Hackers, not all hack for the heck of it! Who are the anonymous hackers? Beware of Seduction!

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By HARIATI AZIZAN sunday@thestar.com.my

Some do it for fun or fame, others to make a political statement. But a bigger number of hackers are now doing it for money.

THEY brought down the CIA website and attacked Sony, Nintendo and a few tech companies with links to FBI and the US Senate. They wanted to expose the online weaknesses of these entities, “for the Lulz”, they bragged.

But what is grating the American authorities and security experts most about the group who carried out the cyber attacks, Lulz Security, an offshoot of the notorious activist hacker group Anonymous, is that they used basic hacking “tools” available for free online.

One irate network security expert, Paul Ducklin of Sophos, even branded them “a bunch of schoolboys” who did something as intellectually challenging as “boasting in the playground about who's got the hottest imaginary girlfriend”.

 

Beware: A hacker group threatening to attack Malaysian government websites.

It sounds like sour grapes to me, laughs a local IT student and part-time hacker who only wants to be known as “W”.

“This is the democratisation power of technology; it is now easy for anyone to start hacking,” he says.

Technological advancement has inadvertently lowered the bar for hacking, concurs Nigel Tan, the Asia-South principal consultant at online security company Symantec Corporation (Malaysia).

“In the past you have to write the programme yourself. Now there are toolkits available online, and you can create your own malware easily using these toolkits,” he says.

Symantec believes that the availability of these kits are likely responsible for the increase of malicious attacks on the Internet.

As its recent Internet Security Threat Report showed, there were more than 286 million new cyber threats last year, compared with 120 million in 2008.

But you don't really need statistics to show how rampant cyber attacks are growing.

Since last December, the world has been bombarded by a flurry of hacking incidents the highest-profiled possibly being the hacking of PayPal, MasterCard, and Visa by Anonymous in support of WikiLeaks' Julian Assange.

In March, the database of marketing group Epsilon was rampaged and millions of email addresses were stolen. In April and May, Sony's PlayStation network was attacked, more than once, exposing some 77 million users' data.

And in the past three weeks, the security of the International Monetary Fund, CitiBank, the Spanish police, Google, the CIA and our own government websites was breached.

While many of the hackers prefer to remain in the dark corners of the Internet, there seems to be an increase of groups like Lulz and Anonymous who want to grab their 15 minutes of fame for their hacking activities.

New breed

In their claim to fame, Lulz went as far as to open up a hotline to get public suggestions for their next target. The hotline number is said to spell out LULZSEC and callers are reportedly greeted by a male voice heavily tinged with a French accent, which then apologetically explains that “Pierre Dubois and Francois Deluxe” are unavailable because they are “up to mischief on the Internet”.

The group is obviously relishing the limelight, publicly taunting the authorities, not even bothering to hide (or purposely exhibiting) their telephone area code.

Despite their pop cultural references they use the Guy Fawkes masks popularised by the comic book and movie V for Vendetta for their public image Anonymous is less playful.

The “hacktivist” group's activities are self-proclaimed as acts of political activism. In its attack on the Malaysian government websites, for instance, Anonymous announced that it was a protest against the Government's decision to block a few file-sharing websites, which they claim is an infringement of Malaysians' human rights.

The open stance aside, the real identities of these two groups are difficult to detect, as international security personnel who have been tasked to trace them are discovering.

Anonymous, which has been around for almost a decade, for one, is a loose group made up of an indefinite number of members.

As one admirer was quoted: “If you claim you are a member of Anonymous, then you are a member.”

There is a cautionary tale on the web of how one man, HBGary Federal chief executive officer Aaron Barr declared war on Anonymous, only to find himself at their mercy.

In February, Barr had claimed that he had successfully uncovered the real identity of the group's top honchos and announced that he would expose them. Before he knew it, his website was hacked and his database compromised. Important files were deleted while his phone system was crosswired.

Anonymous also took control of the company's email, leaking confidential business emails and dumping thousands of others. The whole attack cost HBGary Federal million-dollar losses and he retracted his claims.

As Anonymous announced later, the company was taken down by five of its members, which included a 16-year-old girl, another slap in Barr's already burning face.

A young Malaysian hacker who only wants to be known as Ahmad shares that many of his peers look up to Anonymous not only because of their political activism but also their technical prowess.

Says the IT student, “It is now easy to hack into different systems, but it is not easy to cover your tracks. Anonymous is master at it.”

Ahmad, however, concedes that he finds it strange that Anonymous has targeted Malaysia. “Sure, they have clearly stated their intentions, but I am still trying to wrap my mind around what it has to do with them. Why is Malaysia important to them?”

W believes that the web may be the final frontier for activism, as promoted by Anonymous and the growing breed of hactivists. “In the last few years, the Internet has been a useful tool for activists to get their message out and to mobilise supporters. Maybe now it is time to carry out their activism campaign in cyberspace itself.”

When asked if he had taken part in the recent Anonymous-initiated cyber attack on Malaysian government websites, Ahmad profusely denies any involvement, but he admits that he and his friend have hacked into other websites before.

“We like to challenge each other, as a test of our IT skills. Many of us do it for fun, just to see if we can get in. We don't steal the data or do any other harm. We have also hacked for classroom lessons' after being assigned tasks of hacking into a few websites to learn about cybersecurity,” he reveals.

For many young hackers, he says, many do it to get noticed by security firms.

“It is still a new area and there are not many professional' hackers those who work with security firms to hack into their systems after they install it to ensure that the systems are really secure. Then there are companies who hire hackers to test the security of new programmes. Our hacking activities are like our auditions or resumes,” he shares.

Symantec's Tan, however, alerts that while these so-called harmless “fun hacking” and hacktivism activities appear to be growing, a bigger number of hackers are doing it for money lots of it.

