'If Muhyiddin can't respect rulers, he won't respect rakyat' - Saifuddin

STATE POLLS | Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail has accused Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairperson Muhyiddin Yassin of not heeding the rulers’ advice to refrain from politicising the use of the word “Allah” by non-Muslims.

He was referring to the former prime minister’s speech at a ceramah over the weekend that the government’s decision to drop an appeal on Jill Ireland’s case showed that it agreed with the court that Christians can use the word “Allah”.

“If he cannot respect the advice of the rulers as a leader of Malay-Muslim politics, trust me, this kind of person will not respect the rakyat.

“He will continue to breathe in the political arena by playing up such issues even though the rulers conference has advised otherwise,” the Malaysia Gazette quoted him as saying in Kedah.

Saifuddin (above) also claimed Muhyiddin failed to respect the decision made by the cabinet during the time when Dr Mahathir Mohamad was heading the Pakatan Harapan administration.

“When Muhyiddin and I were in the cabinet under Mahathir, the cabinet decided… cases such as this be settled outside of court,” he added.

In his speech, Muhyiddin trained his guns on PN and Mahathir’s favourite target, DAP, claiming that the party had manipulated Anwar.

“Do you (audience) know who caused this decision to be made?

“Yes, he is Anwar, but behind Anwar are DAP members, who I know, when I was (home) minister, also pressured not to appeal (the Ireland case),” he charged.

PN chairperson Muhyiddin Yassin

DAP has since lodged a police report against Muhyiddin for touching on 3R (race, religion, royalty) issues.

Christians and Jews

This is not the first time that Muhyiddin had used this subject to convince Malay-Muslim voters to shun Harapan.

In the run-up to the last general election, the PN chairperson came under fire for a speech claiming that Harapan posed a danger to the religious status quo in Malaysia.

“Harapan is a huge danger. I saw a video where a group of Jews were talking about Malaysia and praying for the country to fall into the hands of the opposition (Harapan), which has been sponsoring these groups of Jews and Christians.

“For me, this is dangerous. Is a Christianisation process going on?” he said.

After courting flak, Muhyiddin claimed his speech was “selectively edited” and “completely taken out of context” by his political opponents.

“For the record, I was commenting on a video clip that was circulating during this election period where a foreign religious group specifically appeared to be praying for the government to fall into the hands of the opposition. 

“PN stands for stability, fairness to all, and being corruption-free,” he said. - Mkini