Madinah says negative publicity will not deter her from carrying out her duties as AG

Posted on 25 April 2017 - 03:13pm
Last updated on 26 April 2017 - 07:32am

Karen Arukesamy
newsdesk@thesundaily.com

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KUALA LUMPUR: Tan Sri Madinah Mohamad (pix) has said the negative publicity, which had greeted her appointment as Attorney General will not deter her from carrying out her duties as auditor general.

The newly minted auditor general's partiality was questioned by the opposition after it revealed that her husband had professed loyalty at an Umno division meeting to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak at a meeting.

But Madinah has put the negative publicity behind her and after two months in the job, she said it was an "enriching" experience and said she is focused on her tasks. She was appointed on Feb 20.

"All of that is behind me now because I'm now concentrating fully on my task, and I think I have a lot to deliver to the people and government," Madinah told reporters after delivering a lecture on Accountability in Financial Management in Education Sector at the Universiti Islam Antarabangsa here today.

Today was the first time Madinah had addressed the concerns raised about her partiality after her appointment.

Her husband Kepong Umno chief Datuk Rizuan Abd Hamid had at the division's annual meeting in October 2015, said he was willing to die for the Prime Minister.

"I am willing to die for Najib. Don't touch Najib. If I am to die, I want to die with Najib. This is our (Kepong Umno) vow. To die in politics is better than to die for nothing," he was quoted as saying in news reports.

Acknowledging the challenge of her new role as audit chief, Madinah said she has the full support of the National Audit Department in fulfilling her duties.

"I thank the government for appointing me. It is a challenging task of which I'm up for.

"I have the support of all those in the audit department and I look forward to presenting my first report to Parliament," she said.

Madinah said she her experiences as former secretary general of Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry and Education Ministry has helped her in the audit department.

Madinah, 60, holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Political Science from Universiti Sains Malaysia as well as a Master of Science in human resource development and a doctorate in human resource management from Universiti Putra Malaysia.

She thanked the media for waiting to interview her and simply smiled when asked whether there is any plan to declassify the final audit report on 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) report to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which was submitted in March 2016.

The 1MDB audit report is classified under the Official Secrets Act.

http://www.thesundaily.my/news/2017/04/26/madinah-says-negative-publicity-will-not-deter-her-carrying-out-her-duties-ag

Social media abuzz with video of Dr Zakir's factual mistakes

A video highlighting apparent factual errors made by controversial preacher Dr Zakir Naik in one of his speeches has been making the rounds on social media.

Tuesday, 25 April 2017 | MYT 12:02 AM
BY DANIAL ALBAKRI

While the video currently getting rekindled attention was uploaded onto Facebook in 2013, the original video hails from 2011 and was put up by Evidence for God’s Unchanging Word, a religious website.

Most of the comments were critical of the preacher.

The video, which is just under six and a half minutes long, points out 25 alleged factual mistakes made by Dr Zakir during one of his talks about evolution.

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In the video, the presenter, Pakistani American Christian apologist Nabeel Qureshi, goes through Dr Zakir’s talk and highlights what he said were the factual errors.

These included using wrong names for people and places, stating that Homo sapiens were extinct, as well as referring to scientific experts who do not appear to exist.

The video has been shared 1,337 times with 121 comments and 387 likes as of 10.50pm on Monday.

Dr Zakir has been in the spotlight recently after Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi confirmed that the controversial preacher was given PR status about five years ago.

Dr Zakir's Islamic Research Foundation has been declared an unlawful organisation by the Indian government.

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2017/04/25/social-media-abuzz-with-video-of-dr-zakirs-factual-mistakes/

Zakir Naik: Barisan Nasional's Election Weapon? Koon Yew Yin

Earlier this year a group of 19 Malaysians from various NGO and faith based groups including prominent activists, Waytha Moorthy, Dr. Lim Teck Ghee and Siti Kasim initiated court action calling on the government to arrest Zakir Naik, the hate preacher.

Author: Koon Yew Yin   |    Publish date: Tue, 18 Apr 2017, 08:44 PM 

I welcome the initiative which is long overdue.

Zakir has been visiting Malaysia for some years now. Each time he is here he heaps scorn and hate on other religions and engages in extremist and even terrorist-inciting activities.

The man is not a man of peace. He is actually a radical Islamic war monger in the same mould as ISIS and Al-Queda. In fact he approves of, or at least, has refused to condemn the two terrorist organizations. This has led several countries such as UK, Canada and Singapore to deny him entry.

Even moderate Muslims have condemned Zakir.

For example, Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen described Naik as “dangerous” because he “promotes 7th century Quranic texts on sex slaves, polygamy and wife beating in 21st century”. She said in a series of tweets that, “I listened to Zakir Naik's speeches. He cites Quranic texts and tries to justify. He's dangerous because it's dangerous to spread 7th century texts in the 21st century,”. Referring to the deadly attacks in Bangladesh by terrorists, she said that “Many Bangladeshi would-be-terrorists are inspired by Zakir Naik. He is not having machetes in hands. But his followers are having machetes in hands".

In Malaysia this court action has received much support from members of the public. Since then further developments should convince the great majority of Malaysians that Naik needs to have his PR status revoked and sent out of the country immediately; and we should not wait for any court action before this takes place.

The key development is the non-bailable arrest warrant recently issued against him in India in connection with a money laundering case.

This warrant has been issued by the National Investigation Agency of India whose mission is to combat terror in the country. According to the central probe agency although Naik has been served summons repeatedly, he has failed to appear before it.

Naik appears to be evading arrest too after some perpetrators of the Dhaka terror strike last year claimed they were inspired by him. According to one report he has been booked along with unnamed Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) officials under section 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and doing acts prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony) of the Indian Penal Code, besides various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Is Zakir Naik UMNO's Vote Getter

The implications of Naik's continuing presence and freedom to preach religious-based intolerance and hatred is not just a black mark against UMNO.

It is the entire BN coalition of supposedly moderate, multi-religious parties who are at fault for allowing this terror specialist televangelist to be running around the country giving talks on the superiority of Islam over other religions, and Muslims over other communities.

I can understand UMNO closing both eyes to the presence of Naik as it is desperately trying to win the Muslim vote in the coming election but the other BN parties?

Surely these BN leaders are literate and can follow the news from India. At the very least, the other BN leaders should insist at the next Cabinet meeting on raising the issue as to why this fugitive from Indian justice has been permitted Malaysian PR status and to demand that this PR status be revoked.

It is not only the political parties and politicians who appear to be blind to the huge danger that Naik poses to our country's peace and security and good relationship with India.

But what about the neutral and independent public sector that is supposed to be safeguarding our peace and security?

What do the senior officials in Police, Immigration, Foreign Affairs and other relevant Ministries have to say since they have all presumably had a say in approving the PR status of this religious war monger?

Are the Malaysian authorities condoning a fugitive to seek refuge in Malaysia simply because he raises the flag of religion? If this is the case, we can be sure that we are well on the way to being labelled a pariah state.