“I believe that in the last few years, there was a major shift in hacking those who are doing it for fame or fun have decreased. Now hackers are doing it for money. It is big business. Those who are making a big noise are the minorities; more prevalent are those who are involved in the underground economy activities. They are more quiet and targeted in their attacks and would rather keep below the radar so that they can continue their work longer,” he cautions.

Who do the anonymous hackers represent?

THE STAR SAYS

THE flap over the hacker attack of the Malaysian Government's portal has come and gone as swiftly as the click of a mouse.

However, the scale of the problem and the magnitude of the issues around it remain considerable.

To avoid unnecessary confusion, it is important to spell out the issues at stake before dwelling on the justness or otherwise of any particular motive.

In this specific instance, the hackers in the collective international identity of Anonymous had targeted the official websites of a sovereign nation.

Since it was not an attack on a political party or individual personalities but on an entire country's online representation, the hackers are culpable of anything from vandalism to subversion.

The attack was also not against any sinister policy of the Government but rather against its obligated move to block file-sharing websites that allow unlawful downloading of films and music.

Thus Anonymous is merely a group of selfish persons seeking to benefit personally from the work of professional artistes at the latter's expense.

Their motivation was therefore neither just nor defensible.

They are an accessory to illegal and unethical activities, if not also guilty of those activities themselves.

The fact that Malaysia became the first country in the region to block file-sharing websites does not detract from the rights and wrongs of the issues.

A country such as Malaysia has been besieged by various parties clamouring for better enforcement of laws against copyright piracy.

Whatever the record of such enforcement on the street, the clampdown on illegal file-sharing websites is certainly a plus especially when most infringements these days are being committed this way.

At the same time, for a government to resist Internet censorship despite the temptations is definitely commendable.

Attempts to liken Anonymous to Wikileaks are also grossly misplaced.

Wikileaks did not try to deface or destroy websites or to steal official secrets, but only to relay information of public interest to the public domain against the wishes of governments claiming to work for the public.

If hackers had any righteous values or morals, they would have applied their skills to attack websites spewing race hatred and child pornography, among others.

They fact that they do not, and that they have had to remain anonymous, speak volumes about their lack of scruples.

Seduction on the web

LIKE the spider luring the fly into his web, hackers are “seducing” their victims and luring them to their websites.

A major way for cybercriminals to obtain confidential data is by creating fake websites to host malicious software (malware) or to trick you into providing this information (phishing), says Nigel Tan, the Asia-South principal consultant at online security company Symantec Corporation (Malaysia).

Symantec's study shows that spikes in hacking and phishing occur during major events in the world, like the recent British Royal Wedding or the tsunami tragedy in Japan.

Hackers take advantage of these events to get people to click on links to their fake websites so that they can steal people's confidential information.

“It is human nature to get the latest update of an important global event or to see pictures of a tragedy. Hackers exploit this by sending emails with links for pictures or stories on the event or tragedy,” he says.

“When someone clicks on the link, they will be taken to the fake website where their confidentiality will be compromised or their computer may be affected.”

However, it remains a challenge to determine whether a website is genuine or fake other than the obvious spelling and grammatical errors (many fake websites are rush jobs) or shoddy infrastructure and programming.

Worse, sometimes you can go to a trusted website which has links to websites or advertising that may not be genuine and contain malware or phishing mechanisms.

Sometimes, all you have to do is to click the link and you will taken to a website that will affect your computer.

“We call this drive-by download,'” says Tan.

Password

Password is another easy prey for cyber criminals. With many websites out there now requiring users to register, most people are resorting to using personal information like date of birth or address as their password. Worse, people are increasingly using the same password for everything.

“It is understandable that people will not remember if they use different passwords, but the danger of using the same password for everything is that once a website or your email is compromised by a hacker, they will have access to everything else.”

Fortunately, it is not too difficult to strengthen your password, says Tan, advising people to use at least eight letters in a combination of capital letters, small letters, numbers and symbols.

If you use the same password, you can have variations on it by adding different letters or numbers or symbols, the significance of which should only be understood by you.

“Another effective safeguard is to segmentise your passwords by having one set of password for communication, another set for websites and another for banking and shopping online,” he elaborates.

Technology has also enabled hacking activities to be more targeted, so like those living in big houses in affluent areas who are targeted by burglars, those with bigger bank accounts or higher profiles, for instance, will be more susceptible to cyber attacks and need to be more vigilant on the Net.

Botnet alert

Another growing threat is hackers using our identity or computer to launch an attack.

Citing the recent gov.my hacking as an example, Tan says that while an individual may not be a direct focus target of most hackers, they may be a part of the attack without realising it.

The more common modus operandi is for hackers to use our personal information to get access to their target website. A method that is growing rampant is to control our computer to do their dirty work.

Explains Tan: “Now, hackers do not create malware to crash the computer, they want it to be alive. What they do is to plant malware called botnets (which are like sleeper spies) that will stay quietly in the background in your computer until they are activated by the Master to hack into official websites or to send spam emails that will phish information or crash a website.”

For example, if a hacker wants to spam people, they will just activate the malware they have planted in the different computers around the world and something like a pyramid scheme will be at work (the number of spams spread exponentially).

“The computer owner may not be doing anything but his or her computer will be hard at work. This trend is growing, especially now with broadband; so many people are connected 24 hours a day, even when they are asleep,” says Tan.

It is thus vital that people ensure that their computers are well-protected.

“One thing to remember is that although it is getting easier for cyber criminals and hackers to attack us, it is also getting easier for us to protect ourselves. The problem is that people just don't do it,” he notes, adding that it is also important to ensure that your software and programmes are up-to-date as older computers with outdated software are the most prone to attacks.

Ultimately, he stresses, it boils down to common sense.

“Typically, you won't walk into a dark alley or you won't give a stranger your IC number, so you should not do the same on the Net,” says Tan.

