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The confused public is in dire need of guidance from those with knowledge and understanding of Islam.

COMMENT

by Yusri Jamaluddin

The clash between liberal and Islamist ideologies is imminent in Malaysia. The liberals, who call themselves moderates, are on a sudden attacking spree, each amplifying the voice of the other. Their voices seem loud, but they are low in number and they constantly manipulate public perception through duplication of organizations with the same inherent agenda and political interests.

After losing in parliamentary elections, they seek to reclaim the nation with a barrage of campaigns under the umbrella of civil society institutions. In reality, their numbers are nothing compared to the silent majority. Unfortunately, the problem with the majority is that they are living in a cave of wealth and comfort, refusing to speak up to tell the world that our country is just fine without secular and liberal ideologies.

The Malaysian public is now in a confused state. Whom should the people trust the moderates, who keep painting a gruesome and bloody picture of a Malaysia ruled by militant extremists, or the Islamists, who constantly remind the nation to stay true to its identity in order to maintain peace and stability while issuing stern warnings to those who fail to do so?

ISMA has long warned of the existence of a group of people trying to secularize Malaysia. At the same time, ISMA calls for Malaysians to stay away from extremist militant groups. Many have failed to heed the warnings against secularism. Perhaps they want to wait until the day comes when they lose the religious identity that Malaysia has inherited.

It doesnt take a rocket scientist to understand that Malaysia is not a secular state and should never be treated as one. It is a myth that a secular state will ever recognize a religion to be the religion of the federation. After all, the principle concept of a secular state is that it separates religion from the affairs of the state. The fact that the constitution mentions liberty does not make it liberal either.

National identity

In light of recent events, we must ask ourselves a simple question: should a country mold itself to suit the different desires and inclinations of minority individuals, or should the people adapt to the national identity of this country, which stands on the principles that Islam is the religion of the Federation, Bahasa Melayu is the national language, the rights and privileges of the Malays and Bumiputeras are to be protected, the position of the monarchs is to be protected and the citizenship of other races is to be protected according to the social contract?

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Liberals disguised as moderates

The Liberals are willing to fork over an additional $86 million to prove theres life on MaRS.

One day after auditor general Bonnie Lysyk upbraided Premier Kathleen Wynnes government for a high-risk $224-million bailout loan to MaRS, the Grits are doubling down on the medical and related sciences hub.

This is not a failed project, said Michael Nobrega, former CEO of the OMERS pension plan and chair of the Ontario Centre of Excellence, who co-chaired an expert panel on the future of the 20-storey tower at the corner of College Street and University Avenue across from Queens Park.

This is a project that has not been completed, Nobrega said Wednesday after recommending the government lend MaRS up to $86 million more to do upgrades that will make it easier to lease.

MaRS is only 31 per cent occupied, meaning it would not be worth immediately selling in order to recoup the provinces investment.

The new repayable line of credit is atop the $309 million already committed to MaRS, which includes the controversial $224-million loan in 2011, $65 million to buy out the buildings U.S. developer, Alexandria Real Estate (ARE), $4 million in debt-service payments, and $16 million used to buy the land.

In total, the Liberals will have sunk $395 million into the MaRS project.

Infrastructure Minister Brad Duguid conceded that this project had some significant difficulties along the way.

This is the best path forward. It will ensure that the governments loan is fully repaid with interest while also continuing our support for Ontarios innovation economy, Duguid said at an announcement attended by scores of MaRS employees.

Many people believe that the easiest ways out of the challenges we faced would be to sell the building outright and walk away from this project.

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Liberals ready to float MaRS an additional $86 million loan

WASHINGTON Exposed to the light of day, a year-end, $1.1 trillion spending bill drew vociferous objections from liberals and milder criticism from conservatives Wednesday while lawmakers readied a brief, stopgap measure to prevent a government shutdown both parties vowed to avoid.

Democrats complained bitterly in public about a portion of the $1.1 trillion measure that eases regulations imposed on big banks in the wake of the 2008 economic meltdown even though 70 members of the party's rank and file supported an identical provision in a stand-alone bill late last year.

After a closed-door meeting, Democrats also chorused objections to a separate section of the spending bill that eases limits on campaign contributions to political parties.

The White House declined to state President Barack Obama's position on the legislation, negotiated in secret over several days by senior lawmakers, including top leaders in both parties and both houses.

"Putting these two things together in the same bill illustrates everything that's wrong with the political process right now," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.

