I\ I- ~ L:. ~ s I ~ B a~ I ~ !! Vol. 9 No. 4 1974 .RE_ l3L lll ataysian Baha'i News Vo l:9 No.4 Dec. 73-July 74 PERMANENT SEAT, UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE JOYFULLY ANNOUNCE ACCEPTANCE EXQUISITE DESIGN CONCEIVED BY HUSAYN AMANAT FOR BUILDING TO SERVE AS PERMANENT SEAT UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE MOUNT CARMEL STOP DECISION MADE TO PROCEED NEGOTIATE CONTRACTS CONSTRUCTION THIS NOBLE EDIFICE SECOND THOSE BUILDINGS DESTINED ARISE AROUND ARC CONSTITUTE ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRE BAHA'I WORLD. 7th Feb. '74. THE UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE Front elevation of the design for the building for the Seat of the Universal House of Justice on Mount Carmel in Haifa. The building is to be sited on the central axis of the Arc and will face northward toward 'Akka and Bahji. The architect is Mr. Husayn Amanat. Architects needed for Baha'i Temples The Universal House of Justice will soon be considering the selection of architects for the Mashriqu'l-Adhkars to be erected in India and Samoa. Those wishing to be considered as architects for either of these Temples are invited to submit statements of their qualifications. Such submission may include examples of works previously designed and/ or executed and, if desired, any thoughts or concepts of proposed designs for the Temples may be expressed in whatever way the applicant chooses. The design of each Temple will be developed by f'he architect selected in relation to the climate, environ­ ment and culture of the area where it is to be built. The initiation of construction of these Temples is a goal of the current Five Year Plan. Cable from the Univ.ersal House of Justice CHARLES MASON REMEY WHOSE ARROGANT ATIEMPT USURP GUARDIANSHIP AFTER PASSING SHOGHI EFFENDI LED TO HIS EXPULSION FROM RANKS FAITHFUL HAS DIED IN FLORENCE ITALY IN HUNDREDTH YEAR OF HIS LIFE BURIED WITHOUT RELIGIOUS RITES ABANDONED BY ERSTWHILE FOLLOWERS STOP HISTORY THIS PITIABLE DEFECTION BY ONE WHO HAD RECEIVED GREAT HONOURS FROM BOTH MASTER AND GUARDIAN CONSTITUTES YET ANOTHER EXAMPLE FUTILITY ALL ATIEMPTS UNDERMINE IMPREGNABLE COVENANT CAUSE BAHA'U'LLAH. April 5, '74. 2 Malaysian Baha'i News Vol:9 No.4 D ec,·7J-Jul11 74 To all i·eaders of the Malaysian Baha'i News Dearly loved Friends, This is the ninth year of the publication of the Malaysian Baha'i News and it is with mixed feelings that we inform you that this will be the last issue of the magazine in this format. This issue coincides with the 21st year of the founding of the West Malaysian Baha'i Community. It is also significant as East and West Malaysia and Brunei have been merged together under the National Spiritual Assembly of Malaysia, at the direction of the Universal House of Justice. ·· This year also witnesses the launching of the Global Five Year Plan. To fulfill the need for communication effectiveness on the homefront, a new format will be substituted for the Malaysian Baha'i News. It will be printed in five languages - English, Tamil, Chinese, Malay and Iban, as more than three- quarters of the Malaysian community live in rural areas where these vernacular languages are spoken. The decision to replace the Malaysian Baha'i News was made after considerable consultation, when Mrs. Shantha Sundram who has been the Editor since the first issue in 1965, requested to be relieved of this heavy responsibility because of her appointment as Auxiliary Board Member. We wish to take this opportunity to express our appreciation and gratitude for all the wonderful work that she has put into the magazine all these years. Throughout the pages of the Malaysian Baha'i News have been recorded the events, people and institutions that have contributed to the emergence of the Baha'i Community of Malaysia which now envelops almost 30,000 registered believers in over a thousand localities. Surely future Baha'i historians will find the Ma layasian Baha'i News a rich source of information, and inspiration for others to come. We thank our readers at home and abroad for their interest and subscriptions to the Malaysian Baha'i News, and hope that they will equally enjoy the new publications in good time. With loving Baha'i greetings, The National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Malaysia. July 1974 Malaysian Baha'i News, a quarterly magazine, 1s the official organ of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Malaysia for circulation among Baha'is only. Editor: Mrs. Shantha Sundram, 3, Minden Heights (8), Pena.ng, Malaysia. Circulation: Miss Margaret Chan. Publishing Manager: Dr. Chellie J. Sundram, 3, Minden Heights (8), Penang, Malaysia. A note to subscribers who have kept back issues of the MBN :- Vol. 3 No. 4 is non-existent, as the volume numbers were changed that year to coincide with the Baha'i calendar, and that issue, (March 1968), was numbered Vol. 4 No. 1. 