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Meet the good hackers

Social Media Isn’t Free to Entrepreneurs or Anyone

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 By Martin Zwilling

If you are an entrepreneur today, and not using social media to promote your business, you are missing out on a huge opportunity. But, contrary to what most people preach, it isn’t entirely free. Most social media outlets don’t require a subscription charge, but they certainly require an investment – in people, in technology, your reputation, and your time.

There are hundreds of consultants out there who will take your money for guidance in this area, but I recommend that you start with some free resources on the Internet, or one of the many recent books on this topic. One I just read, “How to Make Money with Social Media” by Jamie Turner and Reshma Shah, Ph.D., hits all the right points from my perspective:

• There are risks as well as benefits. As with many startup activities, you only have one chance for a great first impression. You can jump into social media with a poor brand definition, poorly focused content, unrealistic expectations of customer service, or be killed by malware or viruses.

• Assess social media relevance to your product or service. If your business is industrial B2B products, social media should be low on your list. Spend your time and money on other platforms. If you are selling to consumers, especially younger ones, your business won’t survive without an effective social media presence.

• Attracting key stakeholders requires sensitivity. For some customers and many investors, a heavy focus on social networks and viral marketing may be a negative, rather than a positive. A balance of conventional and social communication and marketing is always advised.

• Pick the right platform for your business. Within each of the platform categories defined above, there is a right one and a wrong one for your audience. For example, LinkedIn is attuned to business professionals, Facebook is dominated by the social and upwardly mobile crowd, and MySpace is for tweens and creative types.

• Communication and writing skills are required. Heavy texting experience is not a qualification for communicating via social media. In additional to strong journalistic writing and storytelling, you need business acumen, strategic thinking and planning, and the ability to do the right research. These days, video production is also a useful skill.

• Make social media an integrated part of an overall strategy. An integrated marketing strategy starts with an overall brand management strategy, delivered through online and offline communications, promotions, and customer engagement vehicles. Your Twitter YouTube messages better match your print advertising message.

• Find the right tools to analyze the ROI. Return-On-Investment metrics are not new, but the tools are different. Get familiar with current social media tools, such as Google Analytics, Omniture, and HootSuite analytics. Over time, put together the data you need to measure your progress on a weekly/monthly/yearly basis.

The key social media platforms today include communications (WordPress blogs, Twitter), collaboration (Wikipedia, StumbleUpon), and multimedia (YouTube, Flickr). In looking ahead, don’t forget the mobile platforms (iPhone, Android), and location-based services (Foursquare, Gowalla).
As with any resource or tool, you need to optimize your social media costs against a targeted return. That means first setting a strategy and plan for what you want to achieve, then executing the plan efficiently, and measuring results. It’s not free, but it’s an investment that you can’t afford not to make.

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Life’s an ocean of possibilities

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WHEN I was young, I had always thought that everything was possible. Perhaps, many may feel that such (blind) optimism is a characteristic of a child, and come adulthood we grow out of it after experiencing first hand many downfalls.

I am an adult now, and although I may not agree that everything is possible (I can’t possibly grow wings now and fly to the moon, right?), I do still very much believe that many great things are definitely possible.

Born to a father who was a factory worker, with a Form 5 education and a housewife mother, whose highest education was Form 3, perhaps not much would have been expected of the child.

Living and growing up with two other siblings in Kampung Ujung Batu in Butterworth, a kampong now notorious for gangsterism and illegal drug activities, what could society expect of its residents?

Against all these odds, for inexplicable reasons and turn of circumstances, after performing well in my primary school studies, I ended up in a premier school, St. George’s Girls’ School (SGGS).

Travelling daily to school on board the ferry and taking the bus for the first two years, and then carpooling for the subsequent years was nothing less than a great learning curve as well as wholesome fun.

SGGS taught me the importance of wholesome education by providing not only academic pursuits, but also character and moral formation, teaching me respect for individuals irrespective of race or creed.

At this stage, my father had already stopped working due to a defective heart valve and a major open heart surgery that sapped his strength and affected his performance.



Mother now took up a job in a sardine factory to help contribute to the monthly income of the family.
Our family of five survived comfortably on RM1,600 a month.

Never did I feel the pinch of not having enough. Perhaps, my parents never allowed us to feel that way.

Much to the surprise of my parents and some of my teachers, I did well in the SPM and, eventually, STPM, which led me to the University of Malaya to pursue a degree in Biomedical Science.

There, again to my surprise, I graduated with a distinction, and won the award for best oral presenter for my final year research project.

That was two years ago. Right now, I am a tutor in my faculty and have been working on research projects.

Graduating with a CGPA of 3.77 provided me with the opportunity to pursue my PhD directly without having to complete my Masters.

I was blessed with the opportunity to pursue my PhD and work with a world-reknown researcher in the University of Sydney, Prof Dr Nicholas Hunt, whose research work is in the field of malaria, and who is also credited with the groundbreaking find of a new human enzyme.

It’s been two years since I started applying for scholarships. I’ve been to a number of interviews that puzzlingly found me and my research project not worth funding.

Yet, I believe that great things are still possible. Not because of who I am but because of who God is in our midst. After almost two years, various applications and countless email, I was finally offered a scholarship by the University of Malaya to pursue my PhD last March.

Has the journey been smooth since then? Don’t even think about it. My approval is still stuck with the Ministry of Higher Education, although I am supposed to report in Sydney in July.

Have I given up? Of course not. Do I feel like giving up? Sometimes, but rarely so. Will I have to rush through my preparations? Without a doubt. Do I wish that the system was more efficient and assisted the students better? Of course.

But none of this stops me from trying every day to move forward to the things I dream for.
Opportunities come, but never easily or smoothly. Good things worth fighting for, are worth waiting for. I see where I come from and I see where I am today.

