Quickschools.com - specifically designed for the needs of smaller schools.

Are Maybank Islamic Credit cards Islamic?

As a follow up to my earlier post: Maybank’s Islamic bank’s Riba Practices, Maybank has responded to me as follows:

Following my note this morning, would like to thank you again for the opportunity to clarify this matter.

The compensation fee or ta’widh is levied when no payments is received on or before the payment due date.  While it is similar to the penalty charged for conventional cards, our Shariah Committee and the National Shariah Advisory Council have approved of such standard charges to recover administrative cost such as notification to the customer.

Would also like to assure you that our Ikhwan card applies the Shariah principle of Bay’ Al ‘Inah, whereby the Bank sells its asset (in this case the Investment Certificates) to the customer on deferred payment basis and buys back the asset from customer at a lower price on cash basis.  The buy back value is equivalent to the Ikhwan card credit line, while the sale price is of course much more, computed based on the rate of 24%.  The difference between the selling price and purchase price is the “unearned income” which is the maximum profit that the bank may charge the customer.   The “cash” that the bank was supposed to pay the customer is in the form of the credit line.  Hence, outstanding on the card will be charged a monthly profit of up to 24% (or whatever rate the bank so decide but must not be more than 24%) which amount will be derived/sourced from the “unearned income”.

The operations is similar to that for Cashline facility (or Overdrafts) where monthly profit will be charged on the outstanding balance.  However, for cards, any payment made by the payment due date will absolve the charge of the monthly profit.  But, when payments are not made in full, the balance outstanding will be charged the monthly profit from the date of transaction/debited to card until the billing date.  It is however not reflected in the statement of accounts issued as at the billing date.  Instead, it will only be shown in the statement of accounts the following month.

If required, I would be more than glad to talk to you further clarify the matter.

And if you want to know how they compute the “profit”:

Here’s how we arrive to the RM1.50 profit charge:

1.  FYI, besides the compensation fee, the profit charges will apply if the payment is not received by the payment due date

2.  In this instance, the calculation started from after due date (14/12) to payment date (24/12) = 9 days, ie from 15 Dec – 23 Dec as payment received on
24th

Calculation:  450.00 x 13.5% x 9/365 = 1.497

Hope the above clarifies.

I am now a better educated customer… but lets do a quick poll and see what you think:

Positive Malaysia: Petronas RON 95 better than Shell

Having been a loyal Shell user since 1990, this really came as a surprise to me.

I started experiencing knocking problem in my car engine after the introduction of RON 95. I drive a Ford Focus 2.0 and according to the manual, ron 95 is not a problem. In reality, it is a problem. With Shell’s RON 95, my car engine, under the lightest of acceleration load knocks. My initial solution was to upgrade to Shell’ ron97 and  I consoled myself that the extra 25sen per liter was worth it. This arragement went on for quite a number of months (talk about brand loyalty!).

3 weeks ago, I was literally out of fuel and had no choice but to fuel up at a Petronas (the one on Tun Razak after the Pusrawi Hospital).  I put in Rm50 of Petronas RON  95, about half a tank and my plan was to go to a Shell and get some proper fuel into my car.

The first thing I noticed after putting Petronas into my tank was the knocking was gone.  Then the engine response seemed a bit better and I managed to go a lot farther on Rm50 than I normally would with Shell.  The next refuel, I decided to try Petronas again and indeed I had the exact same result. No knocking, and this time I got 400Km on RM80 whereas with Shell I’d be lucky to get 350km.

Yesterday I decided to retry Shell just to see what would happen. I fueled up to RM80. As soon as I pulled out of the station the knocking was back again. In my mind it is now confirmed that Petronas RON 95 is clearly superior to Shell’s.

So I have to say  well done Petronas.  Its time for my to sign up for your mesra card.

