KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Malaysian customs officials seized 32 Bibles from a traveler, a church federation said Monday, adding its voice to a raft of complaints that the Muslim-majority country is becoming less tolerant of other religions.

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I looked out the window.
And I saw

Thousands and thousands of Malays in the Bersih Rally. They were fighting their own kind for a cause they believed in. And they risk being ostracized by their Muslim brothers. And they risk much.

I looked out the window.
And I saw

Thousands and thousands of Indians holding the picture of Gandhi in the streets. All were teargassed and many beaten with batons. At Batu Caves, they were locked in, pumped with tear gas and sprayed with chemical water. 80 are awaiting trial. 31 are charged for attempted murder of a policeman that attacked them. All their leaders are under ISA. The one that got away fled the country.

I looked out the window.
And I saw

Thousands and thousands of Chinese closing their doors. Minding their own business. Watching the soap operas. Playing mahjong. Going to the gym. Planning for holidays. Eating bah kuet teh. Enrolling their children in private schools. Going for line dancing. Changing to a bigger car. Perming their hair brown. Going to the movies. Shopping.

The Chinese. They don’t look out the window.
Their houses.
Have no windows.

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I was a SPM straight-As scorers and what I am still very proud of is, I didn’t buy or rely on the so-called SPM tips. There are still two months left so make good use of your times to do revision.

Why buy when great lists of PMR, SPM and STPM 2007 exam tips are available for free?

The newspaper man who would always come to our house to collect the monthly bill always shows his disdain of this guy. Not on the job thing but the fact that he remains the only big race leader to yet hand over the leadership to the younger generation. People have praised Ling Liong Sik, Lim Keng Yaik and even Mahathir for handing the mantle of leadership over to the younger leaders.

But not him.

My 85-year old man too had a disdain of him. Every moment when he sees Samy in the papers he kept saying to me…”That bloody bastard!” That phrase keeps ringing in my head whenever I see a paper article even from the mainstream media that features our guy

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I am utterly upset with Pak Lahs’ decision to build a sailing school. In his recent comment, he told The Star newspaper,

the proposed school would be of international standard and would churn out professional sailors

Halo boss, there’s a lot of things you can do for Terengganu with that money. You probably think that this is something like F1. And by building a sailing school, you think you can help the locals. Well you’re wrong! You’ll only introduce inflations!

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“Expansion of cultivation of (oil palm) in East Asia has been associated with widespread deforestation and violation of human rights of indigenous people,” states the report, which singles out top producers Indonesia and Malaysia as countries where - in addition to deforestation and indigenous conflicts - palm oil production has also resulted in the destruction of key habitats of endangered primates.

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The one thing he said that gave me an idea to write this post is (correct me if I am wrong):

(referring to the man making trouble) “Sack that guy who is also from Kedah!”

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But when I went through the whole thing, I came to realize that I can’t seem to trust the judiciary anymore. If I am to challenge a big government over compensation of damages, I would immediately end up one the losing side because of the intimidation and the partisan decision of judges. Some are pressured by the mob to go with them or face punishment. Which reminds me of what Tony told me of a Shearn Delamore lawyer representing MAS did in the lawsuit against Audra.

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Recently we were also not satisfied when Malaysia was slow to offer an apology in response to the beating of an Indonesian karate referee in the country. As the argument goes, if we are indeed serumpun countries, Malaysia should have not hesitated to offer an apology.

Why is there such a wide gap in our expectations and perceptions of each other? The problem lies exactly in the use of the serumpun concept. We forget that Indonesia and Malaysia are two sovereign nations with their own national interests. We ignore the fact that Indonesia and Malaysia are two separate and distinct entities. Because of the serumpun concept, we tend to pretend we know each other well.

Playing abang-adik again…now with Indonesia, and we are the adik.

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I confessed how I’d been reading through the bedside Koran in my hotel rooms, and I was a bit shocked by how unabashedly anti-Semitic it sounded. Not all of it, I said, but certain parts sounded quite hateful and intense. It seemed inevitable that some folks would take it too far.

“Oh dear, my friend! You must have been reading Imam Abdul Habibi’s translation. The one the mullas put in hotels - No good! You really must read the translation by Abdullah Yusuf Ali. You MUST!” he insisted.

I wonder what else they put in the Imam Abdulu Habibi’s translation…

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