Theocratic 3 P's - prohibit, persecute & punish

The lamentable incident (or incidents, since there have been more than one case) of municipal authorities in Kota Bharu applying Islamic laws and/or regulations on non-Muslims has been in some ways a blessing at this particular point in time, when many non-Muslims particularly Chinese are just about to vote overwhelmingly for PAS, an unusual voting trend even far greater than the one in March 2008 or in the several by-elections since.

Two factors have influenced the unusual non-Muslims' change of political preference for an Islamic party, one which they had previously feared (prior to the last general election). These factors have been:

(a) Their revulsion, particularly by Chinese Malaysians, for UMNO's utter corruption and unabated greed, vile, frightening and hurtful racism and, most of all, the sheer unabashed feral and teflon-ized arrogance, combined with total disgust for the sycophantic effeminate ineffectual political voice/influence of MCA, MIC and Gerakan, and

(b) PAS presentation of itself with a softer face, a party more concerned with combating corruption than religious proselytization, one that will promote social welfare and justice, and an antagonist, antithesis and antidote to the monstrous UMNO, as exemplified by the attractive personalities of Nik Aziz, Mat Sabu, Khalid Samad and most of all, Nizar Jamaluddin. Recently, even anti-Valentine Day's Nasrudin Hasan, the Chief of PAS Youth, has moderated his right-wing stance to assume a more affable persona.

popular and trusted Nizar Jamaluddin

But from time to time there have been slips by PAS where we caught glimpses of their true face, even of/from the leaders we had deemed very tolerant, those whom we could trust, respect and even love.

In August 2010, the frail grandfatherly-looking Pak Haji Nik Aziz showed his hard face when he called for the death sentence for those who dumped their babies born out of wedlock, but without mentioning or considering the social, cultural and yes, religious circumstances which left those young and probably teenage mums no or very little other choice.

The treatment by a secular state would have been diametrically opposite to Nik Aziz's cruel crushing capital punishment for those very much frightened 'mums', already suffering from desertion, desperation, and deprivation of love, support and compassion.

We should be placing emphasis on education, guidance and counselling rather than stoning people to death. And if society has been more understanding, and parents or families of the unfortunate young women provide support in accepting and caring for the unwanted babies, we would have less of ‘baby dumping’.

As if that was not cruel enough, he shocked us further by demanding that illicit (unmarried) lovers be stoned to death.

It's bad enough to have capital punishment without that barbarous Middle-Eastern atrocity, which is best left to the Arabs and Israelis (recall in which country was this first said “He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her”?).

In Malaysiakini's Karpal locks horns with Nik Aziz over baby dumping, Karpal Singh commented that Nik Aziz's proposal was far too harsh, when more should instead be done to study the root cause of the baby dumping.

Bhai stated: “I am somewhat disturbed by the statement of Nik Aziz, who not only supports the use of capital punishment for those found guilty of dumping babies but has also asked for those committing illicit sex to be stoned to death.

“Nik Aziz should realise we do not live in primitive times. In the present time and age, the punishment of stoning to death, which is a cruel and unjust punishment, does not, and cannot have a place.” 

“What is required is an in-depth study of the reasons which lead to what has become a topic of grave concern ... what has to be looked at with the eye of a hawk is not the symptoms, but the cause, before resorting to cries for the death penalty.”


Mind you, UMNO couldn't claim any high grounds on the baby dumping tragedy, because Malaysiakini also told us that:

Women, Family and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil had previously called for cases of baby dumping to be filed as attempted murder or murder cases. According to the Penal Code, anyone convicted of murder carries a mandatory death sentence.

Datuk Paduka Marina Mahathir had once lamented in her Star column (as best as I can recall, in my own words) that one of Malaysia's deficiencies in its Islamic programs and implementations has been the poor educating of the government's Islamic clerics.

Now, if PAS' learned Mursyidul Am (spiritual advisor) could be so ferociously cruel in his outlook towards some Islamic 'crimes' (instead of being compassionate), what hope then is there for balanced and compassionate considerations from those less educated and less learned than him, plebes like those intrusive Kota Bharu municipal officers. 

Then to add chillies to the sad tragedies, as reported by Malaysiakini’s Valentine's Day blamed for baby dumping PAS Youth Chief Nasrudin Hassan bizarrely blamed celebrations on Valentine's Day and New Year's Day as the root cause, where these celebrations encourage free sex that has led to ... yadda yadda yadda ... culminating in baby dumping.

Nasrudin claimed: "It's an indication that the 'mating season' occurred during the New Year's Day celebrations."

My dear Nasrudin, New Year's Days and Valentine’s Days have been celebrated all over the world, yet other countries haven't had our kind of baby dumping. Why?

'Coz their societies are far more humane, compassionate, caring, supportive and less misogynistic. And we could certainly do with less of such nonsensical PAS self-interests-driven pronouncements.

Quite frankly, I have never heard of any theocratic state which was tolerant, balanced or compassionate, not even in medieval theocratic (Buddhist) Tibet.