Eli Wong lanches Sri Damansara Community Center

Here is her speech: In 1 Malaysia spirit she has delivered her opening in all 4 main languages. 4th service center opening within her Bukit Lanjan constituency. Raised funds last year. 3 objectives of offfice: a: of course for peopl;e to come and compalint b: as a place for people to meet and c: a place for information to be shared.

She is stresssing that at the community level we need to get to know our neighbours a lot better. It is time for us to come together in light of the recent issues that have been hapening.

She takes a good whack at one malaysia with two laws, etc.. PKR is one family, we may have our dfferences and that is to be expected. But we should be able to work toward solutions of these problems in the spirit of a family.

Positive Malaysia: Eli Wong opens new service center in Sri Damansara

I am blogging this ‘live’ from the opening ceremony of Elizabeth Wong’s new service center in Bandar Sri Damansara. it s a nice turn out for the event. With the lion dance and CNY slant it is ofcourse a bit noisy. eli wong has just arrived and we are about to hear what she has to say. I will be reading in between the lines to assess the political winds in light of my strong feeling that a General Elections may well be on the cards this year.

MAYBANK’s ISLAMIC BANK RIBA PRACTICES

Firstly let me say that I and Maybank have a love hate relationship.   Somehow the weirdest things seem to happen to me but only with MAybank.

So here is my latest SAGA.

I used my VISA Ikhwan (ISLAMIC credit card) to pay a bill. I charged Rm450.00

Then I forgot about it until I was doing my internet banking and realised I had an outstanding of Rm450 and they had imposed a late charge of Rm5.00 so my out standing showed Rm455.00  I duly paid the RM455.00 and it showed ZREO balance.

Now I get my statement and instead of having a ZERO balance, they have charged me RM1.50 as “profit charges.”  This is a charge being imposed on my account after I have paid my balance in FULL.  Surely there is somehting wrong with this.

My statement reads:

Your previous statement balance RM450.00

19/12 Compensation Fee: RM5.00

24/12 PYMT@MAYBANK2U.coom RM455.00 CR

24/12 PROFIT CHARGES RM1.50

Surely this must be a RIBA as RIBA can be…..

Anyway I have sent an email to Ashraf Ali Kadir, Executive Vice President and Head, Cards & Payments , the BIG BOSS in Maybank who looks after all these things. Lets see  if he replies.

If you want to read more about how  MAYBANK sucks please click here

Update: Due to technology and /or familiarity, this time Mr Ashraf Ali has replied to my email at 1115pm as follows:

Waalaikum Salaam Tuan… We will get this investigated asap. Will revert 2u soonest. Thanks for bringing it to my attention and also thanks alot for using our card.

Yours Sincerely,

Ashraf Kadir

So there is hope and progress I guess…

Positive Malaysia – New Petrol Prices to be determined by Engine Capacity

Here is a good one from the government. Despite the strength of the KLSE the core economy is weak and the government has to look for ways to cut back on subsidies.  This is an extension of  the economic reforms Pak Lah was pushing through while he was in office. Remember Rm2.70 per liter of petrol.

So the new plan is to give out subsidies based on the engine capacity of the car.  I am not sure of the exact details, but I suppose the underlying thinking is that the rich should not be subsidized while the poor should get some level of subsidy.  And the proxy for rich is large engine capacity while for poor it is small engine capacity.

In principle it sounds like a half baked, hair brained idea but under the spirit of Positive Malaysia let me point our the plusses.

a: It will require some form of technological match between car, car owner and payment mechanism to the subsidy to be affected real time at the pump. This means that this policy will push us to innovate in our usage of technology  and that is a positive.  Think of all the countries that will be lining up to buy this technology from us.  This is the ultimate dream – real time application of taxation.

b: They should use the myKAd as a payment mechanism because my Kad is one per citizen. And the my Kad has the capacity to store money and be used as a payment gateway.  With broader acceptance of MYKAD and hence direct debit – it will wean people of credit and credit cards make us more responsible consumners. Plus with my KAD we wont have to pay the Rm50 fee that the government is imposing on credit cards. So this is another positves.

