Jettisoning of the 10-point agreement on ‘Allah’ – Ravinder Singh

It is jettisoned because it was all a political game with one and just one objective – to regain the two-thirds majority that the Barisan Nasional lost at the 12th GE. The BN was so desperate that Najib himself had said that Putrajaya would be defended (for GE 13) at any cost, even with broken bones and crushed bodies.   

Incidents took place at some places of worship. Issue of the use of “Allah” was stirred up. A climate of racial insecurities was created. The stage was set to put a plan (or the plan) into operation. The plan was a sandiwara which people did not see through as it was well camouflaged and to the Christians who had been at the receiving end, it was a ray of light at the end of the tunnel.    

This agreement was inked by Najib with only one thought in mind, i.e. to placate and win the hearts and minds of the Christians to support the BN at the 13th GE. It was, in short, one of the BN’s vote-buying projects. BN was desperate to regain the two-thirds majority that it had lost at the 12th GE. So signing of the agreement was important, not whether it will be implemented even if the two-thirds majority was not regained. It was purely political expediency.

One party went into it with sincerity and took it at face value. This was the weaker party in the deal. The other was seasoned big brother who had a hidden motive. This secret motive was not smelt out by the non-politicians in the deal, i.e. the church authorities. So now, the weaker party finds itself having been taken for a ride. The agreement is jettisoned, and the Christian bashing goes on with ferocity. 

So what was missing from the agreement? Well, no caveat was included in the agreement to say that if the BN won the election, whether or not it regained its two-thirds majority, the spirit and letter of the agreement would still be honoured by the BN government.

If the BN had regained the two-thirds majority, there would have been no need for the agreement. The use of “Allah” was not an issue during the time BN had a two-thirds majority. It became one, and a major one, after the two-thirds majority eluded the BN in 2008. Is this a coincidence?

Since there was no caveat in the agreement that it would be upheld by the BN if it came to power, regardless whether it obtained a two-thirds majority (which was the hidden motive of the agreement in the first place), or not, it is now a worthless piece of paper.

The ploy can now be seen clearly in hindsight. Hence the deafening silence from Najib on this subject. The agreement did not help him achieve his objective of a two-thirds majority, so to hell with the agreement.

Thus it was a fraudulent agreement. It was just a part of the grand design to win a two-thirds majority by hook or by crook, at all costs.

*Ravinder Singh  reads The Malaysian Insider.