Hasan Ali: Good riddance to bad rubbish for Pakatan but a political gem to Umno

PAS sacked Hassan Ali, a former Selangor Chief, on January 8 for his actions against the interests of the party. This move was lauded by PAS members and the people in general. It is indisputably not a drastic action against Hassan. He has to reap what he had sowed. He was never remorseful over his sardonic rhetoric that harmed the party even after he had apologised to the top PAS leaders. He went about mocking the party manifesto thinking that he was larger than the party. Being a party renegade he deserved the sacking.

Hassan had the illusion of becoming the chief of Selangor. But today, Hassan is a loner living in his world of hallucination. This is symptomatic of deep depression and despondency in life. He has become so pathetic and is apparently suffering from inferior complex. He wanted to become the kingmaker in Selangor with the help of pro-UMNO JAIS but this did not seem to work.

Not a team player

As a politician he has not been a team player. He may be highly educated but his political acumen is far too superficial. He has been alleged to have been subtly and circuitously preaching hatred towards the Christians. He is making ridiculous claims of apostasy among Muslims for publicity hoping that some gullible Malays will bow to him. Unfortunately, his crusade against the Christians to hoodwink the Muslims is not getting support of the people in the country. They are too intelligent to be connived by Hassan’s inane antagonism against the minority Christians.

Hassan has now fallen into UMNO’s trap. The tactics employed by the current crop of selfish UMNO leaders are that they exploit the Malay sentiments by falsely highlighting that the Malays are weak in everything. They are patented as vulnerable and can easily be led astray by people of other religions. They make the Malays believe that Christianity is a threat to Islam. Hassan is now together with UMNO in this pit of venomous stingers.

The rumour that he would be dropped by PAS as candidate in the coming general election had rattled him psychologically. This has now driven him near bonkers. He seems to have a lack of strength to control his frustrations and emotion. He was in BTN, a motivator and counsellor of sort to students and government servants at one time giving fiery speeches on emotional intelligence.

A good preacher indeed but he has now turned into a prophet who does not practice his ideals. When confronted with a situation that will make his political career come to an end he fumbles and succumbs to his emotional instinct.

Not a ‘sex messenger’

Failing to convince his former team mates to follow his brand of politics he is now been ostracised by them. Joining UMNO will not guarantee his political career nor would UMNO make him achieve his ambition to become a state chief. He will be made use of by UMNO just like what has happened to those who jumped party or became UMNO-friendly independents. If he plays his card well he may be appointed a senator under UMNO as what has been rewarded to Ezam Mohd Nor and S. Nallakaruppan.

But UMNO is wary of Hassan’s character. Being a religious man and unlike those who have become UMNO friendly, Hassan cannot be transformed into a ‘sex messenger’ like a few other turncoats. How about as UMNO’s candidate in the coming general election? But then not even the rabble-rouser Ibrahim Ali – a former UMNO member – could please UMNO enough to be made an UMNO candidate. Be it as it may, Hassan will end up doing some mucky chores for UMNO if he tries to associate himself with the party.

Hassan did not come out of his antiquated cocoon even after he had been reported to have apologised to senior PAS leaders for his criticism against PAS’ ‘welfare state chorus’. He could not suppress his emotions and trotted around bleating and drumming the many other social and party issues with the intention to further harm the party and the Pakatan Pact. His comments on Anwar Ibrahim and PKR was rather premature.

“He thought that he could gain some brownie points by hitting on Anwar Ibrahim. He again failed. He miscalculated when he commented on the ‘Free Anwar 901 Rally’ to show support for Anwar. He wants to be seen a lone ranger fighting for his own survival. It backfired on him,” said a PAS lawmaker.

Hassan has been too immature and ludicrous when he commented that some Muslims are drinking alcohol openly in Selangor. He fails to understand that by seeing a handful of Muslims drinking alcohol is not going to affect the morality of the ummah in general. This is seen as the problem of a few delinquents in any Muslim society. Less than1 percent of Malay Muslims in the country consume alcohol as compared with an average of more than 32 percent of Muslims in other major Muslim countries who indulge in this activity.

Alcohol was consumed by some Muslims even during the time of the Prophet (May Peace Be Upon Him). There were also other sins committed by Muslims during the time such as apostasy and prostitution though it was not a norm. Hassan cannot be too idealistic and expect perfection among Muslims. “Being a motivator and with religious credentials, he should instead reach and counsel the delinquents among the Muslims,” said an Islamic scholar attached to a local university.

To convert the Malays

Perfection among Muslims was not even achieved during the time of the Prophet. Hassan, for this reason, has failed to become a sensible and realistic Muslim. His intention to highlight the issues of alcohol drinking, apostasy and other moral issues affecting a few Muslims in Selangor was solely for his own political gain. Being a former motivational speaker he has failed to reach the Muslims with his motivational skills and religious repertoire to make these people better Muslims. Instead he has chosen to shame these people in public. His fervent ambition in politics has shrouded his judgement and actual role as a Muslim to reach the people to appease them.

Is he then on a jihad mode? His mention of solar-powered Bible used by Christians to convert the Malays is a too far-fetched analysis of the whole situation. The Christians do not have to use this modus operandi to convince the Muslims if their intention is to convert others. The Internet is illimitable with information on Christianity and other religions and currently more than 16 million Malaysians have access to the Internet. With all the information and religious promises displayed on the Internet it is more than needed to start converting the masses. Despite all this, the society has not heard of Malays rushing to become Christians in droves. “Drumming anti-Christian rhetoric is not making Hassan popular among Muslims, either,” said a Muslim student in a local university.