c: This scheme will also help poverty eradication and help beggars stop begging. All you have to do is wait at a petrol station and offer to every big CC car the opportunity  to fill with your card and you share the savings. So for a person with no car they pay 1.80 perlite and with a big car 2.10 so there is 30 sen per liter to be shared. On a typical 80 liter fill that is RM24 bucks to be shared.  An now that the poor have a means of income , dependence on state welfare will be reduced.  So its win win all round. So thats another positive.

d: Of course there are all the hardware and soft ware vendors that will benefit form this implementation and that will help the economy – so another positive.

e. And for the consumer – you and I – there is a positive in it. With higher pump prices we will be more conscious of our usage and in all likely hood we will try and use less which is good for our wallets and certainly good for the environment.  So that’s positive.

So here is a case of a policy that in all truth sucks , but by simply refocusing my mind I can find 5 positives about it and this now reinforces my POSITIVE MALAYSIA position.

Positive Malaysia: EPF – a role model in customer service excellence

EPF stand as a role model in customer service excellence and hence is a reflection of  Positive Malaysia

I have always maintained that if you want to see excellent customer service, simply visit EPF.  The service that they give is amazing and it truly gives hope that if EPF can do it so can all other government agencies.

Sujesh Pavithran who write in the Not Today column of the STAR had this to say:

While on the subject of govern ment departments, it’s a pity that few have taken the cue from the Employees Provident Fund.

Twice in the past eight years, I’ve been there – as recently as last week – and what impressed me most was the squadron of well-dressed, smiling and helpful ladies to assist with queries.

It’s one of the few public-sector offices where you can stand in the queue at the enquiry counter and while the person in front of you is still being attended to, a smartly-attired and courteous lady is already cut ting down the wait time by sorting out queries down the line. Makes you feel you’re at McDonald’s during lunch hour!

If you’ve been to the EPF office in Shah Alam, I’m sure you’ll agree – those ladies are on-the-ball and extremely helpful. Even my wife, who’s used to waiting at bank and immigration counters for ages, was impressed by their professionalism.

My first visit to the same office eight years ago left me with the same impression – it is almost as if you were in a “first-world” country! I wonder if the fact that about 90% of the counter staff are female has anything to do with this?

Every office dealing with the public on a daily basis should use the EPF system as a model. It’s a pleasant experience to walk into an office, especially a government one, with smiling and helpful staff.

Well done EPF.

Positive Malaysia

So here is my New Years Resolution.  I am quite tired of all the negative stuff in the blogs on Malaysia and about Malaysia, hence if you notice my blogging has slowed down quite a bit.  For 2010 I am giving myself a new challenge. I call it Positive Malaysia and what I will try to do is for everything of interest that comes up in the news, I will look for the positive in it.

For this I have created a category called Positive Malaysia and all the posts will be placed in that category.

Examples of Positive Malaysia : The Malaysian Chess Federation has been delisted from FIDE (World Chess Federation) -> that’s the bad news, but the positive news is we now have a total of 5 International Masters namely Jimmy Liew, Mas Hafizul, Mok Tze Meng, Lim Yee Weng and Wong Zinjing (Star:Chess:Quah Seng Sun). In addition we have Sarjan Ismail Ahmad who is the police world chess champion. So in Positive Malaysia, instead of bemoaning the problem, we will look for the good stuff to focus on.

Lets see how this works out.

I wish everyone a spectacular 2010.

How the East was won….

Here is a great article that appeared in the Star 30/12/09, titled Tiger’s Gate and appearing in  Zhyling’s brush column. I think its worth reflecting on this article as we contemplate 2010.  Happy reading and Happy New Year.

Humen stands as a reminder of the ruthless mercantilism of the East India Company in the 19th century heyday of British imperialism.