In all of it, I see a never-ending string of surprises intricately entwined in the journey of my life. Where we come from does not determine where we will go. What we don’t have does not decide what we will end up with.

Life is an ocean of possibilities. It moves forward with the vehicle of faith.

FELICITA FEDELIS JUSOF,
Butterworth.

Tackling cyber piracy needs careful planning; Hackers mainly locals

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Friday Reflections - By B.K. Sidhu

So much has been said and written about the blocking of sites and hacking the past few days.
But one phrase that keeps popping up is “freedom of information.'' The blocking of sites is seen as going against freedom of information even though it is part of the fight against piracy.

Over the past few days some businessmen in the country have received calls from their counterparts abroad asking if Malaysia was indeed coming on strong on censorship of the Internet.

Internet has become such a powerful tool for many people, be it for work, education, play and entertainment. Sending the wrong message can of course trigger a lot of thoughts of safety to stability especially when we as a country need foreign direct investments.

The question here is not about what the Domestic Ministry or Malaysian Communications & Multimedia Commission (MCMC) can or cannot do. It is about why they blocked the sites and why those particular sites.

When it is done without proper explanation, it only creates mayhem and doubts in people's minds. One must remember that a lot of people the world over download stuff for free and anyone who has a broadband connection can assume that free downloads is a given because he is paying for the connection.

Then the question of enforcement comes to play. If you want to fight piracy on the web then fight it on the streets too, why allow pirated DVDs to be sold but sites are blocked.

If there are roadblocks then there should be on both ends or else the question of who we are protecting - the copyright holders or someone else - will arise.

To recap - the telecoms industry regulator, MCMC, ordered ISPs to block 10 file sharing sites at the request of the Domestic Ministry in the name of fighting piracy. These sites are used for file sharing to download music, songs, games, homework, and to do business.

One ISP did as it was told by the regulator but little did they know that they would get so much flak for that action. To explain, it posted the MCMC letter. This letter was meant to be confidential to the ISPs but it landed on the net and was circulated widely.

It did not take much time for the cyber community to retaliate over the blocking of sites and to vent their frustrations they lambasted the Government via the net. To them it was a privacy intrusion and against the MSC Malaysia Bill of Guarantees which states that the Government will not censor the Internet.

So angry were they that a Facebook account - “1M Malaysians Don't Want Block File Sharing Websites'' - was created for people to air their grouses. “What they did was akin to using a mega bomb to kill one terrorist,'' someone said of the blocking of the 10 sites.

The sites were blocked because there was an element of pirated content and according to some experts, this is a lucrative business especially for certain parties as they host the free content but some do charge VPN services to “cloak'' the content.

Ironically, the IP addresses of those sites were from the same place and 40% of IP transit traffic out of Malaysia is said to land there and the blocking action could have hurt someone's rice bowl.

The whole blocking episode and all the grouses caught the eye of hackers who threatened to hack government sites in retaliation.

They did so on Wednesday night and 41 sites were compromised. This is not the first block or hack, and it would not be last in the Internet era. Internet has both good and bad sides. It is up to the policy makers to take heed of what the users want; don't brush them aside as social media has somewhat become an avenue for people to air their grouses.

Today they can block 10, 20 or even 30 sites, but there will be an equal number of proxy sites which will offer free downloads. So while an explanation is needed for the blocking of sites, there also is a need to take Internet users on an educational journey to explain what is legal and illegal, what is piracy and what is downloadable, what is cyber security and how to safeguard.

One cannot assume everyone knows all that.Also, not many are willing to pay for content because there is free content out there.

Without a well thought out plan on how to tackle piracy, any effort will be futile and users will be left frustrated.

Deputy news editor B.K. Sidhu is glued to The World Is Flat.

90% of hackers attacking govt, private websites are locals

PUTRAJAYA: Ninety per cent of the hackers who attacked 200 government and private websites in the past four days were locals, said Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili on Friday.

He said the police and the relevant agencies were now in the process of identifying them. "We have come to know that most of the hackers were locals, not from, abroad," he told a press conference here.

He said this when asked to comment on the group calling itself 'Anonymous', which claimed to be based abroad and threatened the attack the government's official portal, www.malaysia.gov.my.

Maximus said that as the head of the ministry that promoted the safe use of the Internet and handled the infrastructure that dealt with cyber security, he appealed to Malaysians to use the Internet professionally for education and the development of the country.

"Because you cannot go very far when you want to do criminal activities within cyberspace itself," he added.

Asked whether the Cabinet had made any decision to form a special task force to solve this problem, he said he could not confirm that yet. - Bernama

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Malaysia's PAS makes cosmetic changes to Islamic State, a Mission Impossible

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ANALYSIS By BARADAN KUPPUSAMY 

Recent developments in PAS are aimed at winning support from non-Muslims but the party's ultimate Islamic agenda still remains.

The latest changes in PAS are therefore in-keeping with its long-term goals - to win acceptance from Middle Malaysia and to eventually Islamise the country.

SOMETHING has happened to PAS in the space of a short time and it has to do with transforming itself for a general election that is widely expected by late this year or early 2012.

First, Datuk Abdul Hadi Awang, speaking at the party's 57th Muktamar, dropped the sacred goal of the party since its founding 60 years ago the Islamic state concept.

It would instead pursue a welfare state. Abdul Hadi in announcing PAS' new direction said that in Islam, an Islamic state and a welfare state were one and the same.

In the blink of an eye, the party had dropped the reason for its existence and conceded to all the non-Muslims in the country, who had feared the party's long term goals, that it is no longer pursuing an Islamic state.

It has also given the DAP, which had long opposed an Islamic state, an avenue to argue to the non-Muslims that PAS is no longer to be feared.

DAP chairman Karpal Singh can sleep easy now that the party has dropped the Islamic state agenda. He does not have to say “over my dead body” to defend a secular state, as what Malaysia is.