Hassan was alleged to have accused the Christians disguised as imam preaching to the faithful in the mosques. This must be the most absurd statement made by a religious man who is supposed to be highly educated. Thus far no Christian has been caught for disguising as imam rambling in mosques to woo the Muslims. No Muslim has thus far mentioned anything on this accept for Hassan.

Hassan warned, as reported, that an elite highly covert task force which may be operating in and around Petaling Jaya and Kelana Jaya, has been set up by Christians with the aim of proselytising Selangor Malays. It seems the Christians found that Buddhists, Taoists and Confucians are easy to convert, But they found Muslims, specifically Malays, difficult to convert. So they formed the special unit to convert the Selangor Malays to Christianity. This is another ridiculous claim by Hasan without presenting any empirical evidence.

JAIS is UMNO’s stooge

Why only Selangor? Why not in Pahang, Johor or Melaka? Is it because Selangor is under Pakatan government? If he has the evidence to all his feral accusations why not make a police report? This ploy by Hassan smacks of sleazy politics with some hidden hands pulling the string from behind. JAIS is known to be UMNO’s stooge.

Hassan who is whimsy goes on a witch hunt for the minority Christians. Hassan must then be more efficient than the Malaysian Police Special Branch Unit to claim that there is a Christian ‘covert’ task force – international in composition – targeting the Muslims in the country. Or, could it be some aliens from outer space who have reached the earth all out to change the faith of Muslims? Perhaps Hassan can soon be appointed by UMNO as special advisor to the Special Branch Unit to hollow out out more information on this load of crap.

Hassan’s railing and ranting at the Christians and his former party leaders smacks of self-centredness. His motive is to use scare tactics to galvanise the Muslims to support him. But the Muslims are not falling into this noxious political pit of his.

“Hassan being a former motivator and counsellor should lead by good example and this will attract people to his thoughts. Being politically greedy and arrogant will only alienate the people from him,” said a PAS lawmaker from Selangor.

Fictitious story

In a recent anti-apostasy forum held by JAIS, Hassan was alleged to have reasoned that a Special Christian Unit out to convert the Muslims was the result of the animosity and feud between Muslims and the Christian crusaders during the Holy Crusades of the Middle Ages. The conflict has not healed the wounds of the Christians. They feel they need to recoup their loss, and are doing so by proselytising Muslims, who are largely Malays in Malaysia. This is another bunch of crap from Hassan to create racial and religious acrimony in this country.

Unfortunately, for UMNO’s political expedient the oppressed and the marginalised are generally the non-Muslims. They become the scapegoats when UMNO is rattled or loosing popularity. Hasan now seems to dance to this tune as he was at one time too ambitious to lead Selangor when the idea of forming a unity government with UMNO was mooted by a trifling number of PAS aspirants.

“No rational-minded Malaysian is convinced by Hassan’s shallow rhetoric. His fictitious story about the strategy by Christians to proselytise the Muslims is solely to improve his flagging credibility. Hassan is trying to intimidate the minority Christians by deliberately stirring communal enmity. This is not how the Prophet treated the minority Christians and Jews during his time,” quipped an Islamic scholar from a local university.

It is evident that the use of community services by the Christians are to help the poor among Malaysians – Muslims and non-Muslims. No poor person would reject what is good and beneficial to them. But saying that to convert the Muslims by Christians disguised as imams preaching to the faithful in the mosques is another preposterous idea from Hassan.

Hassan seems to go round preaching that everyone is at fault – the Christians and the government. He seems to claim that only he is right and know all about the social and religious fabric of the society. This reflects his arrogance and superficial knowledge of Islam. He is a crestfallen hero and his emotional instinct is now guiding his path of thinking.

He has not stopped provoking the Muslims and the non-Muslims with his approach to politics. “Hassan is playing a dangerous game of provoking racial and religious sentiments. Six decades of independence has not seen any conflict or war in this country between the Muslims and the Christians. He is playing with fire by poking at the hives thinking that the Muslims will support him,” said a local university lecturer.

Good riddance to bad rubbish

Hassan is a ravenous politician masquerading as a religious man. He has been creating dissension and suspicion by conveniently bashing a minority group in the country. The Christians for this cause have been made his scapegoat. Islam does not preach racism. There is no coercion in faith. Neither can a Muslim defame (fitnah) others. Hassan has awfully embarrassed the Muslims. Hassan’s idiotic claims and verbal onslaught against the minority and his former party members have cost him dearly – politically. He has been wrong all this while to assume that the Malay race is weak and vulnerable that they can easily be swayed into conversion. The Malays in general are now too smart to be connived by silly rhetoric made by silly politicians.

Islam does not belong to Hassan but to all Muslims. Empirical social thinking is part of Islam. Evidence and rationality is stressed in Islam. Islam advocates open-mindedness and all this made the Arab Muslims lead the world in science and social thinking for almost six centuries in the past. Hassan, regrettably, is left out of this Islamic social paradigm.

Hassan is now reaping what he had sowed. Ironically, he seldom talks about corruption, injustice, the misappropriation of zakat money, high divorce rates, poverty and poor education among Muslims when these are major issues affecting the image of the Muslims in the country. He has conveniently chosen to talk on trivial issues without any empirical evidence to provoke the Christians.

Within his former political party and the coalition Hassan had shown his immaturity by playing the game singly. His willingness to go all alone is to convince the people that he could become a better saviour of the Malays, Islam, the state of Selangor and the country. His ambition to become the chief of Selangor is now tattered in pieces. To PAS, Pakatan and the people in general it is good riddance to bad rubbish.

Malaysia Chronicle