THERE is a place in Guangdong province’s Pearl River (Zhujiang) estuary whose serenity belies the fact that one of the most wrenching episodes of China’s modern history played out on its shores. Perhaps only its ominous name – Humen or Tiger’s Gate, provides a clue to the fury and exasperation that 170 years ago inspired the Qing dynasty’s Imperial Commissioner Lin Zexu, famed for his incorruptibility, to take on the rapacious British East India Company.

Humen resides in Dongguan city to the east of Guangzhou. A short distance from the lazy waters of the Zhujiang sits a Naval Battle Museum (Hai Zhan Bowuguan), also known as the Humen Lin Zexu Memorial Hall (Humen Lin Zexu Jinianguan).

Historical archive: The Naval Battle Museum in Humen presents a detailed account of the Opium Wars that led to China’s ‘century of humiliation’ at the hands of the western powers.

Although the museum’s layout is somewhat confusing, it offers an in-depth account of the two Opium Wars which resulted in China’s “hundred years of humiliation”, supported by artefacts, maps, statistics, photos, illustrations, reconstructions and copies of manuscripts from the period.

Particularly interesting is the section on the Imperial Commissioner from Fujian, Lin Zexu, whose integrity and rectitude contrasted dramatically with the duplicity and lack of moral conscience of the British East India Company.

He wrote manuals and treatises like “7 Methods of Encouraging Soldiers to Suppress Foreign Invaders” with diagrams of naval battle formations and is considered a hero who led what can justly be called the first outright war against drug smuggling in history.

The British had attempted to trade with China since the 1600s, offering manufactured items like woollens in exchange for Chinese porcelain, silk and most of all, tea. However, as British products were of little interest to the Middle Kingdom, they had to pay for Chinese goods in silver; further, the Qing court restricted such trade to Guangzhou.

The explosive demand for tea led to a trade deficit for the British, and since there was no market for their products, they turned to drugs, or rather, drug smuggling.

Their poison of choice was opium which they produced in India and sold at inflated prices in China. This highly addictive substance had for decades been imported into China in small quantities for medicinal purposes, but in league with corrupt local officials and collaborators, the British East India Company created a new demand, a “market” for its recreational use.

A bridge now spans the Zhujiang at Humen.

The flow of British silver into China thus rapidly reversed while the moribund Qing dynasty could do little to stem the burgeoning drug trade. When the imperial government outlawed the narcotic, the East India Company resorted to smuggling through intermediaries.

In 1839, the distinguished Commissioner Lin arrived in Guangzhou with full discretionary powers to do battle against opium but failed to make any headway with the recalcitrant British. Consequently in June the same year, he ordered 20,000 chests and 2,000 bags of opium (a total of 1.1 million kilos), which represented roughly half of annual imports, destroyed on Humen beach. A year later in 1840, British gunboats arrived and blockaded the Zhujiang estuary in retaliation, precipitating the first Opium War which saw similar British attacks on Fujian and Zhejiang.

The poorly-equipped Qing army with their antiquated weapons was defeated and in 1842, China was forced to sign the Treaty of Nanjing which ceded Hongkong and opened five “treaty ports” – Guangzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo and Shanghai – to British trade. China had to pay reparations, give the British extra-territorial rights as well as refrain from intervening in the opium trade which flourished.

This first of several lopsided treaties was the beginning of what many consider the darkest period in the history of the Middle Kingdom. Similar humiliating unequal treaties were signed with the Americans and French, while other western powers as well as Japan soon joined in the feeding frenzy, attacking China at will on flimsy pretexts and carving out spheres of influence.

Still not satisfied despite the many concessions exacted from the Qing government, the British East India Company set about to break China’s dominance in the tea trade. In perhaps one of the earliest instances of industrial espionage, a botanist named Robert Fortune was sent to spy on Chinese tea production processes and steal plants for cultivation in India.

The thief travelled disguised as a local Chinese, and flouting Chinese laws, pilfered specimens from key tea-growing regions which he smuggled to Darjeeling, India, together with skilled Chinese tea workers. Fortune’s “success” weaned the British off a dependence on Chinese tea and led to a rapid decline in China’s tea exports.

