IN the lead up to the last general election, the Conference of Malay Rulers expressed their concerns about the political atmosphere of the country.
Politicians got carried away and started making all sorts of remarks that were uncalled for. Fortunately, one of them was immediately reined in by his party superiors.
But, what if it comes from the president of a party himself? Recently, after meeting former two-time premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, PAS president Tan Sri Hadi Awang berated non-Muslims and non-Malays for the woes of the country.
His recent statements condemning Malays who work with non-Muslims and non-Malays whom he claimed are the “biggest plunderer” by giving and receiving bribes, has gone too far, if not seditious.
Unlike his predecessor, Tok Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat, Hadi who is renowned for his charade now claims that “the Malays had been conned by non-Muslim and non-Malay “plunderers”. Despite being challenged by retired DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang to name these “plunderers”, Hadi has remained silent.
On TikTok, the son of a Memali victim using the moniker Joidin4 lamented that Hadi is now kissing the hand of the ‘enemy’. The Memali Incident on Nov 19, 1985 which stemmed from strained relationship between UMNO and PAS resulted in 14 villagers of Kampung Memali and four policemen killed. Dr Mahathir had since denied any knowledge of the siege.
For years, the politicians and their operatives have always used the Chinese and the DAP as their punching bags. Linking them to the Communists was an easy way to gain Malay votes.
It is time for such race politicking to cease. It will only cease when Malaysians unite with one voice to reject it. When one race is bullied by another, we cannot sit back to watch the movie. Netizens have to reprimand these politicians.
Even Malays are impoverished
In a country that is highly polarised, even the Malays themselves become victims of these same politicians. While money from the 1MDB (1Malaysia Development Bhd) scandal was splashed around, the B40 Bumiputra remain poor.
Till today, Hadi has yet to give a plausible explanation why the defamation suit against Sarawak Report editor Clare Brown was withdrawn just before the trial began. Instead, PAS paid Brown a total of RM1,422,980 to settle the matter out of court (see cheque).
The entire episode with Nik Abduh, the son of Nik Aziz, claiming that convicted former prime minister (PM) Datuk Seri Najib Razak had dished out RM90 mil to PAS and subsequently denying that it was his voice in the audio recording has tongues wagging when Nik Abduh later claimed he had the blessing of the PAS president for the U-turn.
For this, we decided that the authorities will have to figure it out. But as peace-loving Malaysians, we should not allow politicians to dictate the narrative of the day. There is something desperately wrong when Malay unity is achieved at the expense of other races.
We are already a highly polarised nation because of these politicians. As we have seen from an earlier article, politicians can argue over just one word. We could have become a more progressive Muslim nation on par with Dubai.
Another May 13 incident would mean our fixed assets – houses, apartments, shops, offices and cars – if destroyed would not be compensated by insurance companies. The poorest among us will suffer more if we allow politicians to use their mercenary to create another unrest in the country.
We have the example of two former African leaders – Dr Robert Mugabe who bankrupted Zimbabwe and Nelson Mandela whose path brought healing to the post-apartheid South Africa, now becoming known as a “rainbow nation”.
We once again plead for politicians to confine their rhetoric to the august house and if done in a proper and orderly manner, they earn our respect. – May 13, 2023
Read prior articles in this series:
The collapse, collapse, collapse mantra that PN is capitalising on
Unity gov’t solid and strong despite chants of impending collapse
Man of the hour: Is Anwar’s anti-graft drive just a fad or a necessity in Madani Malaysia?
Never idolise any leader, Anwar included
Remembering May 13 and what it was not
Is there a psychological war being waged against the unity government?
R&R is for “Rest and Recreation”, not “Race and Religion”, please!
We all come from the same womb of Eve
Exercise critical thinking when reading political news
Pic credits: Minaq Jinggo
