Tunku Abdul Rahman

Tunku Abdul Rahman Who is Tunku Abdul Rahman Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Alhaj was born on February 8 1903 at Istana Pelamin, Alor Setar, Kedah. He was the twentieth child and seventh son of Sultan Abdul Hamid Halim Shah, the twenty-fourth Sultan of Kedah.1 His mother on the other hand, Paduka Seri Cik Manjalara was the daughter of a Siamese nobleman, Luang Noraborirak. In 1909, Abdul Rahman received his early education at a Malay Primary School before being tranferred to the Government English School, which is currently known as the Sultan Abdul Hamid College. Following that, he was sent to the Debsirin School in Bangkok. A Kedah State Scholarship awarded to him in 1920 took him to England to further his studies. In England, he read History and Law at St. Catherines College, Cambridge. He successfully obtained his Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1925. While studying at England itself, his flair for leadership was made apparent due to the lack of representation of Malay students at the institution by any clubs or organisations. Abdul Rahman remedied the problem by establishing the Kesatuan Melayu Great Britain (Malay Association of Great Britain). He held the post of Secretary. Upon his return to Malaya, he served the Kedah Civil Service as a cadet in the Legal Advisors Office. Following that, he served as a District Officer in Kuala Nerang, Langkawi, Sungai Petani, and finally in Kulim.2 Abdul Rahman was the only Malay District Officer at that time. This made him widely unpopular amongst many British officials. However, no action was taken by the British Administration in Kedah, as he was of royal lineage. Unfortunately, his attempt at completing his legal studies at the Inner Temple in England came to a halt due to the outbreak of World War II. He resumed his studies at the Inner Temple soon after and qualified for the Bar. On his return to Malaya, he was appointed as a Deputy Public Prosecutor. During the nationalistic battle against the Malayan Union, Tunku Abdul Rahman joined the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). He proved to be very popular amongst party members and was later on appointed as Chairman of UMNO Kedah in 1948. On August 26 1951, Tunku became the UMNO President. Following that, he formed a political alliance with the Malayan Chinese Association (MCA). This political alliance was later joined by the Malayan Indian Congress (MIC) in 1955. This political alliance was called the Alliance Party. That same year, the Alliance Party won the first federal general elections. Tunku Abdul Rahman was elected as the first Chief Minister of Malaya. In 1955, Tunku lead a delegation to England to negotiate with the British government for the independence of Malaya. This lead to the signing of the Independence Treaty at Lancaster House in London on February 8 1956.3 On the 31st of August 1957, the British flag was lowered in Kuala Lumpur and the Malaya flag was raised in its place. Tunku Abdul Rahman led the crowd at Dataran Merdeka in announcing Merdeka! (Independance). This will forever remain a historical moment in Malaysian history. It cannot be argued that one of Tunkus greatest acheivements was the formation of Malaysia, comprising of the Federation of Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei, and Singapore. However, due to several political issues, the federation of all these states, excluding Brunei was formed on the 16th of September 1963. Tunku Abdul Rahman was restyled as Prime Minister of Malaysia. 4 Unfortunately, the racial factor only worsened with the inclusion of Singapore, raising the Chinese population close to 40%.5 On August 7, 1965, Tunku Abdul Rahman announced to the Malaysian Parliament to vote yes on the resolution to remove Singapore from the federation. Singapore officially acheived independance on 9 August 1965. Following the racial riots of May 13, many UMNO leaders were critical of Tunku Abdul Rahmans leadership and an emergency committee, MAGERAN took power and declared a state of emergency. On 22 September 1970, Tunku Abdul Rahman was coerced into resigning as Prime Minister and was succeeded by Tunku Abdul Razak. Following that, he then resigned as UMNO President on June 1971 amidst severe opposition from the Young Turks, comprising of Mahathir Muhammad and Musa Hitam.6 Aside from the formation of Malaysia, Tunku also had a many other acheivements. Other than making Islam the state religion in 1960, he also established the Islamic Welfare Organisation (PERKIM), an organisation helping newly converted Muslims adjust to their lives as Muslims.7 Tunku also helped establish the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), of which he was also the Secretary General. An avid sprtsman, Tunku was a huge fan of football. This led him to become the President of the Football Association of Malaya, President of The Asian Football Confederation and President of the Asian Badminton Confederation. He also supported Semangat 46, a splinter group of UMNO led by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.8 Tunku Abdul Rahman passed away on 6 December 1990 at the age of eighty-seven. He was laid to rest at the Langgar Mausoleum at Alor Setar. FOOTNOTE 1. Wikipedia, Tunku Abdul Rahman, URL : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunku_Abdul_Rahman, accessed 17 March 2010. 2. Sejarah Malaysia, Abdul Rahman Putra Alhaj, URL : http://sejarahmalaysia.pnm.my/portalBI/detail.php?section=sm02spesifik_id=95ttl_id, accessed 17 March 2010. 3. Perdana.Org, Tunku Abdul Rahman, URL : http://www.perdana.org.my/index.php?option=com_contentview=articleid=184Itemid=124, accessed 17 March 2010 4. Prime Ministers if Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Alhaj, URL : http://www.primeministersofmalaysia.net/1.php, accessed 17 March 2010 5. Wikipedia, Tunku Abdul Rahman, URL : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunku_Abdul_Rahman, accessed 17 March 2010. 6. Wikipedia, Tunku Abdul Rahman, URL : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunku_Abdul_Rahman, accessed 17 March 2010. 7. Network Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman, URL : http://www.networkmalaysia.com/subtitle/people/TunkuAbdulRahman.htm, accessed 17 March 2010 8. State University.Com, Tunku Abdul Rahman (Putra Alhaj) Early life, Early political career, Road to independence, Prime Minister, Involvements in Islam, Later life, Family, URL : http://encyclopedia.stateuniversity.com/pages/22669/Tunku-Abdul-Rahman-Putra-Alhaj.html, accessed 18 March 2010.