Republicans countered correctly that Democratic negotiators initially signed off on both. Speaker John Boehner rebuffed a request from the Democratic leader, California Rep. Nancy Pelosi, to jettison them.

"If Rep. Pelosi doesn't think her negotiators did a good job, she should discuss it with them," said Michael Steel, Boehner's spokesman.

On the other side of the political spectrum, some conservatives grumbled that the measure left the administration's controversial new immigration policy unchallenged until the end of February. That decision "makes no sense at all. We've let the Democrats set their agenda as though we lost the election," said Louisiana Rep. John Fleming.

Given opposition from an unknown number of conservatives, Boehner and the Republican high command likely will need some Democratic support to assure the bill's passage in a vote set for Thursday.

Whatever the Democrats' motive, the political crossfire left the massive, 1,603-page bill in limbo and so, too, chances of a smooth ending for a Congress marked by two years of intense partisanship. Other legislation awaited approval as lawmakers looked to the year-end exits.

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Liberals, conservatives criticize $1.1 trillion spending bill

In case you've been hiding under some coats this week, liberals are keyed up on the idea of recruiting Elizabeth Warren to run for president in 2016. Warren showed why in a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday, protesting the inclusion of a measure that would loosen restriction on derivative trading in a $1 trillion spending bill Congress is expected to approve this week.

It's worth watching the entire speech -- it's less than eight minutes from beginning to end -- but if you are either super busy or an easily distracted millennial, pay particular attention to the first 49 seconds of this clip.

Here's the key line: "I come to the floor today to ask a fundamental question -- who does Congress work for? Does it work for the millionaires, the billionaires, the giant companies with their armies of lobbyists and lawyers? Or does it work for all of us?"

Warren's anti-Wall Street, populist rhetoric, heavily focused on reducing or eliminating income inequality, sits at the core of the Democratic base's belief system at the moment. In a recent NBC-Wall Street Journal poll, almost six in 10 Democrats (58 percent) agreed with the idea that economic and political systems are stacked against them. As WSJ's Neil King notes, that sense of a rigged system is far from a Democrats-only belief;"51 percent of Republicans; 55 percent of whites; 60 percent of blacks; 53 percent of Hispanics; as well as decent majorities of every age and professional cluster, including blue-collar workers, white-collar workers and retirees," all hold it, according to King.

But, the sense of not only a widening gap between haves and have-nots but also a sort of a built-in institutional unfairness to it runs extremely strong within the Democratic base. That goes double when the very likely nominee for the party in 2016 is neither a) a populist or b) anti-Wall Street.

Speeches like the one Warren gave Wednesday will just fuel chatter about why she should challenge Hillary Rodham Clinton in two years. And she knows it.

Chris Cillizza writes The Fix, a politics blog for the Washington Post. He also covers the White House.

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The Fix: Why Elizabeth Warren is liberals dream 2016 candidate, in 49 seconds

For all the Trudeaumania redux surrounding the federal Liberals since Justin Trudeau took the helm, the party has had some very old-school problems around its nomination process.

Trudeau has been accused of going back on his promise to allow open fights for riding nominations and instead getting in his favoured picks. There have beenhard feelings in some, including the Ottawa-area riding ofOrlans, where former general Andrew Leslie was acclaimed, and in Brantford-Brant, the key southern Ontario battleground where a hurried nomination vote resulted in the only registered candidate being acclaimed.

Bitterness now surrounds the likely coronation of a candidate in the B.C. riding Vancouver South, where the other main contender pulled out of the race ahead of this Fridays nomination, leaving the field clear for another ex-military man whom Trudeau apparently prefers.

[ Related:Andrew Leslies Liberal nomination win draws protest ]

The situation in the riding is complicated by a layer of ethnic politics as Sikh factions within the Liberal party have battled over the nomination.

It seems likely former Lt.-Col. Harjit Singh Sajjan, the first Sikh to command a Canadian Forces regiment, will be acclaimed at this Fridays nomination meeting for the riding, which has swung back and forth between the Liberals and Conservatives for most of the last 100 years.

Sajjan was expected to have vigorous competition for the nomination from Vancouver businessman Barj Dhahan. But he abruptly withdrew late last month despite having signed up thousands of new Liberal members to support his bid.

"This campaign has gone on longer than I initially expected and the Liberal Party has a preferred candidate," Dhahan said in a statement on his web site.

"After much thought, I have decided that I will not seek this nomination, and will instead support the Liberal Party of Canadas efforts in other ways."

Sikh factions said to be involved in Liberal infighting

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Liberal nomination troubles 'inside baseball', unlikely to sway most voters