To top it all, moderate Mohamed Sabu managed to win the deputy president's post although by just 20 votes.

The ulama faction in PAS had tried very hard to stop the popular Pakatan Rakyat grassroots leader by putting up an ulama candidate Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man but Mat Sabu still managed to defeat him and another candidate, Nasharuddin Mat Isa, who had enjoyed incumbency.

Mat Sabu's defeat of his opponents lends credence to the new image of the party, as progressive and acceptable by all and led by non-ulamas and professionals.

Also winning as vice-president were Datuk Husam Musa, the Kelantan state exco member and incumbents Salahuddin Ayob and Mahfuz Omar.

All of these lends credence to the theme that the ulamas are in retreat and that the professional and non-ulama group is ascendant.

Mat Sabu also wasted no time and in the first week of his victory granted an interview to Malaysiakini in which he ruffled the ulama's features and stated that Kelantan and Kedah should emulate Penang and urged the PAS rank and file to fight corruption and abuse of authority.

In the series of articles, he also sought to rewrite the seat allocation formula between PKR, DAP and PAS in which DAP contests the Chinese majority seats, PAS the Malay majority and PKR in the mixed seats.

By saying he would like to stand in Bukit Bintang, a Chinese majority seat that the DAP holds through Fong Kui Lun, Mat Sabu who lost in Kepala Batas (1982), Kuala Kedah (2004) and Kuala Terengganu (2008) is giving notice of PAS' intention not to accept the seat allocation rules.

Then on Saturday the party made another change that is sure to bring smiles to the DAP and the non-Malays it dropped Datuk Dr Hassan Ali as the PAS commissioner for Selangor, replacing him with Dr Abdul Rani Osman.

Dr Hassan had been at loggerheads with the DAP's Ronnie Liu over the sale of alcoholic drinks in Malay-majority areas in Shah Alam. He had wanted 7-Eleven stores to stop the sale of beer, a move strongly opposed by the DAP.

Another person also dropped was the state's ulama wing chief Datuk Harun Taib, whose post has been taken over by Abdul Wahid Endut.

Abdul Hadi also announced that a book would be published on the welfare state and he specifically said the DAP was agreeable to the new concept the party was pursuing.

All these changes from dropping the Islamic state agenda, showing the door to Dr Hassan and allowing Mat Sabu to pontificate show that the moderate image of the party is actively advertised as opposed to the intolerant ulama image known to all.

The speed of changes in PAS has even taken Umno leaders by surprise with one leader urging PAS to drop “Islam” from its name and others slamming the party for its decision to drop the Islamic state label in favour of the welfare state and for sacking Dr Hassan.

While the changes would help PAS better prepare for the next general election to win non-Malay votes, the party has not abandoned any of its core principles.

The Islamic state, defending the sanctity of Islam, making Islam the guide to politics and statehood and upholding Islam in all fields (including governance and administration, economics, society, learning and education) these are all very much the party's core aims and are in the party's constitution.

What PAS has achieved in a short space of time are really cosmetic changes to better prepare for the next general election by capturing the moderate votes of all races the Middle Malaysia of Malays, Chinese and Indian and others who had supported Barisan Nasional.

PAS is aware that the next step in the political transformation of the country is acceptance of the party by “Middle Malaysia” if it is to expand on its Islamic agenda.

It must pursue this goal in a gradual manner to win acceptance from “Middle Malaysia”.

The fact that a party based on religion would eventually lean towards religious dogma to rule because of the make-up of its members thus fades from the voters' minds.

The latest changes in PAS are therefore in keeping with its long-term goals to win acceptance from Middle Malaysia and to eventually Islamise the country.

Mission impossible

COMMENT By CHANDRA MUZAFFAR

The quest for an Islamic State has been so fundamental to PAS' struggle all these years and yet, there is no Islamic State in the Quran.

PAS President Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang has just discovered that there is no “Islamic State” in the Quran.

And yet since its inception in 1951, PAS has espoused the cause of an Islamic State. It is the ideological foundation of the party. On a number of occasions, especially since 1982, when the party leadership proclaimed “the rule of the ulama”, the goal of an Islamic State has been bandied about to show the people that it is PAS that occupies the moral high ground compared to Umno which PAS often condemns as a secular party.

If the quest for an Islamic State has been so fundamental to PAS' struggle all these years, is Hadi's recent discovery an open admission that the party was wrong in its understanding and interpretation of the Quran?
Is Hadi and also Kelantan Mentri Besar Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz, PAS' spiritual adviser guilty of misleading Muslims and non-Muslims alike, perhaps unwittingly?

It is, of course, true that there is no Islamic State in the Quran if by that, one means a description and explanation of how power and authority are derived, organised, exercised and relinquished in the religion; for these are some of the essential attributes of a state.

What the Quran offers is guidance in relation to the values and principles that are vital for good governance. It is not just in relation to governance or welfare which PAS now enunciates as its mission that the Quran is a book of guidance. It embodies universal values and principles pertinent to all aspects of human life and death.

The idea of an Islamic state emerged to a large extent as a reaction of sorts to Western colonialism that had conquered most Muslim countries by the beginning of the 20th century. It was reinforced by the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1923.

Various concepts of an Islamic State were subsequently popularised through the writings of men like Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Ikhwan-ul-Muslimin (the Muslim Brotherhood), and Sayyid Qutb, one of its leading ideologues, both Egyptians, and Abul Ala Maududi, the founder of the Jamaat Islami in Pakistan.

There was also a rigid, puritanical version of the Islamic State associated with the teachings of an 18th century preacher, Muhammad ibn Abd-al Wahhab, that became the ideological basis of Saudi Arabia.

Much later, in 1979, a Shia-oriented Islamic state was established, the product of a people's revolution in Iran.

