An adversary impossible to beat

Just like in the case of religion, you hold certain views regarding politics. And just like in the case of religion, you have already decided which is the right path to follow and which is the wrong path. If you have decided that Barisan Nasional is the right path, this is the path you will follow never mind what I say. And if you have decided that Pakatan Rakyat is the right path, this is the path you will follow never mind what I say.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

In the spirit of this holy month of Ramadhan, it is my duty as a Muslim to talk to you about Islam. It is mandatory for every Muslim to do dakwah (missionary) work so as a Muslim I am just fulfilling my duty

Islam is the true religion and is the religion that replaces all earlier religions of the People of the Book. (Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, etc., are not included in this category of the religions of the Book).

Although Islam recognises the earlier religions of the Book, those religions are now abrogated and replaced by Islam mainly because those earlier religions have over time been distorted and have changed and are no longer the original religions as revealed by those Prophets before the coming of Muhammad.

No doubt Islam regards those earlier religions of the Book as having a ‘Book’. However, those Books no longer exist and what remains today are ‘Books’ or kitabs written by man and are not from God. The Qur’an, however, is the word of God because the Qur’an was revealed to Muhammad directly by the Angel Gabriel.

The truth path is Islam, the Prophet of Islam is Muhammad, and the only Book from God, referred to as Allah, is the Qur’an. Hence your salvation is Islam and not any of the other false religions. And by embracing Islam you are guaranteed heaven. By rejecting Islam you are doomed for an eternity in hell.

It is my duty, therefore, to invite you to embrace Islam, the true religion. Whether your heart opens to Islam is purely up to Allah. My duty is just to deliver this message of Islam to you and it is Allah’s will to move you into accepting Islam.

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Okay, that is part one of my article today. How many of you from the hundreds of thousands of Malaysia Todayreaders can accept my message? Have I convinced 10,000 of you who are non-Muslims to now embrace Islam? What about 1,000 then? Okay, has even just one of you seen the light and have now decided to become a Muslim?

Chances are, most of you already have a strong opinion on whether Islam is the right religion for you. Most likely, if you believe in Islam, you would have already become a Muslim by now. The fact that you are not a Muslim is because you do not accept what I have written in part one of this article above.

Can I change your mind about Islam? No doubt you already have strong views regarding Islam but is there anything I can say that will make you change your view and convince you to embrace Islam and become a Muslim?

I doubt it. I suspect there is very little I can say to make you become a Muslim. You have already decided what you want to be and a Muslim is certainly not what you want to be.

I can talk till the cows come home and write an article a day for the next ten years and still this is not going to sway you and make you change your view. If you have already decided you are not going to become a Muslim you are probably never going to become a Muslim never mind how much I try to convince you otherwise. That is the reality of the matter. And it would be a great achievement if I can finally get even just one of you to become a Muslim. And if ten of you embrace Islam, that would be almost a miracle.

The long and the short of it is you all already have certain views. And these views are very strong views. And it will be very difficult, if not impossible, for me to get you to change these views. I can try, of course, but I will not succeed. The effort I need to put into the job of trying to make you change your view will be colossal while the result will be dismal. So better I don’t bother because it is going to be a total waste of time and an effort that will just disgust you.

Let us translate that to your views regarding other matters, politics as an example. You might say that religion is another issue altogether and should not be equated to politics. Hence we cannot compare religion to politics. I am not comparing religion to politics. I am talking about how you hold certain views and how it is not that easy to sway you and convince you to change your view.  

Just like in the case of religion, you hold certain views regarding politics. And just like in the case of religion, you have already decided which is the right path to follow and which is the wrong path. If you have decided that Barisan Nasional is the right path, this is the path you will follow never mind what I say. And if you have decided that Pakatan Rakyat is the right path, this is the path you will follow never mind what I say.

I will of course continue to deliver my message of Islam to you. And I do this not because I am trying to convert you to Islam, which I think would be a futile exercise, but because I want you to understand Islam. Why do I want you to understand Islam? Well, for two reasons.

Firstly would be because Islam is the religion of the Federation, as stipulated in the Constitution of Malaysia. Hence it is my duty, not as a Muslim, but as a Malaysian, to help you understand the ‘official’ religion of the country that you are a citizen of.

Secondly would be because Muslims themselves are not setting the right example of what a good Muslim should be like and many times they say and do things that confuses people and gives a bad impression of Islam. Hence I should correct this perception of Islam, and I have said many times that Muslims are Islam’s greatest enemy.

