This is Arman

Today, March 21 @ 5 pm I was blessed by Allah with a cute second grandson, Arman. My daughter, Sharifah Zainab delivered Arman, 3.3 kg, at Roopi Medical Centre, Kuala Lumpur. About four hours later, Arman was transferred to the Tawakkal Medical Centre for further observation due to respiratory distress syndrome.

If you are reading this post, please pray for Arman's early and complete recovery.

Latest: March 26 - Arman is now out of the incubator and, God willing, will join elder brother Aimar at home in Taman Tun Dr Ismail later today.

A big thank you to the doctors, nurses and staff of both Roopi Medical Centre and Tawakkal Medical Centre.

Kit Siang, Justice Bao and the Prime Minister

On Wednesday, parliamentary opposition leader Lim Kit Siang when debating the motion to thank the King's opening address, touched on Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi's fight against corruption.

He said only a team modelled after a Chinese mayor and his lieutenants could fight corruption in Malaysia. He was referring to Justice Bao which I clearly remembered when a serial drama on the mayor's fight against corruption was aired a couple of years back by a private tv station.

Kit Siang noted that Justice Bao was ably assisted by honest and trustworthy officials such as Zhan Zhao, Gongsun Ce, Wang Chao, Ma Han, Zhang Long and Zhao Hu.

He said that without a team, Justice Bao would have found it tough to wage a fight against corruption. Similarly, without his team of anti-corruption campaigners, there is nothing Abdullah can do to make a dent on the scourge of corruption.

However well meaning, Abdullah is, he would only be a lone and helpless voice.

Who are PM Abdullah's lieutenants? Hardly any, be it in his political party, Umno, or his administration, I am not referring to the civil servants but politicians. Their support, if any, are only artificial and for political gains.

Look at Umno. Can anyone name a leader who is 100 per cent clean? Of course, each and every one of them would proudly say that he or she is clean, honest, trustworthy and working hard for the party. Would a thief admit that he is a thief?

Most of them are well off, compared to before they were active in politics, awarded datukships, appointed to sit on statutory boards, government corporations, government-linked companies, local authorities, listed companies, port authorities and even bus companies. They were given taxi permits, import permits, logging licences and so on and so forth.

Datukships were also easily awarded for "political gains". For example, a division in one state nominated the state leader (chief minister) of another state as its choice for top party post such as vice-president and he won. As a reward, the division head was later awarded the datukship by the state government, in conjunction with the official birthday of the head of state.

Practically, every Umno divisional leader is a datuk, even the Putri leader is a datuk. The datukship, be it a "seri utama, seri, wira, panglima" or what have you, were not given by their own state but by another state. During the early years of the nation, datukships were awarded to people for having excellently served their state. They were honest and dedicated and well respected community leaders not some 30-something-year-old political leader.

Today, a man from Terengganu who had never served or reside in Penang, for example, was awarded datukship by the state. Or a woman from Kuala Lumpur being awarded by the Sabah state government, or a youth leader from Kedah awarded the title by the Melaka state government. These awards are nothig less than political corruption.

I fully supported Kit Siang and I believed that PM Abdullah is fighting a losing battle. He should first of all "clean" Umno from political corruption. There are too many corrupted and dishonest leaders in the party.

More import permits for AP KINGS

The Malaysian Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) told Parliament that up to February this year, 18,007 import permits (AP) for cars were issued and the bulk of it went to three so-called AP Kings.

Minister Rafidah Aziz, described by parliamentary opposition leader Lim Kit Siang as the Queen of Parliament, in a written reply to Kit Siang said that 7,303 permits were open APs and 10,704 were franchise APs given to 22 franchise-holding companies.

AP King Nazamuddin S.M. Amin via The Naza Group and Naza Consortium received 5,455 APs.

The other two AP Kings - former army major Syed Azman Syed Ibrahim and his business partner and former MITI officer, Haniff Abdul Aziz were given 1,349 APs for five companies controlled by them -- Auto Pacific Star Bhd., Global Worldtrade Sdn Bhd., Territorial Star Sdn Bhd., Weststar Motorsport Sdn Bhd., and Go Smartstar Sdn Bhd.

In Malaysia, APs are seen as licences to "print money." They are given free to firms controlled by ethnic Malays under a decades-old affirmative-action policy design to redistribute wealth called the New Economic Policy (NEP).

The permits give their holders an exclusive right to import certain brands of cars. It is understood that for each car the AP holder can make up to RM40,000 (about US$10,500).

Among the three AP Kings, Nazamuddin is seen as "redistributing" some the wealth back to the people and country by having automobile assembly plants employing a substantial number of workers. His fleet of companies under the Naza Group also set up sales and after sales service centres and automobile showrooms manned by trained and skilled workers.

On the other hand, Syed Azman and Haniff used the wealth to purchase bungalow lots and construct mansions at Taman Tun Abdul Razak, Ampang. Syed Azman purchased three lots while Haniff bought two lots. Syed Azman's mansion is equipped with state-of- the-art security system, a helicopter landing pad and a three-metre wall protected by barbed wires. A security guard is also on duty round-the-clock.