However different the theories and practices associated with the Islamic State project from Afghanistan under the Taliban to Saudi Arabia to Sudan to Iran there are certain broad similarities that seem to define both the idea and its implementation.

Invariably, the State determines how Islam should be interpreted, understood and practised. Other approaches to the religion are sidelined and often suppressed. This leads to religious-cum-political authoritarianism which, in almost every Islamic state, has resulted in the stifling of legitimate dissent and the incarceration of dissenters.

Given this perspective on state power, it is not surprising that the implementation of syariah in every instance has bestowed primacy upon hudud, the Islamic criminal code. It is this emphasis that has created a 2P punish and prohibit culture in those societies that claim to be Islamic. In a genuine Islamic ethos, it is the 2E educate and enlighten approach that would prevail.

While the roles prescribed for the non-Muslim citizenry are often observed, it is also true that their subordinate status is a norm in these so-called Islamic states. Similarly, concessions may be made to women in the public sphere but the privileging of the male is both legally sanctioned and socially legitimised.

In all Islamic states, there is a preoccupation with protecting and perpetuating a religiously moulded popular culture which tends to negate the finer attributes of individual creativity. This is partly because preserving Islamic identity as defined by the elite is so central to the Islamic State project.

To a greater or lesser degree, PAS' outlook and orientation mirror these characteristics associated with the Islamic State project. It may have dropped the label but the content remains.

Has PAS, like the Islamic reform movements in Indonesia and Turkey, gone beyond hudud and fiqh (jurisprudence) to articulate values and principles that distinguish the contextual from the universal in text and tradition? Has the party like the Nahda (Renaissance Party) in Tunisia evolved a theory of shared citizenship rooted in the Quranic vision of a common humanity that transcends religious affiliation? Why has PAS not done what the Ikhwan-ul-Muslimin in Egypt did recently? The new party it has established in preparation for the coming national election, the Freedom and Justice Party, has not only allowed Christians to be full and equal members but has also appointed a Christian as the party's vice-president.

Though a PAS leader, the late Zuikifli Muhammad, first raised the question of allowing non-Muslims to become associate members of the party in the early 1960s, PAS has made no move in that direction. All that it has done is to establish a non-Muslim supporters club which has no membership rights!

This is why it is wrong to describe PAS, in the wake of its recent election, as a party which is now spearheaded by “reformers” and “progressives”. While there are some individuals who are reform-minded in the party hierarchy, PAS as a whole remains a hudud-oriented, Islamic State-inclined party.

What makes the present leadership different from its predecessors is the dominance of individuals who are willing to forge tactical alliances and engage in strategic manoeuvres to attain power to capture Putrajaya even if it means setting aside for the time being their decades' old dream of establishing an Islamic State.

Seizing power through the ballot box is their primary goal. This is why PAS is prepared to adjust to the agendas of its Pakatan Rakyat partners the DAP and PKR in order to maximise non-Muslim/non-Malay support in the coming general election. Its motto is simple: power first, dogma afterwards.

Is there any wonder that the PAS president has now come to the realisation that there is no Islamic State in the Quran?

Dr Chandra Muzaffar is a political scientist who has written extensively on Muslim societies since the late 1970s. His latest book is titled Muslims Today: Changes Within; Challenges Without' (Islamabad: Iqbal Institute, International Islamic University, 2011).

Al-Qaeda names Zawahiri to succeed Osama

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Egyptian surgeon Ayman al-Zawahiri has been named by al-Qaeda to succeed slain leader Osama bin Laden and vowed no let-up in its deadly "jihad" against arch-foes the United States and Israel.

"The general command of al-Qaeda announces, after consultations, the appointment of Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri as head of the group," the jihadist network said in a statement posted on an Islamist website on Thursday.

Zawahiri, the group's long-time number two, succeeds bin Laden who was killed by US commandos in a May 2 raid in Pakistan.



The statement said that under Zawahiri's leadership al-Qaeda would relentlessly pursue its "jihad" (holy war) against the United States and Israel.

"We seek with the aid of God to call for the religion of truth and incite our nation to fight ... by carrying out jihad against the apostate invaders ... with their head being crusader America and its servant Israel, and whoever supports them," said the statement.

The fight would continue "until all invading armies leave the land of Islam."

The extremist network affirmed that it would not "recognise any legitimacy of the so-called state of Israel."

"We will not accept or adhere to any agreement or accord that recognises it (Israel) or that robs a mile from Palestine, whether it is the United Nations controlled by top criminals or any other organisation."

Al-Qaeda also voiced its "support (to) the uprisings of our oppressed Muslim people against the corrupt and tyrant leaders who have made our nation suffer in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya Yemen, Syria and Morocco."

A wave of revolts that have rocked the Middle East and North Africa since December have succeeded in toppling autocrats in Egypt and Tunisia while others, such as Libya's Moamar Gaddafi and Syria's Bashar al-Assad are still battling uprisings in their countries.

Al-Qaeda urged those involved in the uprisings to continue their "struggle until the fall of all corrupt regimes that the West has forced onto our countries."

The extremist Sunni group made no mention of the Shi'ite-led uprising in the Gulf kingdom of Bahrain, crushed in mid-March by the ruling Western-allied Sunni minority which was backed by joint Gulf Arab forces.

In the last part of the statement however, the network reminds that "our religion has forbidden oppression, against Muslims and non-Muslims, against friend and foe."

"Therefore, we assure every oppressed human in this world - most of whom are the victims of Western and American crimes - that our religion is that of justice and equality," it said.

Like his slain Saudi-born co-conspirator, the 59-year-old Zawahiri has been in hiding since the United States declared its war on terror after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Zawahiri, now Washington's most wanted man, was jailed for three years in Egypt for militancy and was implicated in the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981, and a 1997 massacre of tourists in Luxor.