In politics it is the same. You have already decided which government you want and nothing I can say is going to make you change your mind. So I talk about what type of government we should be looking for not to ‘convert’ you but to help you understand the concept of ‘good government’.

The outcome of the coming general election has more or less already been decided. Most people have already decided whom they are going to vote for. The rule of the thumb we normally use is 30:40:30 -- meaning 30% will support the government, 30% will support the opposition and 40% will be the fence-sitters or ‘floating’ voters.

I believe those who want to vote for Barisan Nasional have already made up their minds while those who want to vote for Pakatan Rakyat have also already made up their minds and the fence-sitters is now a very small minority -- although I honestly can’t tell you how many percentage it is.

I have said this before and I will say it again. The coming general election is not about who is going to win but about who is going to lose. If Pakatan Rakyat wins the election it is not because Pakatan Rakyat won but because Barisan Nasional lost. That is what it is going to be.

Those who are going to vote for Pakatan Rakyat will do so not because they support Pakatan Rakyat but because they just want change. It is because they no longer want the same government they’ve been having since 1955. Many countries have seen this happen when the voters kicked out the same government that they have been having for 50 years or more just to see a change.

Will Pakatan Rakyat be a better government? Most people who have already decided to vote for Pakatan Rakyat do not care. This is not about whether Pakatan Rakyat is going to be a better government. Never mind if it is not going to be a better government. Voting in Pakatan Rakyat is going to see a different government to Barisan Nasional. It will see a change of government never mind whether better or not.

We might argue that change does not necessarily mean better. Some countries opted for change but they did not see a better government. Sometimes they saw worse. But those who have already decided to vote for change are not concerned about that. They want change first and later will work on ‘better’, after the change happens.

And this is what Barisan Nasional is up against. It is no use trying to rationalise this logic. Some might even argue that there is no logic at all in this type of thinking. This is not about logic. This is about sentiments and emotions. If logic can override sentiments and emotions would we be quarrelling about which religion is better and which religion is the true religion when all religions can equally not be proven and are based on beliefs and not reasoning?

Hence both sides, Barisan Nasional as well as Pakatan Rakyat, need to play on our emotions and sentiments just like how Christianity and Islam engage each other in winning coverts. Do people convert because of the evidence each religion offers or because of the dogma it is selling to potential converts? It is not reasoning that wins converts but faith.

Hence if you have faith that voting for Pakatan Rakyat would invite change you will vote for Pakatan Rakyat. Is there any evidence that voting for change would translate to voting for a better government? Faith does not require evidence. Faith is based on belief. And belief does not require evidence.

Barisan Nasional may not realise this but this is what it is up against. And unless Barisan Nasional can convince the voters that it is the engine for change then the voters are going to vote Pakatan Rakyat. And there is nothing Barisan Nasional can do about it.

And what is my job in all this? Well, my job, as I have said many times before, is to throw the cat amongst the pigeons and stir the shit. Sometimes we need to raise the peoples’ anger because anger is a great motivating factor. And one way you can anger people is to tell them that they are wrong and we are right. Tell them that they are stupid and foolish. No one likes to be told that he or she is an idiot. This will force them to defend their position and to do so they will need to think. You cannot win an argument without first thinking.

Back in the 1980s, the Malaysian stock market used to be called ‘the second casino’. That was where the people went to gamble. They did not care about fundamentals or PE ratios. They ‘played’ the market based on rumours and on following the herd.

When there was a rumour that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s daughter eloped with an Indian man the market fell. The rumour was proven false in the end and the market went up again. But why should the market rise and fall based on rumours? And so what if Dr Mahathir’s daughter eloped? Why should that affect the market?

Actually, it should have been the PE ratios of the companies that decide the share price of the companies. And all the PE ratios were ridiculously high. And why do you buy just because your friends are buying and sell just because your friends are selling? Is this a prudent investment policy?

Well, this is not about prudence. It is about sentiments. We talk about market sentiments. We do not talk about market prudence. And many people got wiped out on ‘Black Monday’ when the markets all over the world collapsed and people were left with shares that were not worth 10% what they bought them for.

Yes, never mind whether it is the stock market, religion or casting your vote. Do not try to talk common sense. Common sense has to bearing on our decision and beliefs. And this is going to be something that Barisan Nasional is going to find great difficulty in overcoming.

Good luck to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak. Faith and belief are adversaries impossible to beat.