Buy one, free one! Vote BN, vote Perkasa

Pak Bui

Q: Who made the following seditious statements?

“Muslims must unite to protect their religion. They must seize those Bibles, including the Malay editions, which contained the term Allah and other Arabic religious terms, and burn them. This is the way to show our anger against disrespect to our sensitivity.” [https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2013/01/19/burn-allah-bibles-perkasa-chief-tells-muslims/]

A: Ibrahim Ali, president of Perkasa.

Ibrahim Ali is the 2013 BN de facto candidate for Pasir Mas, Kelantan. The BN candidate withdrew to allow Ibrahim Ali the best possible chance to win. No BN candidate in more than half a century of elections has ever withdrawn to allow an independent candidate to win any seat.

This withdrawal followed insistent demands by Perkasa patron, and Umno’s “behind-the-scenes” president, Mahathir Mohamad, that Umno must use Ibrahim Ali. This allows Umno to drum up “Malay supremacy” votes, even though he is standing as an “independent”.

Q: Who made the following excuse for Ibrahim Ali?

“Usually, if there is a publication that has been banned, the action taken is to burn these books. So his (Ibrahim) view is that if this Bible is illegal in terms of policy, he chose to opt for the common method of burning them…So I don’t think that he (Ibrahim) had any intention to insult the kitab injil” [http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/dr-m-no-malice-in-ibrahim-alis-bible-burning-threat]

A: Perkasa patron Maahthir Mohamad.

A vote for BN, whether in Sarawak, Sabah or peninsular Malaysia, is a vote for Ibrahim Ali and Perkasa.

Q: Who came up with these hate-mongering quotes?

1. “The British brought in the Chinese and Indians…Until 1957, Indians and Chinese brought in by the British were illegal immigrants in this nation. The Chinese and Indians were illegal immigrants. They were not sons of this soil in this country, they were immigrants, like Indonesians today, like Myanmar people, Bangladeshis…Nigerians.” [http://youtu.be/43pZLcoOvKw]

2. “If non-Muslims talk too much, want to dispute (Malay) rights…we can say ‘no problem’. If you want to dispute our rights, we can dispute your citizenship rights. If you do not like our special rights, we can send you back (to China and India), no problem.” [http://youtu.be/43pZLcoOvKw]

3. “If you ask the Hindus, eh, you tell me for real, who do you worship? This god with an elephant head?…There are shops selling Hindu idols: elephant gods, Murugan god holding a staff, horse head gods, sacred cows, eight-armed ones…during the recent floods, it was bad, up to four feet…so I asked after the flood, what happened?…Everything was destroyed, broken, even gods also were damaged. How could the gods be damaged? Gods should be Gods. Why didn’t the Indians arrange the gods in front of the shops to say ‘Whoa! Water, stop!’…Gods should help us. If gods cannot stop the water, what’s the use?…(The Hindus) know that’s stupid.” [http://youtu.be/iapJA87TMSI]

4. “I’ve been to the Ganges River. How sacred is the Gamges? Chicken carcasses, with wood, small pieces of timber floating…how can they say it’s sacred?” [http://youtu.be/iapJA87TMSI]

A: Zulkifli Noordin, BN parliamentary candidate for Shah Alam, and vice-president of Perkasa.

Zulkifli Noordin, a lawyer, was parachuted in to Shah Alam by Umno president Najib Razak, after he was kicked out of PKR for his racist views.

Q: Who made the following excuse for Zulkifli Noordin?

“Forget about the remarks (where he insulted Indians by mocking Hinduism). He has apologised. Let it be. The Indians have forgiven Zulkifli. It’s history. There are even Indians kissing him!”

A: Najib Razak, BN chairperson.

A vote for BN, whether in Sarawak, Sabah or peninsular Malaysia, is a vote for Zulkifli Noordin and Perkasa.

It is ironic, and of course untrue, that the MCA and SUPP threaten that voting for DAP or PKR will mean that PAS will be able impose hudud law.