Facing a death sentence, he left Egypt in the mid-1980s initially for Saudi Arabia, but soon headed for Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar where the resistance to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan was based, and then to Afghanistan, where he joined forces with bin Laden.

Zawahiri, gifted with brains but bereft of bin Laden's potent charisma, has long been seen as the mastermind behind the global terror franchise.

From hiding, he has issued video missives calling for war on the West. The most recent was a filmed eulogy to bin Laden, vowing to pursue jihad in a tape reported by the SITE Intelligence Group on June 8.

It was a message of loyalty to bin Laden, whom analysts believe alone had the charisma capable of uniting an increasingly disparate group divided between Egyptians and non-Egyptian Arabs.

The eulogy came nearly a month after a Saudi newspaper reported on May 5 that as the struggle for power simmered within the network, Zawahiri led US troops to bin Laden through his courier.

Al-Watan newspaper, quoting an unnamed "regional source," had said the top two al-Qaeda men had differences and that the courier was a Pakistani national who knew he was being followed by the US military but disguised the fact.

With the return of an Egyptian figure in al-Qaeda, Saif al-Adel, last autumn from Iran, the Egyptian faction had hatched a plan to dispose of Saudi-born bin Laden, according to Al-Watan.

It said Zawahiri's faction had persuaded bin Laden to leave tribal areas along the Afghan-Pakistan border and take shelter instead in Abbottabad near Islamabad where he was finally unearthed and shot dead by elite US Navy SEALs.

US-Pakistani relations have soured following the raid amid mounting allegations that bin Laden evaded capture for years thanks to the complicity or incompetence of Pakistan's authorities.

But Pakistan's civilian government has angrily dismissed the allegations and its powerful military has warned of unspecified reprisals if another unilateral US raid were to occur.

© 2011 AFP
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Poor services from JMBs, Unlicensed Property Managers & Lucrative Trade!

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A DEPUTY minister agreed that the services of a number of joint management bodies (JMBs) of flats, condominiums and apartments are unsatisfactory.

“The residents who failed to pay are those who intentionally refused to pay. “But I don’t blame them as some of the services by the JMBs are not good.

“There have been complaints about this,” Deputy Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Lajim Ukin said in reply to Teo Nie Ching (DAP-Serdang).

Lajim pointed out that 10,640 complaints against the JMBs were received by the ministry in 2009 while 7,174 complaints were lodged from January to June 31 2010.

“We have forwarded the complaints to the respective JMBs for further action,” he added.

Lajim added 235 residents have been brought to court for failing to pay their dues to the JMBs, and they are now waiting for the decisions.

Earlier, Lajim said the Government had sufficient provisions allowing the JMBs and management committees to collect overdue maintenance payments.

“This is provided under Section 32 and 33 of the Building and Common Property (Maintenance and Management) Act 2007,” he said.

He said Section 32 provides the JMBs with the power to collect overdue maintenance charges by issuing a notice to the unit owners.

“If the unit owner does not pay within 14 days from the day the notice was issued, the JMB can take legal action against the resident,” he added.

Laim said Section 33 allowed the JMB to seek assistance from the Commissioner of Buildings to issue payment notices and also seize the property of unit owners who failed to settle their bills.

“The property seized from errant unit owners may be auctioned via public auction to cover the outstanding arrears,” he added.
  
One-sided story against JMBs

I REFER to the report “ Poor Services from JMBs” in which the Deputy Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Lajim Ukin said over 10,000 complaints were made against joint management bodies last year.

He only gave a partial and one-sided story as there are many success stories of JMBs and I am not sure if Lajim is aware and has been told about them?

On the other hand, one may ask how many complaints have been lodged with the Commissioner of Buildings (COB) by the JMBs and what action has been taken by the COB?

The Building and Common Property (Maintenance and Management) Act 663 was enacted in April 2007 and yet until today, many developers have not applied for the strata titles, and some continue to manage their estates. Does Lajim know how many of such cases? Has the Government taken any action against these developers?

Many JMBs fail simply because they do not get any assistance from the COBs. The crux of the whole matter is lack of law enforcement by the authorities.

MELVIN TAN,
Penang.

JMB_unlicensed Property Managers & Lucrative Trade

by Lee Siew Lian, New Sunday Times

Pitfalls await unwary apartment owners now that they are starting to manage their own common properties, writes LEE SIEW LIAN

APARTMENT owners are trapped in the middle of a roiling dispute over who should control the lucrative business of property management.

With an estimated RM600 million in annual fees at stake, the long-standing battle has left owners in a bind over who to appoint to help run and maintain their communal properties once they take over from developers.

While the two groups of property players slug it out, state governments are dithering over who to appoint as building commissioners, the officials who should be best placed to decide on the issue.

This leaves the country's 1.2 million apartment owners with little guidance over what to do and few safety nets to catch them if they make a mistake.

Because regulation of this industry is inadequate and dotted with loopholes, apartment owners are now exposed to major risks, including financial disaster.

It's a daunting and confusing task," says Veronica Gan, president of the Bangsar Heights Residents Association, which will soon form their own management corporation.

"What we need are some guidelines on the best practices to adopt or how to negotiate. The only material we have is from the House Buyers Association, but it's not really enough."

"There are many pitfalls during this transition period," says Chang Kim Loong, honorary secretary-general of the national HBA, "But no one's looking out for the consumers.

Thousands of joint management bodies (JMBs) were supposed to have been set up this year, giving owners of flats, apartments and condominiums a say, together with developers, in how subdivided properties are run.

JMBs are interim bodies for the years before strata titles are issued and owners' management corporations (MCs) set up to take over from developers.

One of their biggest responsibilities will be to appoint someone to manage their common property, from the grounds and lifts to corridor lighting and swimming pools.

Almost overnight, a huge and lucrative industry has opened up.