With Fortune’s theft of Chinese tea plants, the British East India Company decimated the very industry for which they had destroyed innumerable lives with opium, leaving China with not only a much-reduced tea sector but even more damaging, a large population of enfeebled drug-users.

Today, the debauched mercantilism of the British East India Company is often obscured by romantic myths and nostalgia for the days of the “Raj”. In the face of clever marketing and watered down accounts of history, it would do us well to spare a thought for the millions of lives ruined by the Company’s unbridled lust for profit.

Ziying wishes all readers a happy new year. The column takes a break and will be back in March. The writer enjoys hearing from readers atziyingster@gmail.com.

Of JAIS, a gang of delinquents and a Convert

This is an event that I witnessed first hand today and I just had to write about it.

Just after Isya prayers in the mosque, I was requested by the Nazir (Mosque Chairman) if I could wait a bit. He told me  that there was a lady who wanted to see him. That she was a convert and very troubled.  He would like for me to be present with him in the meeting to see if we could be of any help to her.

The lady looked in her 50’s and was incredibly upset.  She told us her story, about being a single mother as a result of her leaving her husband because of drunkenness and abuse, that she had 3 children of of whom were grown up and a couple of grandchildren.

She has tried hard to make ends meet and currently lives on a salary of RM300 as part time help.  She sounded fairly educated and conversed well both in English and Malay.  She kept making it clear that she did not come to the mosque this night for charity.  She had bigger problems on her mind.

She had recently buried her mother and was regretful that her mother died as an idol worshipper (mati sembah berhala) but there is nothing that she can do about it. Here fear now is about her own death.  And she kept on repeating, over and over again, what am I going to say to ALLAH SWT when I meet him?

She has been having this same dream of a man being split into half and when his body splits she sees all these arabic words but is powerless to read or understand it as she doesnt know arabic. She recalls how when she was in primary school (a convent school,) she was the best in jawi. But when her mother found out that she was being taught jawi, her mother would hit her on her knuckles, “until today I can feel the pain of my mother hitting me.”

10 years ago she embraced Islam and for 10 years she has resented what she has been through.  And the source of her resentment was the treatment she got at JAIS – which is the department of islamic affairs for the state of Selangor.  As a person new to Islam, she like most others, had made effort to attend classes organized by JAIS to learn about ISLAM. But she recalls how she was humiliated by  a particular JAIS official in charge of teach them.

She keeps on saying when she dies she doesn’t know what to say to Allah other than tell ALLAH that it is because of this JAIS person that she never learned HIS religion.  She was humiliated to tears and shamed publicly in front of all and as far as she is concerned this is how Muslims welcome converts.  They are unwelcome.

Her nightmares and fear of death was getting progressively unbearable.  She says that every morning when she hears the azan (call to prayer) she kneels down on her knees and just prays to Allah in spoken words, “it is all I know how to do”. She asks for forgiveness for her ignorance. She doesn’t even have a telekung or a prayer mat. But in her words, “I dont think Allah will be cross with me for not having a prayer mat.”

This night she saw a group of “budak jahat” or delinquents.  She spoke to them about the help she was looking for. It was this group of delinquents that took compassion on her, encouraged her to see someone at the mosque, gave her a ride on their motorcycles and brought her to the steps of the mosque.

And that is how we met her.

The irony of this story is how a person who is paid to be the flag bearers of the religion turns a lady who is seeking truth away and a group of delinquents who are constantly condemned by the  religious authoroties as being “good for nothing other than fuel for hell,” are the ones who extend their hand and compassion to help this lady.

God willing, for every good deed that this lady does, those boys will be given an equal portion.

As said by Imam Ali, ‘We know people by al-haq (the truth) and we do not know al-haq by people.’ This means that we should evaluate people by how strong their adherence and commitment to the true path and that we should not evaluate any path by those who are affiliated with or practice it.