3 Malal(Bian Baha'i News Vol:9 No.4 Dec. 7$~v.111 74 Message to the Baha'is of the World from the Universal House of Justice Naw-Ruz 1974 Dearly-loved friends, A span of eighteen years separates us from the centenary of Baha'u'llah's Ascension and the unveiling of His Almighty Covenant. The fortunes of humanity in th at period no man can foretell. We can, however, confidently predict that the Cause of God, impelled by the mighty forces of life within it, must go on from strength to strength, increasing in size an'd developing greater and ' greater powers for the accomplishment of God's purpose on earth. The abundant evidences of Divine confirmation which have rewarded the strenuous and dedicated efforts of the Baha'i community during the past decade are apparent throughout the earth and give incontrovertible assurance of its capacity to win the good pleasure of Ba ha'u'llah and answer every call made upon it in His service. The Five-Year Plan to which this community is now summoned is the opening campaign of these critical years. It is the third global plan embarked upon by the Army of Light in its implementation of Abdul Baha's Divine Plan, that world-encompassing programme disclosed in His perspicuous Tablets and described by the Guardian of the Cause of God as the Charter for the propagation of the Faith throughout the world. It was the Guardian himself, the beloved "sign of God," who, through his exposition and iriterpretation of the Revelation, through his discipline and education of the Baha'i community and through a series of national plans assigned to the various units of that community, forged the Administrative Order of the Faith and made it an instrument for the carrying out of thi s great Charter, and he himself designed and 'launched the first global plan, the unique, brilliant an d spiritually glorious Ten Year Crusade. The victories of that crusade · implanted the banner of Baha'u'Jlah throughout the planet and the following Nine Year Plan reinforced and extended the bastions of the Faith and raised the number of National Spiritual Assemblies - the supporting pil lars of the Universal House of Justice - to one hundred and thirteen, a number increased to one hundred and fifteen by the formation at this Ridvan of the National Spiritual Assam blies of Hong Kong and South East Arabia. This Five-Year Plan has three major objectives: preservation and consolidation of the victories won; a vast and widespread expansion of the Baha'i community; development of the distinctive character of Baha'i life particularly in the local communities. The achievement of these overall aims requires the accomplishment of particular tasks at the World Centre of the Faith, and by national and local communities. At- the World Centre work will continue on the collation and classification of the Sacred Texts; authorized translations of three compilations of Scripture will be made and published, namely, Tablets of Baha'u'llah revealed after the Kitab-i-Aqdas, prayers and extracts from the Writings of the Bab, greatly augmenting the fragments of His Utterance now avai lab le in the West, and of the Master's works comprising a wide selection from the vast range of subjects illumined by His Divine wisdom; construction will begin on the building on Mount Carmel to serve as the seat of the Universal House of Justice and it is hoped to complete it during the Five Year Plan; further extension and beautification of the gardens and lands surrounding the Holy Places will take place; strengthening of the relationship between the Baha'i International Community and the United Nations will continue; and efforts will be constantly made to protect the Faith from persecution and to free it from the restraints imposed by rel igious orthodoxy. In the in ternational sphere the erection of two Mash riqu'l-Adhkars - one in India and one in Samoa - will be initiated; eight International Teaching Conferences wi ll be held during the middle part of the Five­ Year Plan; two for the Arctic, one in Anchorage and one in Helsinki during July 1976, one in Paris in August 1976, one in Nairobi in October 1976, one in Hong Kong in November 1976, one in Auckland and one in Bahia, Brazil in January 1977 and one in Merida, Mexico in February 1977. Sixteen new National Spiritual Assemblies will be formed, namely the National Spiritual Assemblies of the Bahamas, Burundi, Cyprus, the French Antilles, Greece, Jordan, Mali, Mauritania, the New Hebrides, N iger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Surinam and French Guiana, Togo, and Upper Volta; their national Haziratul-Quds, Temple sites and endowments must be acquired; the dissemination of news and messages, so 4 Malayaian Baha'i New• Vol:9 No.4 Message to the \Vorld (continued) vital to the knowledge, encouragement and · unity of the Baha'i community, must be made efficient and rapid, and in anticipation of a vast expansion in the number of believers, of Local Spiritual Assemblies and of localities where Baha'is reside a co-ordinated programme of translating and publishing Baha'i literature with the eventual aim of providing the Sacre.d Text and the teachings of the Faith to all mankind is to be developed - a programme which will include the founding of six Baha'i Publishing Trusts and the continued subvention of Baha'i literature, 409 inter-Assembly assistance projects are scheduled and, at the outset of the Plan, 557 p'ioneers are called for.