Government wins appeal, Herald banned from using word 'Allah' over public safety

PUTRAJAYA: Catholic weekly The Herald will not be allowed to use the word "Allah" to refer to the Christian God, ruled the Court of Appeal.

The panel, chaired by Justice Mohamed Apandi Ali, overturned a High Court decision and unanimously ruled Monday in favour of the Government's appeal, saying that the minister had not acted in any way that required a judicial review.

The court also found that there had been sufficient material considered by the minister in taking action under the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984.

The court set aside all orders made by the Kuala Lumpur High Court in conjunction with its allowing the Church's judicial review back in 2009, with no order as to costs.

The panel, which also included Justices Mohd Zawawi Salleh and Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahim, each prepared their own judgments, though Justice Mohamed Apandi read a brief summary, saying the full judgment was over 100 pages long.

"Our common finding is that the usage of Allah is not an integral part of the Christian faith. We cannot find why the parties are so adamant on the usage of the word," he said.

The court found that such usage of the word would cause confusion and that in the interest of public safety, chose to grant the Government's appeal.

"The welfare of an individual or group must yield to the interest of society at large," said Justice Mohamed Apandi, adding that this should be read alongside the constitutional freedom of religion.

Senior federal counsel Suzanna Atan represented the Government, while lawyers Porres Royan and Annou Xavier acted as counsel for the Church.

Xavier told reporters that they will only be able to confirm in several days time whether the Church would appeal to the Federal Court.

The Home Ministry and Government were appealing against the Dec 31, 2009 High Court decision in allowing the church's judicial review to lift the Ministry's ban on the use of the word "Allah" in The Herald to refer to the Christian god.

On July 9, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur had filed an application to the strike out the Government's appeal although it was later unanimously denied by another Court of Appeal panel.

The church, led by Archbishop Murphy Pakiam, had filed the judicial review on Feb 16, 2009, naming the Home Ministry and the Government as respondents.

They sought, among others, a declaration that the decision by the Home Ministry on Jan 7, 2009, prohibiting the use of the word 'Allah' in The Herald was illegal and that the word 'Allah' is not exclusive to the religion of Islam.

The weekly, published in four languages, has been using the word 'Allah' as a translation for 'God' in its Malay-language section, but the Government argued that 'Allah' should be used exclusively only by Muslims.

The three judgments of the case (W-01-1-2010) can be found on the Judiciary website.

Source: Star Online

35% drop in job vacancie

PETALING JAYA: Jobseekers, especially fresh graduates, are feeling the heat from the softening job market.

The extended retirement age, higher operational costs coupled with lower revenue and an uncertain world economy are reasons behind the drop, according to Malaysian Employers Federation’s (MEF) executive director Shamsuddin Bardan.

He said the number of job vacancies registered by employers in June 2013 dropped by 35.7% to 107,796 compared with 167,968 vacancies at the same time last year, citing statistics from Jobs Malaysia, an online job matching service under the Human Resource Ministry.

Shamsuddin said jobseekers were competing for fewer openings as about 915,000 private sector employees had been retained in the workforce for the next five years with the extension of the retirement age from 55 to 60 after the Minimum Retirement Age Act 2012 came into force on July 1.

“Many employers also prefer to adopt a ‘wait and see’ attitude because of the uncertain world economy. They are also bracing themselves for the full impact of the minimum wage policy in January,” he said.

Shamsuddin said companies, which faced higher operating costs and earning lower revenues, had stopped hiring as one of their cost-cutting measures.

“Some employers are already offering the voluntary separation scheme (VSS) and other packages for employees to leave, so the likelihood of them taking in fresh graduates is very slim,” he said, adding that the current unemployment rate was only about 3%.

Some 180,000 fresh graduates enter the labour market yearly, after most public university convocations are held in September and October.

Manpower Malaysia country manager Sam Haggag said multi-national companies (MNCs) were restructuring and rationalising their permanent headcounts in anticipation of what was expected to come.

“Companies are managing costs. Hiring is on hold for most jobs except in senior technical positions and niche areas like biosciences and R&D. Some companies are letting their employees go and those that are hiring, are doing so on contract basis,” he said.

Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) president Tan Sri Yong Poh Kon said electrical and electronics (E&E) companies might have undertaken cost cutting measures to sustain operations.

“To cope with slower demand from major external markets, companies have stopped hiring new staff or put filling up vacancies on hold. The softening of the job market could be due to the RM4.99bil drop in export demand from January to June this year.

“Also, the higher retirement age raised in July means a reduction in new intake,” he added.

On the lower ranking positions, he said many companies could be stabilising their workforce by requiring “more multi-skilling and multi-tasking” workers because of the challenging business environment. The FMM represents 2,678 members.

MyStarJob Network Sdn Bhd head Serm Teck Choon said there was a “definite drop” in vacancies and that the job market had not picked up since January.

“Pre-GE13, the job market was slow because companies adopted a wait-and-see attitude but post election, vacancies are still on the decline.

“The feedback from my online job portal, print media and headhunter networks is that there are fewer jobs out there,” he said

Souce: Star Online

Khairy suggests counting Gelang Patah votes to decide Youth vice-chief

KUALA LUMPUR: Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin said the result of voting at Gelang Patah youth division should be used in deciding the vice-youth chief after two candidates received equal number of votes.
He pointed out the possibility of dispute involving the parties involved if the popular votes method was used to settle the stalemate.

"If we can count the votes at Gelang Patah division, there is no need for popular votes. If we use the popular vote method, it will lead to conflict.

"It is better if we can settle it through vote counting in Gelang Patah," he told a press conference with Umno vice-presidential candidate Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein after a Rangkaian Sahabat Muda programme here tonight.

A total 191 Umno youth divisions concluded their elections yesterday except for Gelang Patah which was postponed due to internal problems.

Earlier, Umno Election Committee chairman Tan Sri Tajol Rosli Ghazali when announcing the election results at Menara Datuk Onn tonight said Jamawi Jaafar and Khairul Azwan Harun, each received 73 votes, from 190 divisions.

As such, he said the result for number two post would be decided based on the counting of popular votes.

Popular vote is based on the actual number of votes which is given by the delegates to every candidate.

Khairy said: "I have discussed with Umno secretary-general Tengku Adnan whether we want to implement the suggestion by Tan Sri Tajol, namely, to count the popular votes, or we settle the case of Gelang Patah division."

Meanwhile, Jamawi when met by reporters, said he was confident the result would favour him if the popular vote counting was implemented based on his record of acceptance at the divisions.

But, he stressed that he would accept with an open heart if the result went against him.

Meanwhile, Khairul Azwan when contacted, declined to comment on the matter

Source : News Strait Times