Invariably, lowly educated or/and young clerics or religious enforcement officers, given almost unrestrained powers, would sense an uncontrollable compulsion to prohibit, persecute (not prosecute, though that'd come subsequently), and punish - if anything, just to show their powers, and to invoke fears (which they possibly mistake for respect).

This was amply demonstrated in the infamous Zouk nightclub raid by JAWI officers, where and when we witnessed how supposedly trained JAWI religious officers behaved like savage predators.

Some people just cannot handle power, and as I have just mentioned, would feel an overriding compulsive and sometimes addictive need to exercise that power.

And that’s exactly what occurred at the Zouk nightclub, where a religious departmental campaign to curb or stop un-Islamic, un-Malaysian behaviour, or that viewed as offensive to Asian values, degenerated into a disgraceful un-Islamic show of unfettered power and oppressive dominance by empowered officials.

Instead of counselling those young (and supposedly) social degenerates, theJAWI officials exploited their position of religious power to humiliate and terrorize the victims.

Those co-called moral police immorally forced the young sweeties caught in the nightclub to urinate right in the open in front of their hot, hungry, lustful and ogling eyes.

But I suppose we could still argue in the favour of those religious department officers by claiming they were diligently scrutinizing those young wayward women for any signs of deviant behaviour, for example, like peeing while standing up.

Their barbaric bad behaviour is guaranteed to happen again because the system provides near unbridled power to officials who lack knowledge in depth, intellectual capacity or good character to handle such authority. Abuses are likely to occur when power is not moderated by knowledgeable and scrupulous responsibility.

This was what occurred in police station such as in the notorious case of the nude ketuk ketumpi (ear-squats), and rape, as had recently occurred to an unfortunate Indonesian woman, as well as deaths.

PDRM's ketuk ketumbi

The common denominator is the unauthorized and uncontrolled exercise of power by those in authority on their unfortunate victims, namely, the power to dominate the victims, to make them do what the authority so desires, sometimes to stretch the exercise of power as far as the oppressors' imagination permits.

In such an innocent matter as unisex hairdressing in Kota Bharu, non-Muslims have already felt the adverse impact of Islamic rules, so what can we anticipate or forecast will be the case of the more punishing hudud for non-Muslims?

We now have to ask this question because it's evident from the Kota Bharu incident that we non-Muslims can no longer believe in PAS assurance the implementation of hudud won't affect non-Muslims.

In January 2009, when Lim Guan Eng was in Kuala Terengganu to campaign for PAS in a by-election, he was grilled by reporters on the hudud issue.

According to Malaysiakini’s Hadi, Guan Eng grilled over hudud, Lim Guan Eng firmly asserted:

"If any problems occur, we will resolve it through musyawarah, that is through discussions. All three parties must hold discussions and if a consensus is not reached, it must be discussed again.”

"This means, should PKR and PAS agree to implement hudud and DAP disagrees then it cannot be implemented. Everything must be discussed until all three parties agree.”

But Malaysiakini's journalist Andrew Ong pointed out, that as Lim GE talked for 5 minutes on the Pakatan agreement for consensus before implementation, Pak Haji Hadi Awang was noticeably uncomfortable. [Was he squirming or rolling eyes or sneering?]

Andrew said the all too obvious body language forced Terengganu PAS chief Mustafa Ali to leap in to salvage the situation. Mustafa stated that hudud was not an issue in the Kuala Terengganu by-election as the results would not have any impact on the state or federal government.

Not so now

That was then, but what about now regarding the immediate situation if/when a Pakatan government rules the nation after GE-13?

As I blogged in Anwar Ibrahim misleading on PAS hudud intention,  Karpal Singh was less than impressed by Anwar's assurance to the (non-Muslim) voters in Kuala Terengganu that there was no need to reject the hudud proposal as it was only applicable to Muslims. He had also glibly dismissed Karpal’s remark that the PAS proposed legislation was unconstitutional.

But we then read in Malaysiakini's Karpal: Anwar's statement on hudud misleading that Bhai shot down Anwar’s statement as a fallacy! In other words, it was Grade 1 bull!

I recall before the demise of Lim Kean Siew, the well-known Labour Party politician and subsequently MCA leader, he remarked with a cynical laugh about (perhaps even  sneered at) MCA’s ignorance on the significance of Dr Mahathir proclaiming Malaysia as an Islamic nation, stating (words to the effect, that’s the best I can do) “they don’t know what an Islamic nation means, and just what they are getting into!”

Lim Kean Siew

So, MCA has been just as culpable and complicit in Dr Mahathir’s Islamic Malaysia, and thus in no f* position to point any finger at anyone, until it does so at itself, first!

But we should consider as a blessing in disguise the impulse of an increasingly arrogant PAS, as it believes it's on the threshold of federal ruling power, to show its cards, or to sting its water-carriage even before reaching the other shore. 'Tis its 3-P's nature.