Malaysian Studies- Week 2 (Society)
Week 3- Ethnic Relations
Week 4- Early History of Malaya
Week 5- The Struggle for Independence
Week 6- Formation of Malaysia
Week 7- The Constitution
Week 9- System of Government
Week 10- Commissions
Week 11- National Economic Policies
Week 13- Malaysia’s Policy on Regional and World Affairs 

MPW 1153 Moral Studies Week 1 Lesson

MPW 1153 Moral Studies Week 2 Lesson

MPW 1153 Moral Studies Week 3 Lesson

MPW 1153 Moral Studies Week 4 Lesson

MPW 1153 Moral Studies Week 5 Lesson

MPW 1153 Moral Studies Week 6 Lesson

MPW 1153 Moral Studies Week 7 Lesson

MPW 1153 Moral Studies Week 8 Lesson

MPW 1153 Moral Studies Week 9 Lesson

MPW 1153 Moral Studies Week 10 Lesson

1. Change all editors, owners, shareholders and basically everyone who holds sway on what goes out (especially the news and editorials) of all Main Stream Newspapers (especially Bernama, Utusan Melayu, TheStar, NST, etc).
2. Reform the Education System to reflect a Malaysian Malaysia.
   • Remove racial prejudice
   • Take out the Islamizing elements in all textbooks
   • Improve English across the board, esp in Science and Maths
   • Improve Teacher Training colleges and teach them about what it means to be Anak Bangsa Malaysia
   • Redo the entire approach on teaching Moral Education
3. Bring all murderers to justice for the innocent lives lost: Kugan, TBHock, Altantulya, etc.
4. Complete overhaul of Police Force.
5. Reward and protect whistle-blowers.
6. Greater rural development- schools and kindergartens that are NOT religiously inclined. Stop the spread of Islamization in Sabah and Sarawak.
7. Look into the imbalance of the Syariah Court vs. the Civil Court. Constitution, anyone?
8. Transparency in major government projects that involve taxpayer’s money.
9. Penan and indigenous people’s rights. Stop the Islamization by coercion. Stop the Taukehs from raping our lands and filling the pockets of the politicians. Can exile certain Chinese bigshots?
10. Lure back top flight students to teach for 2 years in diff parts of the country.
11. Reduce national debt.
12. Clean out the opportunists in the coalition.
13. Restore a sense of respect for all races among all, starting from the political parties, then to the schools and society.
14. Enforce restrictions on Human Trafficking.

Facing expulsion... Four students need some justice. Hearing scheduled this week.

Four UKM students were unjustly charged for ‘campaigning’ when they had not done anything (does being in a Party car indicate campaigning?) and that the resulting ‘disciplinary’ actions taken by the UKM institute of higher learning seems to indicate learning on a lower level- a) no opportunity for students to defend themselves at the hearing, b) swift sentencing with no input from students, and c) possibility of a complete suspension with no earlier precedent of misbehavior.

If they were political science students, should they be studying the weather?

See more details in their own words, here. The hearing of some of them will be this Thursday.

Will be asking for mercy and justice from the Highest institution.

Responses:

YPSEA, DAPSY, KeADILAN, GAMIS, MCA, etc.

“You help me, I help you.” “I want to strike a deal with you… RM 5 million if you can put Robert Lau as Ahli Parliament…” If this is not bribery, I don’t know what is. (No wonder the turtles have left our shores in disgust.)

We hear this line uttered by our ROYAL Malaysian Police Force ‘protectors’ on the streets every day. If our top man is corrupt, how can we expect any better of those under him?

This is not the first time. He promised RM 3 million to the Chinese voters in Hulu Selangor. (But they still voted against him.) This is so blatant. >.<

God have mercy.

Link courtesy of Unworthy Sinner.

It is finished... for now.

I just finished my second last semester. It was two weeks of long days and blink-free nights. Everything would stop as I sat at the computer screen, trying to force the unwilling words out of my brain.

