NST Online: Topnews

Posted: 01 Sep 2011 09:55 AM PDT

2011/09/02
By Sim Bak Heng, Lee Shi-lan and Punitha Kumar
news@nst.com.my

PAGOH: Stop confusing and lying to the people. Distorting historical facts is a
sin and Pas deputy president Mohamad Sabu should repent and return to the right path.

In issuing this advice, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said he was disappointed that Mohamad had misled the people and caused confusion and unhappiness.

"If he is a leader of the Islamic faith, he should have known the consequences of making such a statement.

"Islam clearly forbids one from lying and divine punishment awaits those who fail to follow the fatwa. He should know that while there are rewards (pahala) in Islam, there are also sins (dosa) and punishment," he said at his Hari Raya open house at Kompleks Pakembar here on the second day of Hari Raya Aidilfitri.

Mohamad, or Mat Sabu as he is known, had allegedly said the 25 policemen who defended the Bukit Kepong police station, Umno founder Datuk Onn Jaafar and the country's first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, were "British officers".

It was also reported in Utusan Malaysia that he allegedly said Muhammad Indera, who helped the communists in the Bukit Kepong attack, was the real hero, not the 25 policemen and their family members who defended the station.

Muhyiddin, who is Umno deputy president, said the fact that Mohamad denied making the statement showed that he was trying to play psychological games. However, he said he was not sure if Mohamad's stand reflected that of other Pas leaders.

"Some people say he made the statement to gain political support. But he will be subjected to divine punishment for what he has done. If this is what Pas is going to use from now, then it is surely a case of 'religious abuse '. If you do the wrong thing, people will know. He should repent and return to the right path." There were more calls for Mohamad to retract his statement and apologise, with Puteri Umno chief Datuk Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin labelling him as irresponsible and disrespectful to the families of the Bukit Kepong heroes.

"He should realise that had it not been for the sacrifices of our freedom fighters, he and his family would not have been able to enjoy the country's peace." Dewan Rakyat Deputy Speaker Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said Mohamad's statement reflected politics of extremism to draw attention to himself and his party as they could be desperate for victory in the next general election.

Wan Junaidi, who is also president of the Malaysian Ex-Policemen's Association (Sarawak), was a former policeman who fought the communists between 1969 and 1973 and helped set up the Rajang Area Security Command (Rascom) in Sibu.

He said any idea that the communists were freedom fighters should be discarded.

Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin tweeted that the police officers during the pre-independence days were working under British rule but were safeguarding Malaysians.

Mohamad was also criticised in blogs and on video-sharing website YouTube where the clip was viewed more than 23,000 times.

Mohamad has, meanwhile, decided to keep mum and only said he would meet his lawyers to discuss legal action against Utusan Malaysia for the "distorted and false" reporting of his ceramah at Tasek Gelugor, Penang, on Aug 21.

Anti-terror success

Posted: 01 Sep 2011 09:53 AM PDT

2011/09/02
By Fadhal A. Ghani
fadhal@nst.com.my

Malaysia's method of rehabilitating militants to be exported

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's success in rehabilitating terrorists held under the Internal Security Act is now being "exported" to several countries.

Programme director Datuk Mohamad Fuzi Harun said the United Nations had invited officers from the federal police task force (operations and counter terrorism), who ran the programme, to share their experiences and conduct seminars abroad.

"The UN picked the programme as a model for other countries with similar programmes to rehabilitate terrorists," he told the New Straits Times.

Fuzi said 75 former militants from various terror organisations had been de-radicalised between 2005 and last year, with police monitoring them after release.

He said the model had been deemed effective as none of the former detainees had returned to terrorism.

"The programme has proven crucial in the fight against terrorism as the soft approach used has effectively turned hearts and minds from extreme and militant ideologies." The programme kicks in on the day a terrorist is detained. The first step is initial rehabilitation under a programme conducted by the Prisons Depar tment.

After that, the detainee is exposed to a syllabus with heavy emphasis on Islamic jurisprudence and discussions about martyrdom operations.

There are also dialogues and counselling sessions with police and religious lecturers.

The rehabilitation programme is conducted at the Kamunting detention centre in Taiping.

Fuzi said detainees were educated to respect other religions, races and ethnic groups.

"The dialogues include interpretation and evaluation of Quranic teachings to counter misinterpretations of Islamic teachings taught to terrorists." He said psychology was another weapon used on detainees by police lecturers trained in the field.

"These dialogue sessions identify a detainee's level of awareness, based upon the person's evaluation, understanding and approach to Islamic teachings. To identify the level of awareness, each police officer is assigned to observe a detainee." The sessions work to change the detainees ' narrow and extremist thinking and enable them to see the world from a wider perspective.

Each session is conducted over four to seven days, catering for groups of five and 10 detainees.

Fuzi said the second part of rehabilitation was a parallel programme that included caring for detainees and family members, including assisting in financial problems, employment and health needs.

Called the community outreach programme, it is aimed at educating former terrorists and family members of detainees on religious values to help them assimilate into society.

"Basically, we assist them in obtaining religious information, which would deter their return to terrorist activities," Fuzi said.

He said 14 outreach programmes, involving 990 detainees, had been conducted between July 2007 and December last year at various centres around the country.

Kredit: www.nst.com.my

Khamis, 1 September 2011

NST Online: Topnews

NST Online: Topnews

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