body snatchers at it again
“hidup susah, mati susah, tanam pun susah.”
that phrase did not came from me but came from a malay journalist (or was it a malay SB?).
he said this while we were at the late mohan singh’s house, waiting for his body to be home for the prayers ritual.
you would have read about the mohan singh’s case yesterday in malaysiakini, the malaysian insider (here and here) and the nut graph.
how come i was there? well, it was part of our malaysiakini’s advanced training on citizen/video journalism. during the 6 days that we were there, if there was a hot news coming in or a press conference, a few of us will be assigned to tag along with malaysiakini’s journalists to cover the news/press conference. as the news of mohan singh came out yesterday, i, together with trainees jimmy and shan were selected to tag along with the journalists.
(note: above photos taken by me. more photos also taken by me after you click on ‘read the rest of the entry’).
we went with malaysiakini’s journalists, tarani and muda (sorry not sure of the spelling of his name). we were there about 12 noon. twhen we arrived, there were 4 journalists from BERNAMA there. the family did not allowed us to enter the house nor to speak to us, so we waited outside the house. luckily there is a tree shade outside the house where we can also sat down. while we were waiting, tarani recieved update from her contact at the sungai buluh hospital where the body of mohan singh was. we waited till 3.00pm and still no news of the body arriving, so some of us decided to go for lunch. coming back from lunch, we saw 4 SB men talking to tarani! they were very friendly with tarani and later on with us too. they left after a while, while we continue waiting. finally, we got update that the body will leave the hospital at 5.00pm, so we waited. while we were waiting, one of the family member did talked to us unofficially and asked not to be quoted so i shall not revealed what had been said.
the body arrived at about 6.00pm in the MAIS (selangor islamic council) van jenazah, accompanied by two police petrol cars. quickly took photos here and there and you can see them here. jimmy and shan had taken video and the video will be up on malaysiakini soon.
ok here is my own personal opinion of the mohan singh issue. i guess judging by the heading i put up alone, you’ll know how i feel. i know this is kind of a sensitive issue and what i said, some people might not be happy but oh well, as i said, it’s my own opinion… everyone entittled to their own opinion (and i’m having mine on my own blog ok).
well, just like the other similiar ‘conversion-without-family-knowledge-then-when-dead- religious-officers-come-to-snatch the-body’ cases, my opinion stands the same. the deceased may converted without the family knowledge but 1) how the conversion was carried out remained questionable, 2) the deceased had revert back to his/her original religion and had been living and worshipping his/her own religion for years., 3) how come if someone converted, the islamic officers couldn’t care less about her/him UNTIL s/he died, the islamaic officers appeared to take her/his body. (as a comment in the malaysian inisder said “islamic officers are more concerned over a dead onverted muslim than a living converted muslim.”)
if you read about mohan singh’s case, you would have noticed that the family said he had been a practising sikh at the time of his death. he was said to convert in 1992… 16 years ago and yet the family did had no idea about it at all (well since his family said he had been living the life of a sikh all the years). you can imagine how devastated the family were when all of a sudden, after his death (in may) suddenly they were told he was a muslim and the MAIS wanted his body for islamic burial. i feel for the family.
ok it’s getting late now (after 2.00am!) and i have yet to upload the photos so i will end here with two comments from the malaysian insider, which i wholly agree to.
written by Tuhan Sakti Dari Dunia Di Atas Bumi, July 06, 2009
Dah mula lah angkara merampas mayat dari kerabat keluarga.
Macam mana bukan Muslim nak hormat agama Islam kalau begini kuku besi sikap orang yg mempraktikkan Islam?
Mana kelembutan Islam? Setelah mati dan roh pun dah lama pergi, masihkah lagi fanatik agama mahu bertengkar mengenai mayat?—written by zackeye, July 06, 2009
getting the coffin out to bring into the house.
going into the house.
you can see here some of the family members welcoming the late mohan.
rajesh kumar, the family lawyer.
after prayers ended, carrying out the coffin to the van.
kk
What we often hear is that after deaths occur, the authorities start to go to court to take away the body. It is alright if the dead Muslim is a practising Muslim but what if the person has already left Islam. This will be a mockery of the system. In Islam, part of the zakat is allowed to help new Muslims. So use the money as prescribed by the religion rather that building expensive and elaborate mosques which could even be deemed as wasteful. Wastefulness is the work of syaitan.