"If unit owners paid an average of RM50 in monthly maintenance charges, it would mean RM50 million a month, RM600 million a year," says Kumar Tharmalingam, secretary-general of the International Real Estate Federation(Fiabci), in Asia Pacific.

The Board of Valuers, a statutory regulator, says owners should appoint only property managers that it has registered. But a lobby group, the VAEA Joint Action Group, insists that there is no such restriction.

The VAEA refers to the Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents Act 1981, the statute that governs the board.

The Joint Action Group has players from different industries as members, ranging from the Real Estate and Housing Developers Association (Rehda) to apartment management corporations and the Associated Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCCIM). Fiabci Malaysia, which Tharmalingam used to head, is also part of the group.

The group reads the law differently and asserts that by definition under two other Acts, the owner bodies and corporations escape the effects of the Valuers Act.

They claim the two Acts -- the Strata Titles Act 1985 and the Building and Common Property (Maintenance and Management) Act 2007 -- allow owners' committees to appoint what they call managing agents.

"Anyone with the right experience and ability can be a managing agent. JMBs and MCs can appoint any one they see fit to manage their properties," says Datuk Teo Chiang Kok, See Hoy Chan director.

Their problem with the Valuers Act is that it effectively allows only registered valuers to become property managers. They say this makes the property management industry a monopoly for just a few hundred registered valuers.

"But it is the free market that should decide," Teo says.

Board of Valuers president Datuk Abdullah Thalith Md Thani says anyone involved in managing and maintainingproperty should be properly regulated and well-qualified."

I want to open up registration to anyone who is interested. It's a misunderstanding.

He says he had proposed to amend the Valuers Act, but intense resistance from developers and other property players forced him to drop the matter. Thalith is president by virtue of his post of director-general of the Valuation Department under the Ministry of Finance.

Thalith agrees with most industry players that the Act's provisions for regulating property managers are inadequate, and enforcement patchy.

But he worries that those who appoint the so-called managing agents could be courting financial disaster arising from mistakes, negligence and dishonesty. Those registered under the Act would be required to obtain professional indemnity insurance, he points out.

The HBA, a voluntary organisation which represents home owners, agrees owners are exposed even if these unregistered managing agents had adequate indemnity insurance.

Chang, who is honorary secretary, argues that the insurer could repudiate liability and refuse to pay up since the managing agent is not a legitimate property manager registered with the Board of Valuers.

Indeed, the same could happen to owner bodies themselves, the JMBs and MCs, he says.

"The relevant statutory provisions do include prosecutions and the right to sue, but this is hardly any protection at all to owners.

There are too few preventive measures." The HBA favours tighter regulation and compulsory licensing of property managers. "Lives and properties are entrusted to their care, control and management," Chang says.

He also urges the board to grant amnesty to competent but unregistered property managers, to encourage themto register.

"It's similar to the drive that was extended to unlicensed real estate agents some years ago."

Fiabci's Tharmalingam agrees, saying the board has, by inaction, allowed unlicensed property managers to flourish for 20 years: "They now have the right to exist.

A valuer by profession, he goes even further to say the JMBs and MCs should also be registered. Registering these owner bodies would offer a safety net to individual unit owners, he explains: "Those who serve in the (executive) committees have a responsibility for the (financial) performance of the JMBs and MCs. If the board is prepared to regulate property managers, then it should take responsibility for the JMBs and MCs too."

The problem is the laws governing stratified properties have been drafted and amended piecemeal, leaving loopholes that expose apartment owners, Tharmalingam claims.

"It's a solvable problem, but cooler heads must prevail.

KUALA LUMPUR: At least once a month, the lifts stop working at the high-rise apartment block where Liew See Lanlives. "There is little we can do as the developer is the only one with the power over the management company," she said.

Soon, though, the housewife and other owners of Bukit Pandan Two condominiums will be able to have a big say in how the property is run.

Sometime this month, the residents association she leads will meet to form a collective body that will take over running of the property.

All she needs is between eight and 12 owners, and up to two representatives from the developer, to form what is called the joint management body (JMB).

This JMB will maintain the common property, decide how much to charge for maintenance and collect the charges. It also can sue and be sued.

More importantly, it will be able to seize the units of owners who dont pay their maintenance fees, to be auctioned off to settle what is owed.

This major change in the laws regulating high-rise residential buildings came in April, with the the Building and Common Property (Maintenance and Management) Act 2007.

These provisions will affect about 500,000 strata-titled units across the country and their two million occupants, as well as millions of ringgit in sinking funds and collected monies.

Until April this year, apartment owners spent years  and sometimes decades waiting for developers to convert master titles into individual strata titles.

In that period, developers controlled the upkeep of the property, often appointing subsidiaries or business associates to the role of management company.

The law gave little recourse to frustrated owners, many of whom endured poor service from management companies.

Problems range from dirty common toilets to leaking roofs and poor lighting in stairwells. Now the JMB will manage the property until the permanent management body is formed after full conversion of the master title.

The relationship between owners and management used to be a no-man land. This new law will help to regulate that area," said Chang Kim Loong, secretary-general of the National House Buyers Association.

An estimated 70 per cent of Malaysia stratified residential properties are badly managed, forcing owners and occupants to put up with deplorable conditions, he said.

Then again, developers and management companies, too, had problems.  Difficulty in collecting maintenance charges was top of the list and they are barred from cutting off the water supply or denying entry as an enforcement measure. Now, owners will share these headaches, too. 

With the new law, developers of new properties must form the JMB within a year of giving vacant possession.

And all developers of existing apartment properties must form the JMB before April 12 next year. 

So far, three apartment properties have formed and registered their JMBs. Two are in Kuala Lumpur and one in  Petaling Jaya.

One of them is the Sri Murni condominium off Jalan Duta here.  Its developer, IGB Corporation Bhd, held a meeting last month to elect 12 owners to the committee.