PAS president Tan Sri Hadi Awang is like an ancient warrior who wants to ride out and swing his scimitar at his perceived enemies whom he regards as immoral and godless.
He is ablaze with holy wrath, and it looks like he will not rest until the whole country is cleansed of all sins and impurities.
When he looks out far and wide, his twisted mind sees only a wilderness populated by pagans who must be driven out so that only one ethnic group and one creed predominate.
After his green “army” conquered some “territories” in the recent battle of the polls, the preacher is becoming more strident in his denunciation of his political foes.
His inflammatory speeches are approaching dangerously close to incitement to hatred and eventual eruption of violence against his tatgetted opponents.
Hadi must realise that his attacks – although political in nature – will inevitably ignite a wider conflict that would suck the country into a vortex of chaos.
But does the PAS leader care? Nary. As long as his mission is to fight the infidels to his last breath, he would keep the heat on until every state goes green, even if it comes at the cost of calamity to the nation.
In fact, Hadi already saw visions of a PAS-ruled country in the aftermath of the 15th General Election (GE15). He believed his party and Bersatu – jointly bearing the shield of Perikatan Nasional (PN) – had the numbers to form the government.
This firebrand thinks that the political football should have ended without the need for extra time. In his mind, the “referee” was unfair to give his opponents the chance to score the winning goal.
But the dice has been cast and – like it or not – Hadi should have accepted the result in good faith. He did not. Instead, displaying an aggressive, provocative temperament, he stoked racial and religious sentiments to undermine a multi-racial society.
Hadi is not even afraid of the authorities probably because he thinks that no one would dare touch the hem of his garment as he is a man of God.
Driven by overweening ambition, he dreams of PAS making a clean sweep of every state and be the government at the centre in future electoral encounters – he does little to temper his idealism with realism.
The reality on the ground is that Malaysia is populated by people of different ethnic groups and faiths who do not subscribe to PAS’ conservative brand of governance under the guidance of God.
PAS may reign supreme in some states but that does not signify that it has the mandate from heaven to rule the whole country.
God rules the heaven but on earth He gives the creations made in His own image the freedom to decide their own destiny.
Hadi portrays himself as the chosen one to lead Malaysia out of the den of iniquity but he himself needs to be led out of the valley of phobias and hate and belligerence to live in peace with his fellow beings who are all the creatures of God.
It is unlikely that God will give Hadi the greenlight to wreak havoc in a country yearning for racial harmony and religious tolerance. – Dec 8, 2022
Phlip Rodrigues is a former journalist.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
