After offensive post, RHB employee is out

RHB says the employee is no longer working with the bank, and said it has a strict zero-tolerance policy on behaviour that contravenes its code of ethics and conduct.

Earlier today, RHB said the social media post represented the employee’s personal views and not its position.

PETALING JAYA:

 An employee of RHB Banking Group appears to have been terminated after a doctored image of the prime minister in an outfit bearing the Israeli flag was posted on social media.

In a brief statement this evening, RHB said: “The individual involved is no longer employed by RHB, effective Oct 31” after the bank concluded an internal investigation into the employee’s actions.

“We maintain a strict zero-tolerance policy towards any behaviour that contravenes our code of ethics and conduct,” the bank said.

RHB did not state if the employee had been sacked or had resigned. Asked for clarification, RHB merely reiterated that the person was no longer employed by the bank.

Earlier today, the bank promised that disciplinary action would be taken if the person had breached the group’s code of ethics and conduct.

It also emphasised that the views expressed were the employee’s personal views and did not in any way represent or reflect RHB’s position.

The image posted on Facebook has since gone viral.

It comes days after Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim hit back at detractors who took issue with the government’s decision to invite US president Donald Trump to the Asean summit.

In defending the decision to invite Trump, Anwar said he was able to speak privately with the president on various issues, including attacks on Gaza by Washington’s staunch ally, Israel.

Police report lodged

PKR’s Tambun division has filed a report at the Ipoh police headquarters over the circulation of the graphic on social media.

Its deputy chief A Kalaimughilan was quoted by Sinar Harian as saying the image which depicted Anwar wearing the attire and a “pottu” (Hindu religious symbol) was a serious act of disrespect.

He urged the police and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission to take action against the former bank employee to prevent a recurrence and as a lesson for the public to act more responsibly on social media. - FMT

PKR stakes out Gum-Gum seat, with hint of candidate

 Sabah PKR chief Mustapha Sakmud urges voters in Gum-Gum to give 'Anwar Ibrahim's candidate' a chance.

Sabah PKR chief Mustapha Sakmud said a candidate from the party will be announced soon. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA:

 Sabah PKR has hinted that the party would contest the Gum-Gum seat, which is also being eyed by Barisan Nasional, at the state polls next month.

Sabah PKR chief Mustapha Sakmud said a candidate from the party will be announced soon.

“I hope the people of Gum-Gum will give Anwar’s candidate a chance,” he said, referring to party president Anwar Ibrahim.Mustapha said this at the “Jelajah Harapan Urang Sabah” programme in Gum-Gum.

Gum-Gum is among the seven seats eyed by both PH and BN, which have formed an electoral pact for the state assembly elections.

The other seats are Segama, Sindumin, Tanjung Aru, Liawan and Kemabong.

Libaran Umno had previously voiced its interest to contest in Gum-Gum, even though the party and PH had decided that the seat would be contested by PH.

Warisan previously won the seat in the last Sabah election.

Separately, Sabah PKR secretary Abdul Razak Jamil said the party will contest between 10 and 13 seats at the Nov 29 polls.

Nomination for the 17th Sabah election has been fixed for Nov 15, while early voters can cast their ballots on Nov 25. - FMT

US senator urges help for Malaysia to curb chip smuggling

US officials believe Malaysia is among a handful of countries where organised smuggling operations have worked to get banned US chips into China.

Malaysia announced in July it was requiring permits for all exports, trans-shipments and transits of US-made high-performance chips, such as those made by Nvidia. (EPA Images pic)

WASHINGTON:

 A US Republican senator is asking US President Donald Trump’s administration to help the Malaysian government prevent US artificial intelligence chips from being smuggled through the country to China, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

Reuters has previously reported that US officials believe Malaysia is among a handful of countries where organised smuggling operations have worked to get US chips into China that would otherwise be banned from export to China.

Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, wrote a letter to US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick saying Malaysian officials had begun cracking down on such activity and the Trump administration should aid Malaysian officials in the effort by helping the country develop screening programs to ensure chips are not being diverted to China.

Cotton, who along with the Trump administration has supported the idea of requiring US chips to contain technology that would verify their location to prevent smuggling, said chips with such technology should be given a green light for export to Malaysia.

“As is often the case, US companies are at the forefront of developing creative and innovative technical solutions, which will help add layers of assurance against illegal diversion,” Cotton wrote in an Oct 30 letter.

