Can a holy man lie? Apparently Hadi can!

• By Mariam Mokhtar

By P Ramakrishnan

Ramakrishnan blasts Hadi for allegedly writing a letter which was full of lies, character assasinations and false claims.

PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang had allegedly written a letter in Arabic addressed to the world Muslim leaders. This news broke out on 4 April.

So far neither Hadi nor his party had refuted the existence of such a letter. Neither have they denied the contents of the letter – which had been quoted and condemned – in spite of attempts seeking confirmation on its authenticity. Both Hadi and PAS leaders have chosen to keep mum.

If there was no truth to the letter, the only decent thing to do is to come out with guns blazing against this umbrage. It should have been immediate. Silence was not an option when you are roasted!

If Hadi’s letter had already been sent out to the world Islamic leaders, how could he deny that he never wrote it? What would these Islamic leaders think of him? Hadi is caught in a bind of his own making! He cannot deny or refute all the allegations made against him.

This being the case, Malaysians cannot be faulted for thinking that this letter exists. They would be justified to accept that the quoted contents of the letter are authentic.

Khalid Samad blasts Hadi for making fake allegations and defamatory accustions

Amanah Party communications director Khalid Samad had blasted Hadi, claiming that Hadi’s letter “was full of allegations and accusations that are baseless, fake, misleading and defamatory in nature.” These are strong words…no punches pulled. Yet, Hadi is maintaining his stoic silence. It is an odd behaviour!

Khalid doesn’t stop at that. He continues, “It is clear that Hadi through the letter tried to give a false impression on the political situation in Malaysia.” This is tantamount to saying that Hadi is not being honest and that he has fabricated the situation unrealistically. Some might even conclude that he had lied. Yet, and strangely, Hadi has not responded!

Raja Kamarul Bahrin Shah Raja Ahmad denounces Hadi

Another Amanah leader, former deputy minister Raja Kamarul Bahrin Shah Raja Ahmad, also questioned the letter’s content, where Hadi purportedly claimed that Harapan was working in cahoots with the US and European countries to bring down Mahathir.

What nonsense is he talking about? Hadi had not adduced a shred of evidence that Harapan was colluding with the US and Europe to bring down Mahathir. Who are the actors in this diabolical plot to bring down Mahathir? This is nothing but a blatant lie. Yet, it seems, Hadi had been struck dumb and is unable to defend himself!

Hadi had supposedly said in the letter that “Harapan’s victory in 2018 had sided with the non-Muslim majority (sic) and that Mahathir had been used to topple former premier Najib Abdul Razak.” This was yet another outrageous lie. Mahathir was never “used” by anyone for whatever purpose. He was an effective spokesperson for Harapan during the campaign that won over the sentiments of the voters who turned against Barisan Nasional (BN).

How could Harapan side with the non-Muslim majority (sic) to achieve victory? In its election campaign, it courted every citizen’s support to defeat the corrupt BN. And in this campaign, Mahathir was in the forefront condemning the BN’s excesses, denouncing the corrupt leaders of Umno, promising an end to the dark days of BN misrule.

Mahathir was not used – he was very much part of the effort to topple Najib Abdul Razak’s corrupt regime!

Hadi’s absurdity

Hadi must be blind to this fact in claiming, “They (Harapan) had used him as a stepping stone to achieve power through treachery without taking into consideration the composition of the Muslim majority which had exceeded 69 percent compared to the minority races…”

How could Harapan “achieve power through treachery”? It was a democratic election, with the electorate actively participating. It was the voters of Malaysia that defeated an incumbent government through fair means, in open elections. It was not a mere defeat, it was a massive trouncing that shocked and shook the BN! Where is the treachery, Hadi? The treachery was when you colluded with the thieves and robbers to steal a legitimate government through the backdoor!

There is no end to Hadi’s absurdity. In his letter, he had alluded to “opportunities for foreign powers who were anti-Islam to meddle in the country” as what had “supposedly happened in other Arab countries.” Really, Hadi? What opportunities were you referring to and what foreign powers had “meddled in the country”? How can you be so blatant in your unsubstantiated claims? Is there no respect for the truth?

All these are concocted lies compounded by such lies without any regard to the truth in order to paint Harapan as “an enemy of Islam and a threat to the religion.” If his strategy was to denounce Harapan falsely to win over support from the Muslim leaders for Perikatan Nasional (PN), it is bound to fail miserably. So far, none of the Islamic leaders have sent congratulatory messages to MuhyiddinYassin pledging to cooperate and work with his government. They know what had happened; they know the crooks who engineered the backdoor take-over of this government.

As to his purported claim that “there was an internal conspiracy in Harapan to topple Mahathir as prime minister so that those who are anti-Islam can get into power,” it is as ridiculous as it can get.

The component parties of Harapan are Keadilan, DAP, Amanah and Bersatu. None from DAP and Amanah played the role of a villain.The cunning and conniving traitors apparently led by Azmin and Zuraidah (to a certain extent), the only two from Keadilan, were the devils who planned and plotted to undermine Mahathir and seize the duly elected government through the backdoor. Your party PAS and Umno were part of this nefarious plot in subverting a democratically elected government.

As to your claim, “those who are anti-Islam” were trying to “get into power,” Malaysians would want to know who are these anti-Islam elements in Keadilan, DAP and Amanah? Didn’t Anwar and Guan Eng go a-begging Mahathir to stay on as Prime Minister when he resigned? How could you, a man of God, clothed in your flowing white robes, make a dastardly claim that is nothing but a deliberate lie?

Hadi excels in character assasination

Hadi’s letter further states. “PAS had rejected working with Anwar Ibrahim’s faction because we were not confident of his personal character and his faith as well as his dangerous political pragmatism.”

This is nothing but pure character assassination. You are not “confident of (Anwar’s) character and his faith” but it doesn’t disturb your conscience and faith in working with the thieves and robbers who plundered the country and who are now facing – thanks to the Harapan government – corruption charges in courts. How strange!

And what is your objection to Anwar’s “political pragmatism”? The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines “pragmatism” as: thinking about solving problems in a practical way rather than by having fixed ideas and theories.

Are you against solving problems in a practical way or would you rather stick to your archaic fixed ideas and theories, forgetting that this is a plural country and the interest of everyone counts and must be taken into consideration?

We are reminded of this saying: Your religion is what you do when the sermon is over.

First published in Aliran on 6 April 2020

P Ramakrishnan is the long-serving former president of Aliran who served three and a half decades on its executive committee, and has been with Aliran since its inception in 1977. Now an ordinary Aliran member, he continues to highlight issues of public interest to a larger audience.