malaysia’s policies. Luthfi is a research fellow at the Freedom Institute, Jakarta, and a lot of his “research” was apparently garnered by trawling through RPK’s Malaysia Today. So Luthfi is an unabashed “Malaysia Watcher”, which in my opinion, is a good thing. It’s always interesting to know what our neighbors think of us – whether our dirty laundry hanging in the clothesline offends them.
His main target is Badawi’s Islam Hadhari, with Luthfi stressing the concept to be flawed, and preceded to shred two of the “Ten principles of Islam Hadhari”, namely:
- Freedom and independence for the people
- Protection of the rights of minority groups
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When it comes to the legal status of Islam, Indonesia is certainly a more liberal country than Malaysia, though getting a mixed marriage recognised is getting slightly harder (due to the belated application of the 1974 Law on Marriage, requiring a religious ceremony before the issuance of a civil marriage license. Mixed couples without access to an understanding member of the clergy could always get married abroad, though).
We don’t “re-educate” people who commit apostasy either. Celebrities have been known to do it without people batting an eye — though if you live in a rural area of conservative Aceh, Sumatra Barat or Jawa Barat, you probably wouldn’t want to stay put afterwards. Alas, when it comes to church-building, or legal rights for any religion outside the officially-recognized six, Indonesia still has much to improve. Try claiming to be a Baha’i, or a Jew, on your KTP (IC) !
Eh.. Hello Pak,
Ma’af ya, Pak. Baru saya sadar Bapak ada link-kan pos saya… heh-heh.
Rocky just sms’d me. He just got back from Bintan (or was it SG?) where he delivered a speech on the state of the blogosphere back home . I dare say say he was probably embarrassed. I don’t blame him.I asked him to post a transcript of his speech on his blog…
As for my SC, it’s been hanging in the store for the last 6 mos. or so. Oilfield being the way it is, hardly any time to balik kampong let alone ride… Hope to be back for Raya, though.
Anyway, Pak. Thanks for the mention. He… perhaps having been “exiled” too long I’m getting paranoid.
Am still planning to visit JKT in the next few months. I still owe you a ngopi session. Besides, Elida’s hubby was my junior in school so he’s asked me to come too…
Thanks, man. Always enjoy reading your take!