Gender segregation slammed!

MCA slams cinema ruling 

SHAH ALAM: A controversial ruling by a district council in Selangor banning unmarried Muslim couples from sitting together in a cinema has been shelved, with the MCA slamming the use of religion in politics.
MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek said he was shocked that Islamic values were imposed by the council.

He cautioned that friction among the people could happen in a multi-racial country like Malaysia should religion be used in politics.

Separately, the Kuala Selangor district council (MDKS) had been directed to put the ruling on hold immediately.

It is learnt that the decision was made by the MDKS full board council meeting in May.

MDKS councillor P. Thirumoorthy said the ruling was proposed by a councillor from PAS last year.

State executive councillor Ronnie Liu said the state government was not consulted before the decision was implemented recently.

“I only found out from the press. In other local councils, there is no such ruling. So I will ask the MDKS president to delay the ruling and bring it to the full board for further discussion,” he told a press conference yesterday.

A Chinese daily reported yesterday that the only cinema in Kuala Selangor had recently put up notices reminding patrons of the new ruling.

It is believed that cinema operators who did not abide by the ruling were informed that their licences would not be renewed.

A source from the Lotus Five Star cinema described the ruling as “unbecoming and unfair”.

“This has caused fear among Muslims and deterred them from coming to our place,” he said.

In Petaling Jaya, Selangor MCA Youth chairman Dr Kow Cheong Wei said the DAP kept emphasising the equal status of all parties in Pakatan, claiming that for a policy to be implemented, there had to be consensus by all three parties in Pakatan Rakyat.

“If this is truly the case, then why has this cinema gender separation proposal become law? Is this an act by a unified administration by Pakatan?” he said in a statement.

- The Star/Asia News Network


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Mahathirism is dead and gone?

PETALING JAYA: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he is actively campaigning for Umno and the Barisan Nasional in the general election but the era of Mahathirism is no more.

Debunking claims by DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang that Mahathirism stoked racial fears and went against decades of nation building, the former prime minister said it was just a figment of Lim's imagination.

The former leader added that Mahathirism was dead and gone and there was no need to fear it.

Lim had said in response to earlier remarks by Dr Mahathir that he did not hate the former prime minister as a person but was only against the Mahathirism policies that allegedly stoke racial fears and went against nation-building efforts.

“I wonder why Kit Siang is so afraid of me, what he calls Mahathirism.

“I don't know what is Mahathirism but obviously it conjures in the mind of Kit Siang something fearful.

“So, he has declared his intention to fight Mahathirism,” the country's longest-serving prime minister said in his latest blog posting yesterday.

“I don't care whether he destroys Mahathirism or not. It is an exercise in futility as Mahathirism is a figment of his imagination.

“He should not be afraid of this toothless tiger, figuratively speaking,” he said, adding Mahathirism died in 2003 when Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi took over as prime minister.

Dr Mahathir said while Abdullah's successor, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, was friendlier, the current Prime Minister was “not that close to me”.

Furthermore, he added, Najib had his own team of advisers. “His policies are his own.”

Dr Mahathir admitted that he was actively campaigning for Umno and the Barisan, saying it was time to return the favour.

“I became prime minister because Umno and the Barisan backed me strongly.

“I owe a debt of gratitude to them. And that gratitude can only be manifested through helping them to be accepted by the people and to win,” he said, adding he would go all out for his son, Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir, should he be chosen as a candidate.

He said he could now back Mukhriz as he was no longer in a position of power.

The Star/Asia News Network

Related:

Who is this mystery woman from North Korea?

Mystery woman with North Korea's new leader Kim Jong-un stirs speculation

Singer or sister? Speculation is rife over who this woman is. Photo: AFP/KCNA via KNS

A mystery woman pictured accompanying North Korea's new leader Kim Jong-un to recent events has prompted speculation in Seoul about whether she is his partner or his younger sister.

The North's state television on Sunday aired footage of the woman joining Kim Jong-un as he paid tribute to his late grandfather Kim Il-sung on the anniversary of his death in 1994.

Some South Korea media reports suggested she was Kim's younger sister Yo-Jong. Others suggested she may be Kim's wife or lover. 

Top officials including ceremonial head of state Kim Yong-nam and army chief Ri Yong-ho accompanied the leader to Pyongyang's Kumsusan Palace, where the embalmed body of the nation's first president lies in state.

Who is she? Kim Jong-un is pictured during a visit to Kumsusan Palace with an unidentified woman. Photo: AFP/North Korean TV

The TV footage showed the woman, apparently in her twenties or thirties, walking next to the leader. She bowed with him before a portrait of Kim Il-sung.

The short-haired woman, clad in a black suit, was also pictured sitting next to Kim Jong-un at a concert by a state orchestra on Friday.
Some South Korea media reports suggested she was Kim's younger sister Yo-Jong, who is believed to have studied in Switzerland along with him in the 1990s. Others suggested she may be Kim's wife or lover.

This screen grab shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, centre, with a mystery woman paying tribute to his late grandfather Kim Il-sung. Photo: AFP/North Korean TV

Seoul's intelligence agency and unification ministry, in charge of cross-border affairs, declined to comment.

The speculation highlighted the degree of secrecy in the North about the private lives of its rulers.
Kim Jong-un took power after the death of his father Kim Jong-il last December but the outside world does not even know his exact age.

An unidentified woman pictured standing behind Kim Jong-un during mourning for his late father last December was identified by some sources as the new leader's younger sister.

JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said the woman pictured in recent days may be Hyon Song-wol, a famous state singer rumoured to be the leader's lover.

It said she disappeared from public view in 2006 but was seen on TV again in March, apparently late in pregnancy.

"Hyon was a friend of Kim since they were teenagers and there is a rumour among the North's elites that she was his lover," it quoted an unidentified Seoul intelligence official as saying.

But Yang Moo-jin of Seoul's University of North Korean Studies said there was "little chance" the mystery woman was Kim's partner, given that the country's past first ladies have rarely made public appearances with leaders.

"She could be Yo-Jong or perhaps a daughter of one of the mistresses of the late Kim Jong-il ... so that Jong-un can publicly showcase the solidarity in the ruling family," Yang said.

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