“To support the semiconductor industry in their efforts, it may be beneficial for US and Malaysian officials to develop priority customs clearance procedures for shipments of advanced US chips with anti-diversion mechanisms,” Cotton said.

Malaysia, China’s largest trading partner in Southeast Asia, announced in July it was requiring permits for all exports, trans-shipments and transits of US-made high-performance chips, such as those made by Nvidia. - FMT

Road to Balik Pulau reopens after week-long closure due to landslides

State public works department completes cleanup after main access to Relau was blocked by fallen trees and boulders.

Road users have been urged to exercise caution as work to lay canvas over the landslide areas is only 70% complete. (Bernama pic)

GEORGE TOWN:

 Jalan Tun Sardon, a key route linking Balik Pulau and Relau, which has been closed since Oct 23 because of landslides, will reopen to the public at 8pm today.

Infrastructure, transport, and digital committee chairman Zairil Khir Johari said the state public works department (JKR) has removed fallen trees and boulders that had blocked the road, and completed its cleanup.

However, he said, work to place canvas over the affected areas has only reached 70%.

“Therefore, road users are asked to follow the traffic management plan that has been put up along the route and drive carefully,” he said in a statement.

Zairil thanked all the parties involved in the cleanup work, and also the public for their patience during the closure. - FMT

Ringgit ends firmer on improved risk sentiment as US-China trade tensions ease

The local currency continued to strengthen, with the US dollar-ringgit pair reaching RM4.1853, says analyst.

KUALA LUMPUR:

 The ringgit ended firmer against the greenback and major currencies today, supported by improved risk sentiment following the easing of trade tensions between the US and China.

Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the easing of US-China trade tensions has improved sentiment towards regional currencies, including the ringgit.

“In the afternoon session, the local currency continued to strengthen against the US dollar, with the US dollar-ringgit pair reaching RM4.1853,” he told Bernama.

At 6pm, the ringgit rose to 4.1860/4.1930 against the US dollar from yesterday’s close of 4.1935/4.1985.

At the close, the ringgit inched up against the Japanese yen to 2.7162/2.7210 from 2.7266/2.7300 at yesterday’s close, strengthened against the British pound to 5.5025/5.5117 from 5.5304/5.5370 and rose versus the euro to 4.8453/4.8534 from 4.8716/4.8774 previously.

The local note traded mostly higher against Asean currencies.

It improved against the Singapore dollar to 3.2185/3.2241 from 3.2285/3.2326 at yesterday’s close, advanced vis-a-vis the Thai baht to 12.9429/12.9702 from 12.9501/12.9723, was higher against the Indonesian rupiah at 251.7/252.2 from 252.0/252.4 and was almost flat against the Philippine peso at 7.12/7.14 from 7.12/7.13 previously. - FMT

MUSLIMS MUST READ: CHATGPT's Super PhD In Islamic Studies.

 Non Muslims can skip this or you can read this. Its easy to follow.

The AI engines (thats what I call them) are really super helpful. Artificial Intelligence means trying to replicate or dupicate human intelligence. Like the 'artificial heart' aka mechanical heart. Maybe they can also call it 'mechanical intelligence'.

Can AI be cleverer than human intelligence? I think it can. It is certainly super duper fast in "memory based-thinking". Thinking from memory.  AI like ChatGpt can access terabytes of stored data from around the globe in microseconds. It presents what it has found plus it also summarises the data AND draws conclusions using its "memory-based thinking". However if the "memory-base" is incorrect or corrupted (for example religion based "history") then of course ChatGpt's conclusions are also flawed. Garbage in, garbage out. I have detected this a few times now.

I use AI engines everyday now. My favorite is ChatGpt because it is really quite easy to log on and it is fast.

And it allows you to frame your inquiry anyway you want. I always search for 'data'. The basic information. And then I prefer to draw my own conclusions from the data. 