The Baader-Meinhof Gang

The Baader-Meinhof or the Red Army Faction (RAF) was a prominent militant outfit of the ‘German Autumn. ’ A terror era that lasted for nearly three decades was marked by the rise and fall of several terrorist organizations. One of the most dreaded of these was the Baader-Meinhof Gang. Originally formed as a revolutionary organization that would put an end to German fascist era, the gang went off-track with its goals and resorted to unlawful activities.At their peak, they had perpetrated numerous acts of terror including bank robbery, kidnapping and murder. They had become so infamous that the German Government labeled them as a terrorist organization. The origin of the Baader-Meinhof can be traced back to the late 1960s and early 1970s when West Germany reeled under a series of terrorist bombings by radical leftists in Augsburg, Hamburg, Karlsruhe, Munich and at American installations in Frankfurt and Heidelburg, and bank robberies and Molotov cocktail attacks on public offices (Christenson 20).Two groups claimed responsibility for the attacks and one of these groups was the June 2nd Movement, which along with the other group was later known as the Baader-Meinhof gang (Christenson 20). A couple of the people involved in these activities were Andreas Baader, the man responsible for the formation of the gang, and his girlfriend Gundrun Ensslin. A prominent journalist who worked for the Konkret – Ulrike Meinhof – had interviewed the two people and justified their deeds, and later joined the gang after helping Baader escape from a jail (Christenson 20).Essaywriters 2 The formal establishment of the RAF or Baader-Meinhof gang was done on 5 June 1970, but the gang’s terrorist acts caught serious attention only since 1974 (Fulbrook 229). The gang, comprising mostly of people who were middle class and well-educated, was formed with the frustration that had crept in to their minds after witnessing their families die in the 1940s (Fulbro ok 229). This was one of the primary reasons given by the gang, which felt that the government’s true, oppressive face has to be brought before the public.As a result, they started attacks on property and also engaged in bank robberies to fund their activities (Fulbrook 229). However, the real threat had begun when they had started to commit murders of popular people like the banker Jurgen Ponto; General State Prosecutor Buback, who they accused of causing the deaths of terrorists – Holger Meins, Siegfried Hauser and Ulrike Meinhof; and employers’ leader Hanns Martin Schleyer (a high-ranked official in SS) (Fulbrook 229). The most prominent of their involvements was in the Munich Olympics Massacre of 1972 (Reeve 37).The Organization The Baader-Meinhof Gang was formed out of the New Left and Extra Parliamentary Opposition student movements that had huge support from the German students in the 1950s and the 1960s, especially against the U. S. war in Vietnam (Tucke r 95). With the passage of time, further student demonstrations took place and on June 2, a university student called Benno Ohnesorg was shot dead by the police, adding fuel to the fire burning in the students’ hearts (Tucker 96). Andreas Baader encouraged student Essaywriters 3activists to overthrow the German Government as it was a part of the corrupt International system and was dominated by the United States (Tucker 96). The real terrorist group was formed after a left-wing lawyer named Horst Mahler suggested the creation of a German urban Guerilla Movement, like the Tupamaros in Uruguay, and engagement in greater violence than arson (Tucker 96). Mahler, along with Baader and Ensslin were the leaders of this small terrorist group. When Baader was arrested after the group was formed in 1970, Ensslin asked Meinhof for help and the journalist helped him escape (Tucker 96).Terror Activities The terrorist gang started its first few attacks on symbols that represented the capit alist system and in 1968, after Baader led left-wing student group Kommune I was released for arson activity, Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and two other colleagues placed bombs in two department stores in Frankfurt am Main (Tucker 