Year 2007 is Visit Malaysia year, POSSIBLE?
Tuesday, October 31st, 2006The authority is correct, those people made complaint were wrong; sound familiar to you? The tourists will bring back all bad information to their own country, who suffer at the end?
Next year is the 50th anniversary for Malaysia independence. At the same time, Malaysia government was announced year 2007 as Visit Malaysia year. Big events will carry out to celebrate the anniversary and the same time promotes Malaysia tourist destinations to the world.
Well, this incident seems not helping at all but makes the thing worst. Malaysia is a POLICE state? Why yelling and pounding at 2am? Malaysia far away to civilized society? I’m confuse. You read it and please judge it.
Harassment by religious officers worrying
Oct 31, 06 1:11pm
(source: Malaysiakini)
The Christian Federation of Malaysia is troubled over a recent incident in which an elderly American couple was harassed by Muslim religious officials in the holiday island of Langkawi.The federation said that it was deeply concerned that non-Muslims were subjected to the harassment from the Kedah religious officers.
“Just recently Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi refuted allegations that Malaysia is a police state.“An incident such as this, and many more similar actions in the past by over-zealous religious vigilante groups in the country point to the contrary,” said CFM’s executive committee in a statement.
Randall Barnhart, 62, and his wife Carole, 61, were rudely awakened in their rented apartment in the early hours of the morning earlier this month by religious officials conducting a raid on ‘khalwat’ couples.The couple, who were on a six-week sailing holiday in Malaysia, have been married for 42 years and are Christians.
“The couple did inform the officers that they were Christians and therefore were not subjected to the rude intrusion of Islamic officers into their private premises.
“But that did not stop the intimidating behaviour of the officers,” added the federation.
Tourism minister concernedStating that this incident has given Malaysia a bad image, the Christian federation wanted the cabinet to take a special interest in this matter to reassure everyone that the privacy of citizens is always protected against such harassments.
The federation added that the Kedah religious department must offer an official apology to the couple.
It also called upon the Tourism Ministry to do whatever is necessary to assure tourists that they will not be subject to vigilante moral policing by religious officers.
In the wake of this incident, Tourism Minister Tengku Adnan Mansor said that he will meet and placate the American couple.
He was concerned that the incident on Langkawi, an idyllic island off Kedah promoted as a sailing hub, would affect the country’s image.
“I have communicated with Barnhart through emails and plan to meet him soon,” Adnan was quoted as saying in the New Straits Times newspaper last week.
The timing of this incident could not have been much worse as the government has chosen next year to promote Malaysia as a prominent tourist destination, delcaring 2007 as the Visit Malaysia Year.
The government hopes to attract some 20.1 million tourists in 2007, up from 15.7 million in 2004.
Tourism is Malaysia’s second-largest foreign exchange earner, but it is facing stiff competition from neighbours including Singapore and Thailand.
Yelling and pounding at 2am
Soon after the terrifying incident, Barnhart complained to police and the US embassy over the raid.
The raid saw officials yelling and pounding on the couple’s door at two in the morning.
Barnhart, who answered the door, said the officials demanded to see his ‘woman’ and insisted on being shown their marriage licence and passports.
He said his wife was terrified by the incident and insisted on going back to the United States.
Barnhart is also seeking an apology from Kedah state’s religious department and compensation of RM4,315.
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