But in spite of this, there were a few thoughts that have begun to germinate:

a) The critical need for a contextualized Malaysian theology- one which no one has dared to write, so far (not even the hallowed Dr. Ng Kam Weng)
b) A greater respect for the Gospel of Mark- going through the notes and being forced to think through both the exegesis and the exam has made me realize that this humble little book is no pushover. It sharpens source-critical debates, presents a strong apologia, establishes sensational and original narrative and literary structures. Wow. If there is such a treasure trove for such a nondescript little piece of semi-biography, how much more will one glean from the heavy weights of Mt, Lk and Jn?
c) The Gay Debate- it is not as complicated as we would be led to believe… but intriguing nonetheless. Just a thought: If we allow for the regression towards primal preferences (animals are known to have ‘gay’ liaisons); why do we balk at some theologians trying to steer a post-modern world back to modernity? But the issues are definitely more complex than this.
d) Influence of Western thinking- much more needs to be said here, but a simple line will do for now: we need to learn how to apply critical thinking even when examining critical scholarship. And like an OT friend I know would say, “you maintain your presuppositions and find that the text can back you up!” Suffice to say I’m suspicious of all things from Tubingen. But as for Moltmann? Hope to start reading him.

That’s it for the time being. I hope to be a bit more prolific now that the sem is over. Phew! I still feel so tense. But October nears, and a son of man must be thoroughly examined, questioned and forced to submit his thesis by the stipulated hour, but after two months, he will be set free…

Rev. Dr. Hwa Yung, Bishop of the Methodist Church, Malaysia

Stumbled upon this while completing my final assignment.

In the recent book Christian Theology in Asia, Bishop Hwa Yung is quoted as saying:

“Religious pluralism is a western problem defined by western culture’s captivity to the Enlightenment. Tom Driver, who is a religious pluralist, openly admits that the whole discussion ‘belongs to Western liberal religious thought at the present time … couched in Western terms, addressed to Western audiences and aimed at the Western conscience’. If this is so, then Asian scholars need to find a different way of approaching the issue. Asian Christians can learn much from the Apologists [ie. Justin Marytr, et al], whose writings formed one of the earliest corpuses of indigenous theology in the Early Church; but to accomplish the same in the church today, we need to master the various cultural and religious traditions of Asia.” [Hwa Yung, "Mission and evangelism" in Christian Theology in Asia, Sebastian Kim, ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), p. 250-267.] [Italics added]

I find it inexplicable that the Church in Malaysia can sometimes take on the theological underpinnings of ‘theologies’ from other parts of the world and try to force-feed it into our collective consciousnesses (eg. Emergent Church, doctrinal/denominational differences, Stephen Tong, etc.).

We have few ‘cultural theologians’ in this country. How can we redefine how the world looks at theology, instead of redefine how we look at theology in light of the world’s prevalent thinking? Not to say we are unaware of what the world is thinking, but rather, can we follow the example of Justin Martyr (and our Cappadocian Fathers) by launching a virtually unassailable polemic against the loud anti-Christian chorus we see today in our world?

We must first master the knowledge and systems of the world, without being won over by it, methinks.

ps. To our shame, even some of our ‘apologia’ are taken from the likes of Western-based thinkers such as Josh McDowell, Ravi Zacharias and such. Nothing wrong with their teachings or outlook, but, how about a contextualized response? Our context is a rich ‘hotbed’ for very meaningful inter-cultural perspectives on pluralistic religious perspectives and how Truth should be presented.

To me, I’ve always held to the maxim that we need to hold grave truths in astute balance.

One cannot take on too much fire-and-brimstone without taking in also the jaw-dropping-wonder of Christ’s unconditional love.

But one may ask, “What is Truth, in a post-Christian/post-post-modern/relativistic/money-driven world?”

Is God both Good and Evil? My Hindu friends would say that God transcends Good and Evil. My Buddhist friends would agree with me that one must take everything in balance…

But the God I worship is Truth personified, like the Incarnation, where the immutable and undefined and unsearchable nature of God was transmuted into a finite, tangible and limited human form, for a brief moment in human history.

And He showed that it was infinitely more than form, but function. His divinity was shown in an existential expression of relationships that are otherworldly in fabric and feature. Sure, there were flashes of Divine Power manifested and released (or unleashed), but essentially, the Divine mind and heart, humanized, exemplified both a high and incomparable Ethic, a humility keeping Creation through the ages, an unrelenting forgiveness, an  intellectually transcendent compassion and a Divine selflessness that outshines all our narcissistic notions of self hood.

May we emulate His qualities.

Expound on what God can do for them.

Expound on who they are, regardless of what they have done. Show how they can obtain God, since “God first obtained them” anyway.

God is cool. God is for you. God wants to bless you with stuff. Lots of good stuff.

Keep buying into God. God is the best product you can buy (with your time, attention and ultimately, money).

As long as you keep buying into God, you will be blessed. And ya, remember to be happy, since you’re getting all that you want.

God wants to give you good gifts. God wants to bless you. Receive it by faith.

Say amen and come again next Sunday to remember why you have chosen God above every other thing out there.