96). Andreas and his girlfriend, Ensslin, were arrested for the act, but were later released in 1969 (Tucker 96). In the period 1970-1977, the gang targeted a number of government top-ranked officials for assassination.They were successful in this goal when they assassinated prominent individuals like Jurgen Ponto, Prosecutor Buback and Hanns-Martin Schelyer (Fulbrook 229). Schleyer’s body was dumped inside the boot of a car after a hijack attempt by the gang was stopped by Federal Border Police in Mogadishu (Fulbrook 229). The hijack had been planned to force the government to release the gang’s top leaders Baader, Raspin and Ensslin. When Holger Meins, one of the people arrested in 1972, died Essaywriters 4of a hunger strike, the group ki lled Judge Gunter Von Drenkkman in response (Christenson 21). When police arrested many supporters of leftist terrorist organizations in connection with this incident, the June 2nd group kidnapped West Berlin mayoral candidate Peter Lorenz and demanded the release of five convicted people, and in March, another group bombed the Paris office of West German publisher Axel Springer demanding the release and pardon of Baarden-Meinhof group’s members (Christenson 21).In another incident in April 1975, six guerillas killed three people and took 12 hostages in the West German Embassy in Stockholm demanding the release of the gang and when the government refused, they killed two diplomats and set the embassy on fire (Christenson 21). Main People in the Group Andreas Baader The most prominent name in the Baader-Meinhof gang is Andreas Baader and the group was named after him. Baader was attracted to the leftist-student movement and he was one of the people responsible for the bombing of a Frankfurt department store in 1968. He was a criminal even before his involvement in the Baader-Meinhof gang.He was arrested for the department store bombing, but was released. He was arrested a second time in 1970, when Ulrike Meinhof helped him escape through the library outside his prison. After the escape, he had spent some time in Jordan in a militant training camp. After he returned to Germany, he was involved in many bank robberies and bombing activities from 1970-1972. In June 1972, Baader and other members Jan-Carl Raspe, Essaywriters 5 Holger Meins and Gudrun Ensslin were arrested and they were tried till 1977. Baader had committed suicide in October 1977 inside the prison cell. Ulrike MeinhofUlrike Meinhof was not a part of the group from the beginning. She was a sympathizing journalist who helped Baader escape from jail. Along with Baader and other prominent people, she became a part of the Baader-Meinhof gang. On May 9, 1976, Ulrike Meinhof was found hanging from t he ceiling of her prison cell in Stuttgart-Stammheim. Gudrun Ensslin Although the group was partly named after Ulrike, the gang’s main female leader was Ensslin, who was also the girlfriend of Baader. She had participated in many student protests in the 1960s. Ensslin had assisted Baader in many terror activities.She was also found dead with Baader and Raspe in the prison cell in 1977. Horst Mahler Horst Mahler was also one of the founding members of the Baader-Meinhof gang. He was formerly a left-wing militant. He was later kicked out of the gang. Jan-Carl Raspe Jan-Carl Raspe was one of the early members of the gang. He was arrested along with Baader and the rest. He was also found dead in the prison with others in 1977. Essaywriters 6 The Diffusion of the Group Although the government believed that the Baader-Meinhof gang stopped functioning after the death of its main leaders, the group continued to function till 1998.The media company Reuters had received a message in 19 98 that formally announced that the gang had been dissolved. It was the end of the ‘German Autumn. ’ Essaywriters 7 Works Cited Christenson, Ron. â€Å"Political Trials in History: From Antiquity to the Present† (1991): 20-23 Fulbrook, Mary. â€Å"History of Germany, 1918-2000: The Divided Nation† (2002): p. 229 Reeve, Simon. â€Å"One Day in September† (2000): 37 Tucker, Jonathan. B. â€Å"Toxic Terror: Assessing Terrorist Use of Chemical and Biological Weapons† (2000): 95-96