Khalid Samad is Zulkifli Noordin’s opponent in Shah Alam. Khalid Samad, the MP from 2008, is from PAS. Khalid Samad is an intelligent and articulate member of the “technocrat” faction of PAS. He trained as a fuel and energy engineer at Leeds University, and worked for Petronas. During Operasi Lalang in 1987, he was imprisoned without trial under the ISA for nine months.

Khalid Samad is a devout and pragmatic Muslim. He understands the practical limittions of parliamentary democracy, including the fact that Malaysia cannot impose hudud law on non-Muslims. He understands that PAS calls for the use of Islamic principles in law and society, but PAS cannot change the constitution without a two-thirds majority.

Even if PAS wins every single parliamentary seat it contests, PAS will only have around one-third of all parliamentary seats. Hududlaw is simply not a workable option in Malaysia today. [http://youtu.be/4E7vemObmCk] In fact, Malaysia cannot even impose hududlaw on Muslims, because a large proportion of Malay Muslims themselves are reluctant to live under hudud for the time being.

Let us examine the obvious examples religious intolerance and insults against non-Muslims in the past few years. Let us look at what has actually happened, as opposed to what the SUPP says might happen (as the SUPP has been saying for every election in living memory).

In 2008, the ban on non-Muslims’ use of the word ‘Allah’ was imposed by Umno. [http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/hishammuddin-says-regrets-allah-ban] Umno’s former home minister Syed Hamid Albar started the ball rolling, and Najib Razak ran with it. When the High Court blew the whistle on Umno’s game in 2009, churches and a Sikh temple were torched. This violence against non-Muslims arose because of Umno’s ban.

In 2011, just before the Sarawak state elections, Najib and his minister Idris Jala promised Sarawakian and Sabahan non-Muslims that they could use the word ‘Allah’. Now Najib has sworn to “defend” the word ‘Allah’, [http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/222959] and has appeared on Al-Jazeera to insist that Umno will appeal the High Court’s decision. [http://hornbillunleashed.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/45247/]

Janji ditepati?Atau tabiat Umno mungkiri janji? How can we trust Umno to keep any of its promises?

Sarawak’s chief minister Taib Mahmud and his servants in SUPP, SPDP and PRS have folded their arms and kept silent about Umno’s ‘Allah’ U-turn. This shows conclusively that Sarawak BN is nothing more than the enforcer for Umno in Sarawak. Taib has not kept Umno out of Sarawak – he has merely taken on the job of Umno’s agent in Sarawak

SUPP has made stupid and dishonest claims instead: that we will not have entertainment, female hairdressers, casinos or beer if PAS is part of a federal government. Let us look at facts.

In 2009, Kartika, the lady was sentenced to public beating for drinking beer in Pahang, a hardcore Umno state. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8598190.stm]

In 2005, the “immoral police” from Jabatan Agama Islam Wilayah Persekutuan, or Jawi, raided a nightclub and rounded up 100 Malay Muslims, herded them into cages in trucks, and forced one young woman to urinate in her clothes. This was at a time when Umno enjoyed complete control of Parliament, having won the 2004 election in a landslide. [https://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/33219] These examples of religious animosity and state violence brught us shame in the eyes of the world. [http://wao.org.my/file/file/Malaysian%20NGO%20CEDAW%20Alternative%20Report%202012%206MB.pdf]

Since 2008, in states with a PAS Menteri Besar, like Perak (before Umno bribed its way into power), Kelantan and Kedah, there have been no remotely comparable incidents of religious intolerance. This is because PAS, as a new government, are eager to stay in power, and thereforearewilling to listen to the public.

On the other hand, Umno and BN have been in power for too long. They have always been sure of staying in power, and have always felt they can treat us any way they like. But this year, during this election, things are different.

A vote for BN is a vote for Umno, a vote for Perkasa – and a vote for religious persecution.