For example I asked ChatGpt a question 'List the companions or sahaba of the prophet who were aged below 15 years old in 620 AD (the year of the Isra and Miraj also known as the prophet's Night Journey). (Line 12 Malik ibn Sasaa was added separately). ChatGpt came up with the following data:

 

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🕋 Companions Below 15 Years Old in 620 CE (Year of the Isrāʾ and Miʿrāj)

#	Companion	Approx. Birth Year (CE)	Age in 620 CE	Birthplace	Relation to Prophet ﷺ	Later Role / Fame	Approx. Number of Ḥadīth Narrated
1	ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās	619	≈ 1 yr	Mecca	Cousin of the Prophet	Leading Qurʾān exegete, early scholar	≈ 1,660
2	ʿĀʾishah bint Abī Bakr	614	≈ 6 yrs	Mecca	Later wife of the Prophet	Top female scholar, jurist, and teacher	≈ 2,210 – 3,000+
3	Anas ibn Mālik	612	≈ 8 yrs	Medina (Yathrib)	Served the Prophet 10 years	Among top 5 hadith narrators	≈ 2,286
4	ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Zubayr	622	Not yet born	Medina	Son of Asmāʾ bint Abī Bakr (nephew of ʿĀʾishah)	Companion, early Muslim leader	≈ 33
5	ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar	610	≈ 10 yrs	Mecca	Son of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb	Jurist of Medina, meticulous narrator	≈ 2,630
6	Zayd ibn Thābit	611	≈ 9 yrs	Medina	Prophet’s scribe, Anṣārī	Compiled the Qurʾān under Abū Bakr & ʿUthmān	≈ 90
7	Usāmah ibn Zayd	615	≈ 5 yrs	Mecca	Son of Zayd ibn Ḥārithah (adopted son)	Led army to Syria at 17; beloved of the Prophet	≈ 130
8	ʿAbdullāh ibn Jaʿfar	618	≈ 2 yrs	Abyssinia	Cousin (son of Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib)	Companion, orator, noted for generosity	≈ 20
9	ʿAmr ibn Salimah al-Jarmī	~620	≈ 0–1 yr	Tribe of Jarm (North Arabia)	Saw the Prophet as a child	Led tribal prayer at 7 years old	Few
10	Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī	610	≈ 10 yrs	Medina	Anṣārī youth	Among top 10 hadith narrators	≈ 1,170
11	ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ	607	≈ 13 yrs	Mecca	Meccan noble; converted 628 CE	Military commander; conqueror of Egypt	≈ 40
12	Mālik ibn Saʿsāʿa	~590	≈ 30 yrs	Medina	Anṣārī companion	Main narrator of the Isrāʾ and Miʿrāj ḥadīth	1 (major)

For your curiosity I will discuss a little bit of this tabulation but at the end of this post. 

I write books - until today. I publish online. And when you write books you will appreciate the amount of time that is needed to do the research that goes into what you write.

• Now ChatGpt came up with that tabulation above in seconds. 
• Without ChatGpt a table like this would take me hours of online research and tabulation. 
• Without the Internet, drawing up a table like this would take weeks.

This is where religion will face serious challenges. In normal religious study, a person will go to some institution and study religion for years. Any religion.

Then they may write an article or write a book about religion.  That may take even more years. Then someone else may write another article or write another book discussing or debating what the first fellow wrote - which also may take months or years. So the pace is still very slow.

But now with the Internet and especially with AI, the speed of research and assembling information is in the milliseconds and microseconds.  

This is where the "old old school" religious fellows are missing the boat (tertinggal sampan).  They absolutely do not know how to handle these milliseconds and microseconds. They are still stuck at the speed of the camel caravans trudging across the desert. 

Here is some observation only from that table above. Very brief. 

Line 1 is Abdullah ibn Abbas. He was a year old baby in the year of the Isra Miraj which happened circa 620 AD. This means when the prophet died 12 years later in 632 AD, Abdullah ibn Abbas was  12 - 13 years old. Other reports indicate he was a year or two younger. Abdullah ibn Abbas would later narrate 1,660 hadith. 

Line 12 is Malik ibn Sa'saa. Malik is known to have narrated only one hadith in his entire life. There are no other hadith attributed to Malik ibn Sasaa (according to ChatGpt). 

And the only hadith that Malik ibn Sasaa narrated was a very long and very detailed hadith about the Isra Miraj or the Night Journey.  

There are a few other narrations of hadith by other people about the Isra Miraj but they are all very brief.  The hadith narrated by Malik ibn Sasaa is the most detailed, very long and comprehensive narration of the Isra Miraj

I gathered this from ChatGpt. You can ask ChatGpt anything. It is important that you know what to ask.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not reflect those of MMKtT