An Immoral Law and An Immoral Government

Years ago I learned in jurisprudence that you can't equate law with morality. E.g. some may consider abortion and prostitution to be immoral but there are countries which have legalized them. On the other hand jaywalking may be amoral but you may be fined for so doing. Well, for someone who nearly flunked jurisprudence, I'm going to argue here that there are such laws which are immoral. Those laws are the ones which violate our basic human rights. And the consequence is not limited to the individual whose rights are violated but very often it extend to that individual's family.

Today is Father's day. Yet in our midst there are children whose fathers cannot be with them today because their rights were violated and are currently incarcerated in Kamunting. The psychological and emotional damage done to these children may be irreparable. Read the account of the wife of T Vasanthakumar, one of the Hindraf 5.

Who is responsible? The immoral Government that is keeping the immoral law in our statute book and does not intend to review it let alone abolish it. The same immoral Government which feel threatened by a group of children intending to give teddy bears to our fountain of justice, our king.

In the case of YB Manoharan, this immoral Government does not only deprives the YB's children of fatherly love, but also deprive the thousands of citizens in Kota Alam Shah of their representative. What kind of democracy is this?

As long as the ISA remains the law in this land, freedom is illusory. Freedom from fear. This immoral law not only deprives us of our right to defend ourself in an open court, but its more sinister nature is to strike fear in us. Fear in being fully human. A law that dehumanizes is not merely immoral but evil.

There is a forum this Tuesday on the ISA organized by GMI (Gerakan Mansuhkan ISA) & the Bar Council's Human Rights Committee. For more info click here. I understand there is going to be rally later this month in Shah Alam also.

Many many years ago a trade that dehumanized, slavery was made illegal through the effort of one man and small group of like-minded individuals. Now I'm sure based on the turnout last week at the candlelight vigil at Kamunting, we have thousands who think the ISA should be cosigned to history. Well, I think not only the ISA but the present Government too must go.

We shall overcome!

The first thing we do, let's kill all the economists!

If you have been reading what people say about the recent fuel hike, you'll notice that most economists are in favour of the Govt's move. They feel that the eventual removal of subsidies is beneficial to us in the long term and subsidies are no longer sustainable. Though some feel the increase has been too drastic, others applauded the PM for doing a brave thing.

I wonder how many of these economists are struggling just to make ends meet even before the fuel hike. I'm sure they are affected like everybody else but I doubt they will really feel the pain. Honestly, I won't too because I hardly spend more than RM200 on petrol every month. Even then, that is being paid by my company. I may have to do away with a few luxuries if I want to maintain my current rate of saving and be financially free when I retire. But to really suffer, no. But I know a large segment of the rakyat will. A large segment which doesn't even own a car and hence will not benefit from the RM625 rebate. This is because everything else will go up.

Economic theories are only as good as the Government we get. For nearly 3 decades we have an irresponsible Govt. One that is corrupted. One that has treated the wealth of our nation as though it belongs to their grandfathers. One that is truly incompetent. Only trying to think of measures after the event. (I have very little confidence over whatever measure this incompetent Govt is going to take.) One that lied to its people. We were promised a better transportation system with the RM4 billion saved on the last fuel hike. Nothing materialized.

It's has been a while since I've been so angry. As I said earlier, not that I'm going to be adversely affected. I'm angry because I know many are going to be in dire straits whilst some who caused it will continue with their opulent lifestyle.

No wonder economics is a dismal science.

The only bright spot this dismal week was I sold my Tenaga shares after holding it for just over a month. The realized profit should be enough to cover my electricity bill for the next 6 months based on the new tariff.

The Problem of Evil and Suffering

The above is the title of today's sermon in response to the catastrophes that had happened in Myanmar and China recently. Pastor admitted that he cannot deal with it exhaustively in an hour sermon especially in relation to the theological and philosophical aspects of theodicy. However, what is more important is to elucidate the pastoral aspect of this problem. You can listen to the sermon here. Basically, how can we as a community respond to suffering faced by those within and outside the Christian community. We may never be able to provide an answer and any answer will not be adequate for those who suffered. What we have is hope. What we can give is hope. Hope in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. (...that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures ...1 Cor 15:3,4).

The problem of evil and suffering raises the question of God's love and omnipotence. If there is a God, he is either not a loving God or not a powerful God. Otherwise, how can he allow such natural disasters to happen and bring about so much human suffering.

I've not read all those arguments on theodicy. All I know is I believe in a God who has chosen to suffer, to be humiliated and to be condemned to the most cruel death by those whom he created and by those who have been questioning his love or omnipotence. Even though, 'for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together' (Col 1:16-17), yet he willingly took upon the cup of suffering. At the cross, the One who hold all things together cried out 'My God, my God. Why has Thou forsaken me?'.

At the cross, our right to question God on evil and suffering no longer exist. Our right to question God on evil and suffering is extinguished 'when Christ the Mighty Maker died, For man the creature's sin'. (Issac Watts)

The response then in face of evil and suffering whether on a national or personal level, is for the redeemed community to walk alongside those who are suffering, offering practical assistance and the hope of the Gospel.

