Negara-ku Tanah Tumpahnya Darah-ku...

Post by Aqsa Syarif.

NEGARA-KU PEOPLE’S MOVEMENT
c/o GBM Secretariat, No. 1, Jln Maharajalela, 50150 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03- 2272 3594 / 017 3985 606 Eadd: infogpoam@gmail.com

21 July, 2014
For Immediate Release
Press Statement by Negara-Ku

We regret that, once again, detractors of the Negara-Ku people’s movement
have chosen to revile, based entirely on false premises, one of our
movement’s patrons, rather than engage us in mature and coherent dialogue
with a view to fostering greater understanding of differing points of view
on key issues affecting the nation.

This, coming from those who hold themselves out as, amongst others,
championing the cause of Islam, is all the more disconcerting given that
these attacks come in the holy month of Ramadhan.
I refer to comments and remarks attributed to Hanan Othman and Muhammad
Luttfi Abdul Khalid, both of Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) in a report
dated 16t July, 2014 entitled ‘Ambiga changes tune in 24 hours, raps Isma’
in Malaysiakini.

Hanan refers to calls made by Dato’ Ambiga to the opposition at a Pakatan
Rakyat meet on 9th July to look at legislation to resolve the issue of
unilateral conversion of minor children to Islam and then alleges that this
smacks of hypocrisy given the call by Dato’ Ambiga the next day, at the
launch of the Negara-Ku movement, to go back to, amongst others, our
founding document, the Federal Constitution.

Implicit in this contention is the assumption that a call to amend the
constitution amounts to an attack and challenge to the same. This is the
first error that Hanan makes. In this regard, it must be noted that since
its inception, the Federal Constitution has been amended almost 700 times
by, first, the Alliance government and, later, the BN government. Hanan’s
point, if taken to be sound, would mean that the Federal Constitution has
been under serial attack by the government since independence.

That is not to say that anyone should condone the whimsical amendment of the
Federal Constitution. Certainly, any such amendment should leave the basic
structure laid out under the Federal Constitution intact.

Her second error is the assumption that Dato’ Ambiga called for the
amendment to the Federal Constitution. She did not. She had asked for
legislation to address the problem that has caused grave concern to many
quarters, government, or otherwise,: the destruction of family relations by
the many cases of the conversion of children to Islam by one parent without
the knowledge or consent of the other parent.

Muhammad Luttfi’s stance of treating everything he perceives as outside of
the pale of Islam as ‘liberalism’, ‘representing the entrapment of the
devil’ and ‘jahiliyyah reincarnate’ vindicates the decision of my colleagues
and I to initiate the Negara-Ku people’s movement and explains why our call
to resist all forms of intolerance, bigotry, hatred and extremism is slowly
but surely resonating with so many.

Zaid Kamaruddin
Chariman, Steering Committee
Negara-Ku People’s Movement