Corruption is the issue, not hudud

It is not hudud but corruption with a capital 'C' that impedes progress, sending the nation backwards.

COMMENT

The debate between DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng and MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek is scheduled to be held at Berjaya Times Square in Kuala Lumpur on Feb 18.

A local English daily on Feb 12 reported Lim as saying that he did not know that the topic had been changed to “Future of the Malaysian Chinese” as claimed by some.

He said the original topic given to him by the organiser, Asli (Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute) was “Is a two-party system becoming a two-race system?” .

Lim also stated that it was not acceptable to talk about the Chinese community only as DAP’s struggle is for all Malaysians.

Be that as it may, the crux of the matter here is that not only is the future of the Malaysian Chinese at stake but the future of all Malaysians, regardless of race or religion, is at stake.

Malaysia is on the threshold of change: change for the better or remain the same for the worse and the crunch time is none other than the forthcoming 13th general election. This is an inescapable fact. It is the 13th general election that is going to be the decider.

As the debate is on the future of the Malaysian Chinese, Chua will surely bring up the issue of hudud law and how it will affect the Chinese. Moreover, he has always been trying to bait Lim to state DAP’s stand on the implementation of hudud which is actually a non-issue.

PAS needs two-thirds vote in Parliament to amend the Federal Constitution in order for hudud to be implemented and be rest assured that even BN parliamentarians will not support it. Therefore, the bottom line is that it will never be implemented.

Thus if Chua brings up this issue, it is only due to his intention to sidetrack Lim with the purpose of trying to create animosity between PAS and DAP.

Unfortunately for the MCA president, his cunning, albeit easily detected ploy, will not work. PAS is a matured and sensible political party and PAS leaders have instead gone on the jugular by accusing Umno of giving licence to MCA to attack Islam.

Scaring the Chinese voters

Currently, MCA leaders, especially Chua, have been saying non-stop that hudud will hamper progress and affect the Chinese way of life and culture and a vote for DAP is a vote for PAS and hudud.

This line of sloganeering by MCA is to scare the Chinese into voting for BN. Moreover, MCA has no campaign issues except hudud. MCA is unable to contribute ideas on how to curb corruption. Has anyone noticed MCA’s silence on the Feedlot Cattle-Condo Saga?

It is not hudud but corruption with a capital “C” that impedes progress. Ten out of 10 non-crony businessmen will say that it is corruption that has caused Malaysia to slide backwards compared to the 1950s and 1960s when it was on par with countries such as South Korea who is now ahead of us in leaps and bounds in terms of economic progress.

“Corruption eats into the wealth of the nation,” said a businessman investor who is an uncle of this columnist.

For each and every Malaysian, therefore, the time has come to weed out corruption by voting in the party whose candidates can practise good governance.

As BN is too deeply rooted in corrupt practices, it is time to boot out BN.

This columnist has worked in a law firm previously and can vouch for the fact that sometimes a person’s file in the government departments cannot be located for a long time but it can be found quickly if RM50 is paid to the file-searcher.

Many a time, people are prepared to wait but sometimes the matter is urgent and so the client is prepared to pay this RM50 or more depending on the urgency of the matter. This is a fact of life in Bolehland, sad but true.

We are in the grip of “Corrupt Culture” perpetrated by the BN federal government. This is in accordance to the slogan of a previous prime minister who advocated “Kepimpinan Melalui Teladan” or “Leadership By Example”.

This means that when the clerk sees the bigwigs of the nation practising corruption, the clerk will surely follow suit. As such, it is a waste of time debating about hudud as it is a non-starter and a non-event. The issue that should be debated is “How to eradicate corruption?”

Stop being Umno’s lackey

If Chua raises the issue of hudud in the debate on the future of the Chinese, it is obvious that he is merely playing the race and religion card to show that he is a champion of the Chinese and his intention is to obtain publicity for himself in order to boost his chances of being chosen as an election candidate.

Even if the topic is on the two-party system, he will still find a way to worm in the hudud topic.

This simply means that PAS is absolutely right in saying that Umno has appointed the MCA president as spokesman for hudud. How ironic! Is Umno lacking in Islamic intellectuals that it has to appoint a non-Muslim who is ignorant in matters pertaining to Islam to be its spokesman on hudud?

By the way, under hudud, a poor and jobless single mother who steals infant formula will certainly not have her hands chopped off. That is not hudud.

Everyone must know that the crux of the nation’s problems is all due to corruption. Hudud is only a topic to divert voters’ attention away from the major issues at hand; issues such as the growing national debt, ever-rising inflation, sky-rocketing price of goods, wage-stagnation, crime rate, social problems caused by the influx of foreign workers, etc.

It is time MCA stopped being Umno’s lackey by trying to dupe the Chinese into voting for BN in order for the plundering to continue till the cows come home.

Speaking of cows, the investigation by the MACC is still progressing very, very slowly in regard to the Feedlot matter. Perhaps this inertia will eventually lead to the Malaysian voters forgetting the Feedlot issue altogether when the 13th general election is called.

Maybe that is what the BN leaders are waiting for as the Malaysian voters do not have elephantine memory.

Selena Tay is a FMT columnist.