WELL, IS GOD PUNISHING MALAYSIA?

Then what happened to the Pharaoh and Egypt would not happen to Malaysia and we can, as the Chinese would say, buang swei, and end all the bad luck that Malaysia is facing.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

“Is God punishing us?” asked Shahril Ahmad in Free Malaysia Today (READ THE FULL ARTICLE BELOW).

Shahril’s analysis of what ails Malaysia is most interesting indeed, if you are a believer of one of the Abrahamic faiths, that is. If you are not or you are an atheist then you would probably think that Shahril is talking a load of crap.

Shahril suggests that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak may be jinked. The Chinese, who call this swei(pronounced sway), would probably agree with this prognosis because they are probably the most superstitious race in the world — they believe numbers, colours, direction of your house, location of your ancestors’ grave, etc., can influence your fate and future.

Anyway, Shahril used the story of Moses and Egypt as the analogy in his article and he said: But is it just superstition? We have lost not one, but three airplanes and we’ve had to face severe floods, kidnappings, invasions and what not. So, I’m going to take a little leaf out of the Muslim fundamentalist playbook today to ask whether these aren’t signs that God is displeased with us. We do have a belief that God will punish a nation for tolerating an evil ruler.

The ‘Muslim fundamentalists’ that Shahril was referring to would use the word zalim (the evil that Shahril was talking about). God would punish a community, the Muslims believe, if they are zalim or if they allow a zalim leader to rule over them.

According to the Abrahamic belief, God was certainly displeased with the Pharaoh and he ordered Moses to confront the Pharaoh about it. The reason that God was displeased with Pharaoh was because the Pharaoh considered himself God and the Egyptians did not worship the true God, whom the Muslims would call Allah.

God wanted Moses to bring his people out of Egypt so that they could practice the religion of monotheism and not the religion of idols and false Gods. The Pharaoh, however, would not allow this and this was when God punished Egypt with calamities (bala, as the Malays would say).

Finally the Pharaoh could endure God’s punishment no longer and he allowed Moses and his people to leave Egypt but changed his mind later and God punished the Egyptians with drowning in the Red Sea. Unfortunately, Moses did not bring his people far enough to the ‘Promised Land’ or else today the Jews instead of the Muslims would control all the oil in the Middle East (so Moses was not really that smart after all).

The problem is the people that Moses brought out of Egypt decided to revert to their old idol Gods so God punished them by making them wander in the desert for 40 years. Maybe God further punished them by locating the ‘Promised Land’ in a barren desert surrounded by oil-rich countries that are owned by non-Jews.

The point of my argument is, using the same analogy as Shahril, zalim, as far as the Abrahamic faiths are concerned, is to defy God and to not follow God’s commands. That is what the story of Moses, Egypt and the Pharaoh is all about.

To the Muslims, God commanded that we follow divine laws and not secular laws. In that case, going by what Shahril wrote, PAS is absolutely correct in wanting to implement Hudud. To reject Hudud is zalimand would attract God’s wrath.

But there are many, Muslims included, who reject Hudud. This is zalim and therefore would open Malaysia to the risk of God’s punishment. So maybe that is why Malaysia is facing so much bala or punishment from God.

Shahril may have correctly argued his case in that Malaysia is facing so much bala or swei but he may be off the mark regarding the reason. Even many in PAS reject Hudud (because they are only interested in Chinese votes so that they can win elections) and this may be why Malaysia is being punished.

I am just using this argument because Shahril is using it to argue his case. Shahril is explaining that God is angry with Malaysia and that is why Malaysia is cursed and is suffering so many calamities. And Shahril used Moses and Egypt as the analogy to argue his case. So I am doing the same.

So if that is really the reason why Malaysia is cursed and is facing so much bad luck and retribution from God then we must follow what God commanded Moses to do. We must revert to the One God, we must reject idol worshipping and get rid of all the Hindu, Buddhist and Christian idols from Malaysian soil, and we must implement God’s laws such as Hudud.

Then what happened to the Pharaoh and Egypt would not happen to Malaysia and we can, as the Chinese would say, buang swei, and end all the bad luck that Malaysia is facing.

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Is God punishing us?

Don’t the disasters we’ve had to face feel like warning signs, much like the signs sent to Egypt in ancient times?

Shahril Ahmad, Free Malaysia Today

My colleague Scott has waxed poetic about Najib being a jinxed prime minister, and I have to say that there is a ring of truth in that. We may be blaming the nude tourists for the earthquake in Sabah, but in the grand scheme of things it appears to just be another routine disaster happening while Najib is in office. Of course, he didn’t engineer the earthquake, but in the mind of the superstitious, the disaster strengthens the argument that Najib is jinxed.

But is it just superstition? We have lost not one, but three airplanes and we’ve had to face severe floods, kidnappings, invasions and what not. So, I’m going to take a little leaf out of the Muslim fundamentalist playbook today to ask whether these aren’t signs that God is displeased with us. We do have a belief that God will punish a nation for tolerating an evil ruler.

There is an old Malay saying to the effect that a despotic king is a king to be defied. We have tolerated the corruption, the blatant bribery during elections, the financial chicanery with 1MDB and the outright cash grab of the GST, even as we observe Najib and his family living an outrageously glamorous life that appears to be beyond his means. We believed that he and his party would always stand for our rights, but it turns out it protects only its own as it looks for new ways to separate the rakyat from the contents of their wallets.

There is no obligation to follow a degenerate, ineffective leader who has pushed the rakyat so far that no one can honestly support him in good faith. We need to push for people with merit over those who feel that their dynasty promises them a place of power. We have to elect only those who have fulfilled their duties as our representatives and leaders. To quote Umno members themselves, “God will punish us for allowing evil to prosper among our leaders.”

Allah in his infinite wisdom sent Moses seven signs in Egypt, warning the righteous to flee before He sent his punishment down. If we were to take matters of faith in all seriousness, then doesn’t Malaysia’s series of tragedies feel like a warning sign? If not, what else does it take to make us open our eyes?

I do not write this lightly. Many will say that this is an example of manipulating the tenets of faith to suit a message, much like the fundamentalists have twisted that which is holy into perverse parodies of the faith like The Islamic State.

But the signs are there. How we choose to read them is our choice. But one thing remains certain. Disasters, whether political or financial, will continue to beset us as long as the Najib administration remains. And that is the clearest sign that Najib must go.