Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, was presented an award which carries the title “Sri Pelangi Srikandi Utama”
“Imam Khalifah Agong Gayong” The award, which carries the title “Sri Tri Buana Gangga Simanjakani Chula Sakti”
This week we commemorate the 70th anniversary of a shameful and dark chapter in American history. On Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which provided the legal authority for the forced relocation and incarceration of 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent — the vast majority of whom were citizens.
The anniversary of this tragic national mistake provides a teachable moment for our nation on the dangers of stereotyping, prejudice, and racial profiling — even as we face the very real, continuing threat of terrorism.
Coming just 10 weeks after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt’s executive order was issued against the backdrop of widespread, baseless fears that Americans of Japanese ancestry might pose a threat to the U.S — anxiety that was certainly fed by a long history of prejudice and xenophobia directed against Japanese Americans.
Executive Order 9066 authorized the creation of military zones for Japanese citizens and resident aliens, which paved the way for the forced expulsion of 120,000 American citizens of Japanese descent from their homes to camps throughout the western U.S. — where they were held behind barbed wire without evidence documenting a single individual’s disloyalty towards America.
Those incarcerated in the camps were uprooted from their communities, separated from their families, their homes, and their possessions, and lost their personal liberties and freedoms until the end of the war.
Tragically, the president’s executive order was bolstered by additional congressional enactments. And when the constitutionality of these actions was challenged in two main cases before the U.S. Supreme Court – Hirabayashi v. U.S., and Korematsu v. U.S. – the court held that these clearly discriminatory actions by the government were, in fact, justified and constitutional.
Even Japanese Americans serving in the armed forces were segregated from their units — and a predominantly Japanese American unit was formed — the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
In April 1976, President Gerald R. Ford finally rescinded Executive Order 9066. And four years later, President Jimmy Carter signed legislation creating the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians to investigate the impact of the executive order and the internment camps.
That commission issued its nearly 500-page report, Personal Justice Denied, in 1983. The report concluded that, “The promulgation of Executive Order 9066 was not justified by military necessity, and the decisions which followed from it — detention, ending detention and ending exclusion — were not driven by analysis of military conditions. The broad historical causes which shaped these decisions were race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership.”
The commission also called for Congress to apologize for these injustices. That recommendation was fulfilled in 1988, when Congress approved the Civil Liberties Act, which provided a formal apology and limited reparations to the Japanese citizens and resident aliens that had been sent to internment camps.
Now, in 2012, a divisive and polarizing debate over immigration reform, as well as efforts to stereotype Muslim Americans as potential terrorists after 9/11, threaten the progress we have made in promoting respect and understanding among all Americans and the lessons we have learned from the forced internment of Japanese Americans.
Though America is, as then-Senator John F. Kennedy wrote in his famous 1958 essay, “A Nation of Immigrants,” the current white-hot, political debate over the contours of immigration reform has resulted in hateful rhetoric, profiling, stereotyping, and dehumanizing language about Hispanics, Muslims, and new immigrants to America.
Make no mistake — there is a direct connection between the tenor of this political debate and the daily lives of immigrants in our communities. Harsh enforcement-only restrictions have fostered fear, mistrust, and discrimination against immigrants and those perceived to be immigrants.
And the proliferation of anti-Sharia laws directed against Muslims are an unnecessary response to a non-existent problem in America. The xenophobic references to immigrants as criminals, as a threat to our safety, and damaging to American culture have too-frequently derailed meaningful policy debate — and stand in the way of the kind of reforms Americans desperately seek to fix the nation’s broken immigration system.
In many communities, February 19th is annually recognized as the Day of Remembrance for the Japanese American community. Jewish Americans annually commemorate the horrors of the Holocaust during the spring, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom Hashoah. Clearly, both our communities can celebrate together the distance we have come from February 1942.
But, especially at this time, all Americans have a stake in remembering — and learning lessons — from the past.
BN’s hope now rest on the Three Musketeers
And to top it all, while everyone in BN is waiting for a miracle to happen, the top Umno leaders have decided to subcontract it to the infamous Three Musketeers.
These three, although are not in any way related, are bound by three things in common. They are the self appointed Champions of the Malay Cause, Defenders of the Faith and Defenders of the Malay Rulers. And all three seem to have a bone to pick with the Christians, whom they suspect of trying to convert Muslims. However, they seem to have no qualms about Christians being converted by the Muslims.
While one is a Mufti by profession, the other an independent Frog, while the latter professes to be the undisputed ‘Third Force’ with his recently launched NGO ‘JATI.’
Never mind, if the logo looks like ‘666’, the mark of Satan according to some logo experts, as long as Hassan Ali gets to be president of an NGO with a prestigious logo. Hassan has in his possession video tapes of Muslims being baptized, which he has promised to reveal later, probably along with electronic bibles that can instantly convert anyone on the spot.
Then there is Harussani the Mufti, famous for his poco poco fatwas, and his hilarious public chiding of PM Najib and wife Rosmah Mansor for being bad Muslims and then eating his words later. As for the independent Frog, it is actually none other than other Ibrahim Ali, who wanted to lead the crusade against the perceived Christian invasion of Malaysia.
Political analysts in the country has been racking their brains as to why these Three Musketeers insist on using the ‘Christian card’ in their political tradeoffs? Why not Buddhist, Hindu or Sikh card? It doesn’t make sense at all!
Men of God or not, Pakatan says thanks!
These Three Musketeers have caused so much unnecessary trouble and lost so many votes for the Barisan Nasional that some have speculated whether they were Pakatan Rakyat implants tasked to sabotage BN. However, that may be a bit too far-fetched and the three are more likely to be in a world of their own, fighting for a lost cause in which they believe is noble.
They believe that they are men of God, answerable to nobody but to God Himself. We should be proud of them! We don’t get too many of these men in the country with such piercing and fiery conviction, willing to sacrifice themselves to be the saviors of the Malay Race which they sincerely believe are doomed to destruction without them.
Deep in the villages, in the kedai kopi (coffee shops), there is talk and murmurings about these three characters. But none of it is encouraging. Even the elderly shake their heads at the mention of these three odd characters, while the younger generation are more vocal and not hesitant to show their displeasure.
So as these three continue to voice their political diatribes, laced with subtle religious undertones, not only are the Non-Malays put off, but the Malays themselves are also shaking their heads.
It’s really sad for BN to go down this way, due to these three misfits who do not even know they are deterring the people from embracing the BN dream. To the ordinary Malaysian, the trio are the worst possible BN nightmare.
No wonder, Pakatan Rakyat prefers to take a back seat and watch as these three clowns do maximum damage to the ruling coalition.
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