Edward Shillito wrote a poem called 'Jesus of the Scars' after witnessing the carnage of World War I.

Jesus of the Scars

If we have never sought, we seek Thee now;
Thine eyes burn through the dark, our only stars;
We must have sight of thorn-pricks on Thy brow;
We must have Thee, O Jesus of the Scars.

The heavens frighten us; they are too calm;
In all the universe we have no place.
Our wounds are hurting us; where is the balm?
Lord Jesus, by Thy Scars we claim Thy grace.

If when the doors are shut, Thou drawest near,
Only reveal those hands, that side of Thine;
We know today what wounds are; have no fear;
Show us Thy Scars; we know the countersign.

The other gods were strong, but Thou wast weak;
They rode, but Thou didst stumble to a throne;
But to our wounds only God’s wounds can speak,
And not a god has wounds, but Thou alone.

May the wounds of the One who hold all things together speak to our own woundedness.

13th May & Turning 40

I turned 40 today. There is a Chinese saying that man starts to blossom at 40. I will not go on to say what happens to a woman at 40 as it's pretty degrading. For me, assuming I can live up to 80, I'm starting to think of what I'm going to do for the 2nd half of my life. Mid-life crisis? Maybe.

Had a quiet family celebration. I guess it must have been pretty quiet celebration also on my 1st birthday. Despite the situation at that time, I think there was still a celebration. Come to think of it, I never asked my parents or my older sisters about what happened that day. Did I had a birthday party? I was only told of my mum risking her life cycling more than 2km from home to buy me milk powder despite the curfew. Nothing beats mother's love.

Has the ghost of 13th May being exorcised from our collective memory by the political tsunami on 8th March after 39 years? I hope so. At the same time we need to work towards a Malaysia which is free from race based politics. A Malaysia where all, irrespective of race, religion and economic status, will be free from want and fear. Where the freedom of expression and belief are upheld and protected. This is my 40th Birthday wish.

We are far from being free (Updated)

I just came back from Dataran (There is no longer a place called Dataran Merdeka in Malaysia)There was supposed to be a candlelight vigil in solidarity with Raja Petra. I reached there at about 15 minutes before 8pm. The place was already cordoned off by the police. There was no sign of anybody gathering there. At 8pm, my colleague & I decided to go to the other end of the Dataran via the back way. There were fewer police there and it was not cordoned off like the other end near the flagpole. Still no sign of people gathering. A few minutes later before a group of people went passed the police and started walking into the Dataran. They were not stopped and we decided to follow them.

It was a unique/eerie experience to walk from one end of the Dataran to the other with no traffic at all but with probably dozens of police watching you. We reached the other end and found a group of people have already gathered there. But it was a small group. Not more than 40.

After a while an Indian police officer said that there was going to be a demonstration and asked us to disperse. A lady in our group asked him what demo he was talking about. He evaded the question and continuing to ask us to disperse saying that he has a job to do. Someone in the group said that they came to take photos of the Dataran. The police officer then told us that we can take whatever photos we want but we have to disperse within 15 minutes.

Despite some grumblings, the crowd was just to small to mount a dissent and some began to walked away including myself. No point getting arrested. The small crowd could be due to the fact that Raja Petra has agreed to post bail and will be freed tomorrow.

Tonight, freedom remains an illusion to me at Freedom Square. How can we be free when we are not allowed to gather to just light candles. Well, I guess the darkness hates light. The political tsunami on March 8 has not totally dispelled the darkness. We must be wary of the 'Empire striking back' as Kit Siang puts it.

Update: Just read Malik Imtiaz's post on The Methodology of Fear. It confirmed my thoughts of freedom being an illusion in our country. Yes, I was fearful as I walked across the Dataran. Why should I be? Because I'm not free. I'm not free from all the oppressive laws that continue to hung over my head like the Sword of Damocles.

We can never be free until and unless all the oppressive laws are abolished. We can never be free until and unless the Govt fears the people.

What happened on 8 March was merely the Battle of Midway where the tide began to turn. We must press on until the A-Bomb is dropped on this morally bankrupt BN Government. Bloody battles remain ahead. Remember before Hiroshima & Nagasaki, there were Saipan, Peleliu, Iwo Jima & Okinawa, where some of the bloodiest battles were fought. We can also treat 8 March as the Normandy landings. There were many battles ahead before the Allies pushed into Germany and defeated Hitler. Before that we need to remember the fiasco of Operation Market Garden and the near debacle of the Battle of the Bulge.

Maybe I've announced VR (Victory for Rakyat) Day too early on 8 March. But I believe the light will eventually triumphed over darkness.

Feng Shui and the Stock Market

The Editor-in- Chief of the Benchmark magazine, a Hong Kong personal finance magazine wrote the following in her April issue editorial:

I turned on the TV one night and there was programme where callers would call in and get advice from the Feng Shui lady master who used the callers' birth dates for clues on the stock market. She even provided advice on the specific sectors these callers can consider pouring their money in. Wow! Is she even licensed, or is feng shui mastery a new exempted investment advisor category that I didn't know about? Are investors so desperate these days or advice they'd been listening to elsewhere is just not working?