Syed Azman and Haniff, if not for the APs, would not be where they are today. One was a former military intelligence officer and the other a middle-rank government officer.

It is indeed sad if they failed to utilise their easily obtained wealth to help the less fortunate and the hardcore poor or to donate a part of it to orphanages and for dakwah (missionary) work. How many poor Muslims did they sponsor to perform the annual haj? Do they care for the poor? The orphans and the single mothers with school-going children that are crying for help?

It is equally sad to see both of them showing off their wealth by building large mansions -- too large for their small families. Maybe to them the present day world is much better than the promised world where they will go to face their Creator.

Islamophobic remarks by televangelist

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has called on mainstream American political and religious leaders to repudicate the most recent Islamophobic remarks by televangelist Pat Robertson, who claimed that the goal of Islam "is world domination. Roberson made that claim and other anti-Muslim remarks on his Christian Broadcasting Network "700 Club" program. He told his audience: "Islam is not a religion of peace," and "The goal of Islam, ladies and gentlemen whether you like or not, is world domination."

Robertson called Islam the religion of the slavers and said Americans who converted to Islam exhibited "insanity." He also referred to some Muslims as being motivated by "demonic power in the past."

CAIR executive director Nihad Awad said the failure by mainstream religious and political leaders to challenge Robertson's Islamophobic remarks will send the false message to Muslims worldwide that the majority of Americans agree with his hate-filled views.

It is people like Pat Robertson that is creating hatred among Muslims and Christians. None of the Holy Books teaches what he is preaching. Is Robertson's holy book tells him to hate his neighbour, be it Christian, Jew or Muslim? God! have mercy on Robertson.

Backbiting and slandering

Backbiting is so widespread among people, politicians and their supporters in particular, that it has become the issue of people's meetings and an avenue for expressing their anger, misgivings and jealosy. Those who indulge in backbiting are hiding their own imperfections and harming others.

Backbiting and slandering are among the destructive major sins but unfortunately, it is the "in thing" among certain Malay/Muslim politicians, their hardcore supporters and sometimes among their spouses when nearing party elections or cabinet changes.

Backbiting and slandering are forbidden in Islam because they sow enmity, evils and discord among people and lead to destruction. They cause hostilities between people of the same household and between neighbours and relatives. But to those involved in backbiting and slandering, they could not care less about sins or what have you, as long as they achieved their greed and crooked ambitions.

Prior to the new cabinet line up in 2004, backbiting and slandering was at its peak and what surprised me was that wives of ministers were also involved. To each minister's spouse, her husband was the best candidate for the deputy prime ministership. One particular minister's wife, claiming that her husband was the closest and strongest ally of prime minister Abdullah Badawi, went overboard to criticise and belittle another minister's wife. The daughter of a policeman had nothing good to say of the other lady, whose husband eventually was picked to be the number two man in the government. After a few months of sour face and disappointment, she suddenly bercame a "good" friend of the same lady that was so bad and nasty in her previous vocabulary. Apart from backbiting and slandering, this particular lady took it upon herself to be the number two "boss" in her husband's ministry by interfering in certain aspects of office administration particularly those invoving her husband's aides.

To her, I would like to say that backbiting and slandering are shame and disgrace. May the Almighty have mercy on you.

Millions facing catastrophe in Kenya and Somalia

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that millions of vulnerable people in Kenya and Somalia could face a catastrophe if sufficient food donations are not delivered to them in the coming months.

WFP described the situation in the two countries as "serious - very serious".

Some 1.4 million people are facing starvation in Somalia due to the never-ending security problem. Lately, armed militias loyal to a new alliance of faction leaders are fighting against armed militias of the Islamic courts.

Security issues have hampered overland food convoys while a spate of ship hijackings off the coast of Somalia last year (2005) closed WFP's normal supply routes for food aid by sea.

Somali leaders must set aside their differences and guarantee safe passage of aid to those in need.

What is the so called free world doing to help Somalia? The United States should focus its attention to this part of the world instead of creating tension and unstability in the Middle-east by targetting Iran after Iraq. Bush should not waste American wealth and lives of her young men and women by going to war "to protect' its security, which is clearly false just like its claims that Iraq had WMDs.

Pix above: Yours truly, Syed Imran Alsagoff (left) with President of the Somali Republic, H.E. Abdinur Darman, (before the formation of a Federal Transitional Parliament in 2004). The Somali President was in Malaysia in 2003 and had called on the then Minister, Prime Minister's Department in Putrajaya.

Al-Habib Umar Bin Hafidz

Al-Alim Al-Alamah Al-Arifbillah Al-Habib As-Sayyid Umar bin Muhammad bin Salim Bin Hafidz, rector of Darul Mustafa Ribat, Hadramaut, Yaman, recognised as amongst the most renowned and respected scholar of Islamic world, giving a speech at a gathering in Taman Tun Abdul Razak, Ampang, Selangor state on 2nd March 2006.

His visit to Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia was in conjunction with the celebration of Maal Hijrah 1427.