Cyber-security Essay

The internet is no man’s land. The whole world has been melted into a global village as the Internet pervades the homes, offices and even phones. The internet has become closer to our thoughts and feelings every day as chat engines can now express feelings and depict thought patterns. Information about self, plan of work, career, and family are also speedily available and sent via the internet. Most, if not all, companies own a website where the clients/customers can access their information. In fact, financial institutions run transactions through cyber space. Security outfits have private and confidential data on Networks that can easily access the Net. All these point to on pellucid fact: the cyberspace cannot be ignored. It cannot be ignored because of the risk associated with such move. This underscores the need for cyberspace security. The responsibility of government is not just for the internal and border security of her people; it also includes security across the internet. Although the internet belongs to no one, government can take certain steps to promote her people from Internet fraud, spyware and other security threats. As the world shrinks, the Internet will definitely be a means for evil doers and enemies of progress and freedom to use to perpetuate their obnoxious. This is another reason why the government must take the issue very seriously. This is why the collaboration between Symantec and National Cyber Security Alliance is commendable. This provides statistics about security issues on the Internet: it postulates that only about one-fifth of computer and internet users have adequate security protection although most believe they are protected. This means there is a gap: most believe what is not. Bridging the gap is an important aspect of the work of Department of Homeland Security and NCSA. It is not enough to have statistics although they are fundamental facts upon which decisions are based. I believe these figures are even worse than what is said. The report does not show how many users were used for the research and how reliable that percentage can be. If this is the case, vigorous mass publicity and campaigns will help. This will involve state and federal agencies, and private organizations that provide internet and computer service. The article titled ‘Americans confused as ever over cyber-security’ gives a clear picture of what the challenge is. The question is who is responsible for this confusion? The users of cyberspace have a big chunk of this confusion as they need out information about how to safeguard themselves from internet threats. It is likely they would have tried but the information is not accessible. This means that information on cybersecurity is not user-friendly; this is a field where they really have to work. Besides, staying safe online appears daunting for many users. Since antivirus, antispyware and firewall software are the frontline basic protections Americans should have, information should be readily accessible. Cybersecurity is obviously will continue to be important. Efforts have to mad now to safeguard computer and Internet users. This can be achieved first through information made available at the point of purchase; tell people about security. Then, computer accessories Unit should have also succinct information for their customers. Internet service providers have a big role to play: they need to prepare a package on cybersecurity like FAQs that can be used by their clients. Regular updates should also be made available.

Miracle - 1423 Words

Historical Film Prompt: Miracle The film Miracle is about the U.S men’s ice hockey team winning the 1980 gold metal for the Winter Olympics, led by head coach Herb Brooks. Miracle was fairly accurate with its historic content during the course of the movie. The director Gavin O’Connor did a good job tying in historical and political background that brought the film together, which made it unique to other sport films. In the beginning of the film there was a sequence highlighting the historical events that lead up to the 1980 Winter Olympics. Miracle specifically opened up with the historical footage against the Vietnam War in the 1960s. Our country endured the time where it was divided because of the support of the Vietnam War. To make†¦show more content†¦This event was important because it drove Brooks to become the head coach and it drove him to lead his team to the championships. Miracle really focused on the intense coaching tactics that brooks had. Brooks wanted to change the way the American team played in the game in hockey. He wanted to incorporated harder training and more competitiveness like the soviets and Canadians at the time. Miracle basically showed the success of the 1980 hockey team was due to the teams persistence, hard work, and detailed preparation. Overall the movie focused on head coach Herb Brooks and how his coaching enable the young team to win the gold medal. As the movie was being made, Coach brooks died in a tragic car accident during 2004, and the epilogue to the movie said, â€Å"He never saw it. He lived it.† I thought Miracle did a really good job of inspiring and tell the audience about the win of the 1980’s Olympic Games in Lake Placid. I had a positive emotional reaction towards the movie because it showed the determination in the team. Although people didn’t believe that the team could win a medal in the Olympic games, they came out with the gold medal shocking everyone in the wor ld. 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