UNLIKE the merit on the corruption probe levelled at twice former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin, punitive action meted out against PAS president Tan Sri Hadi Awang for so-called sedition and defamatory remarks must be carefully thought of for they may backfire on the unity government in the long run.
If the case is weak, instead of attracting support for Anwar, a bigger repercussion can be that the Malays will accuse Anwar as being responsible for initiating the investigation of to silence Hadi, remove him from the political arena and ultimately, weaken PAS.
Former chief justice (CJ) Tun Abdul Hamid Mohamad (2007-2008) who expressed the above view was commenting on a statement by Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Razaruddin Husain that the result of the police’s initial investigation on Hadi’s view that appeared in an online New Straits Times news article found that the message contained racist statements that could cause public outrage.
The article entitled “Hadi Again Accuses DAP of Chinese Agenda, Using Malay Spokesperson to Achieve Goals” was first published on July 8 last year.
“I don’t think a person as intelligent and as experienced as Anwar would direct the police to investigate such statements to accuse the PAS president in order to strengthen his (Anwar) political position,” reckoned the 81-year-old Kepala Batas (Penang)-born Abdul Hamid penned in his blog.
“If the police have done so just to boost Anwar’s political mileage, then this is a less than wise calculation. This is especially so when it somehow coincided with the Dubai Move conspiracy. Anwar better stay away from Hadi unless he is certain that there’s a strong case against Hadi.”
For context, the point of contention that was laid out by Razaruddin is that Hadi accused DAP of intending to retain the meaning of Islam in the Federal Constitution based on the colonialists’ interpretation which upholds liberalism and freedoms espoused by the West.
Additionally, the controversial cleric also chided DAP for having succeeded in appointing spokespersons from Malays “who have forgotten their Malay-ness and have fallen by the wayside in terms of their devotion to Islam”.
“I don’t want to comment on the merits of the case because I don’t know what has been told to the police (since the police would be calling both Hadi and NST to have their statements recorded) and if the Attorney-General is considering charging Hadi in court,” noted Abdul Hamid.
“I only have two questions for readers to think and decide for themselves. One is whether what Hadi had said against UMNO should be deemed as an offence? And what if a DAP MP demands that the committee that determines the Shariah law must have a non-Muslim as a member when in Malaysia the Shariah law only applies to Muslims?” – Jan 16, 2024
