To cane or not to cane: It's more than that

A few weeks ago, there was a Muslim woman being guilty of consuming alcoholic drink in a bar and eventually was sentenced to caning. As expected, there was a huge debate in the print media as well as the Internet whether the sentence should proceed, and the debate is still and I bet will be alive for a long time.

To cane or not to cane is not a big issue. Whether she is actually obeying or teasing the Muslim is also not an issue. There is a bigger issue than that. It is whether the Muslims are willing to accept either Islam is a closed system or Islam is an open system.

A closed system means that there will be no further discussion or review over Islamic matters that were decided by scholars of the past centuries. Basically, it means the Muslims must accept whatever the fatwas or judgements which were written nearly a thousand years ago. Typically, it is called "taqlid" in Arab which simply means "to obey or follow", if I'm not mistaken.

On the contrary, an open system, just like a computer system, means that there are rooms for arguments and discussions over Islamic matters, regardless whether it is about syariah, ibadah, akidah, etc.

If the Muslims think that Islam is a closed system, then there is no point of discussion. As far as I know, as I didn't study religion, the punishment for consuming alcohol drink is caning. It means there is no debate whatsoever.

If the Muslims think that Islam is an open system, then debate should be allowed either in public or by invitation only.

Unfortunately, I'm of the opinion that the followers of the closed system are the majority and dominant. I don't think there is any room to talk about because the followers of the closed system will not allow you to do so. If you start talking about it, then there will be a lot of condemnations and accusations from all over.

I believe that religion is about interpretation, whatever religion it is. I hope there will be a lot of discussions and forums on the interpretation of the Quran, the Holy Book. We are living in the 21st century with new technologies, therefore some of them have to reviewed. Muslims must dig and study back all the references and literature they can find in the past.

I believe Islam is not completely a closed system and that is why God gives us the Holy Book to show us the right way. Evidence in the Holy Book points that we are encouraged to think, use our brain and heart. More importantly, we pray to God that we do not follow the wrong way at least 17 times a day. It means that continuously staying in the right path is very important.

Allahu 'alam.

Pension scheme for non-government servants

I am to glad to hear that the government is interested and studying on how to make it happen. In the local newspaper dated Friday 24 July 2009, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) is considering to offer pension scheme for people who work in the private sector. The operation of the scheme is still under study.

Currently, pension scheme is only offered to government servants which means that they can choose to withdraw the entire sum of money in the fund upon retirement or they can choose to take pension.

I'd mentioned before in my blog the imporantce of pension scheme for all. Thumbs up to the MOF.

Poor response from the Ministry of Health

As of Monday, 10 August 2009, it was reported in the media that the H1N1 pandemic has taken 32 lives in Malaysia since the outbreak. Immediately, when I heard the news I went to the Ministry of Health website. In the Internet era I think it was a natural instinct or response people made.

Unfortunately, the website of the Malaysian Ministry of Health was not helpful. There was no link to H1N1 despite the increasing number of people dying due to the disease. The appearance of the Ministry of Health did not show any indication that H1N1 was really a pandemic.

I expected to see some warning of what people should do and should not do. At least show some statistics or any information to indicate the status of the pandemic. I did not see much action in there.

It seems to me that the Ministry of Health is not trying its best to keep the general public well-informed. Just because the news are reported in TV or radio news, it does not mean that the job is done. It is the responsibility of the Ministry of Health to provide information to the public. Come on guys, not everybody are watching evening news.

To me, the way the Ministry of Health handle the H1N1 pandemic is poor. They could have done better.