I know someone who have recently sold off all his shares in the stock market based on the prediction of his feng shui master that there is going to be great crash in the Bursa Malaysia this year. This is not your ordinary Joe but someone who has helmed a few listed companies and also been an advisor to an investment bank.

Don't you think it takes a lot of faith to follow such advice and people say Feng Shui is not a religion. Of course it depends on how you define religion. No doubt the sociologists and anthropologists will have their own definition. For me, it's quite simple. Anything or anyone that you put your faith in, in order to ensure your wellbeing is your religion. It's also your idol.

Coming back to this Feng Shui and the stock market stuff, should a value investor pay any attention to it? Firstly, a value investor doesn't pay much attention to the stock market but to individual stocks. For a value investor, the stock market can remain closed for a whole year and that wouldn't disturb him/her. We look at businesses rather than markets.

So if someone predicts the market is going to crash and it does crash, the value investor will buy more when that happens. On the other hand if someone is going to predict the market is going to go up and it does go up, the value investor in not going to follow the momentum but stay put until the stocks have been overvalued and take profit. Stock market predictions does not influence how a value investor is going to invest.

I guess people are turning to these unconventional methods because the conventional ones based on Modern Finance Theory don't seem to work anymore. Analysts and economists are no better at forecasting than the Feng Shui masters and astrologers.

John Kenneth Galbraith, himself a well known economist said 'The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.'

Maybe China's ancient sage, Lao Tzu is right and was hitting out at modern day analysts/economists/Feng Shui masters etc when he said 'Those who have knowledge, don't predict. Those who predict, don't have knowledge.'

Finally the grandfather of value investing, Benjamin Graham said ' If I have noticed anything over these 60 years on Wall Street, it is people do not succeed in forecasting what's going to happen to the stock market.'

Whether or not Feng Shui is considered a religion, it is incompatible with the Christian worldview. God, the creator of heaven and earth is sovereign and not 'Qi'. Christians are assured that all things work together for good (Romans 8:28). It may not always seem so and this is when we need to follow the advice of St. Augustine, 'Seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that we may understand'.

Btw, did any Feng Shui master predicted the sub-prime fiasco and the credit crisis?

Will Mahatir ever repent and be saved?

In one of his recent articles Raja Petra has this to say

All the great religions, in particular the religions of the book, speak about repentance, forgiveness and redemption. Even God possesses forgiving qualities. But forgiveness can only be forthcoming with repentance and redemption. Yes, there is much Mahathir must redeem before forgiveness can be given. And has Mahathir truly repented? For if he has not then forgiving would be impossible.

Well, I'm not sure how other religions of the books view repentance and salvation. My opinion will be based on my Christian belief. But even within Christianity, there are different views on how one actually is saved. As the header in my blog suggests, I'm offering my opinion from a Reformed perspective, one that is unfortunately not very popular nowadays especially in Malaysia.

Mahatir will never be able to repent. But that doesn't mean he can never be saved. Does that sound contradictory? Is salvation possible without repentance? No. But repentance is not possible without regeneration. Left to our own, we will never be able to repent. This is because we are dead in our sins (Ephesians 2:1). How can a spiritually dead person repents?

For a person to repent, he/she must be regenerated first and this regeneration is entirely the work of God. ....he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit ...(Titus 3:5).

Even before that, God has to issue the call or summons just like Jesus calling Lazarus from the dead. (And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified - Romans 8:30). Those who are called are called according to God's purpose (Romans 8:28). In other words, the call is effectual.

John Murray wrote this on regeneration. God's grace reaches down to the depths of our need and meets all the exigencies of the moral and spiritual impossibility which inheres in our depravity and inability. And that grace is the grace of regeneration. ...........God effects a change which is radical and all-pervasive, a change which cannot explain in terms of any combination, permutation, or accumulation of human resources, a change which is nothing less than a new creation by him who calls the things that be not as though they were, who spake and it was done, who commanded and it stood fast. This in a word, is regeneration. ( Redemption - Accomplished and Applied)

An unregenerated person cannot repent whereas a regenerated person cannot but repent and believe.

The Reformed position is salvation is solely the work of God. We do not and cannot contribute anything to our salvation. Even our faith by which we are justified is only possible through the Holy Spirit's prior work of regenerating us. Another term for this is monergism.

Back to the question, Will Mahatir ever repent and be saved? Based on Reformed theology, no one is beyond redemption if God in His sovereign will and purpose chooses to call and regenerate a person. But on the other hand if one's theology is based on the requirement that a person have to repent first and be saved, then Mahatir will surely be damned. He will never repent.

If Mahatir by the grace of God ever repents, I hope I wouldn't be like Jonah who got angry with God for not punishing the people of Nineveh for their wickedness because they repented.