Malaysians who are looking for leadership and the call for action should look east. Forget Putrajaya!
The East Malaysians excel at nation-building and have a better grip on authority than Putrajaya. They know that they have so much more to lose if the multicultural and multifaith society they have carefully built and nurtured, is allowed to crumble.
Why sacrifice decades of integration just because of the hate speech and belligerence of one wannabe hero-cum-politician from Merlimau, Malacca?
For over three weeks, Malaysians were forced to endure the hate speech fomented by Umno Youth chief Dr Muhamad Akmal Saleh, but it took the courage of one Sarawak minister, Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah to say what needed to be said, “Arrest Akmal”.
Incredibly, the police force in Sabah showed that they were more switched-on and probably better at conflict resolution than their Bukit Aman counterparts because they arrested Akmal soon after he landed at Kota Kinabalu airport.
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Even after he was detained, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim denied that Akmal had been arrested but was merely “facilitating an investigation”.
A defiant Akmal said that he was questioned about his recent talk in Kelantan. Is the Kelantan connection linked to stirring hatred in the socks issue? What’s he charged with?
For three weeks, Akmal probably felt emboldened by the lack of police scrutiny of his actions. Having openly defied the king to desist, he refused to call off the boycott and dismissed calls to take responsibility for instigating violence.
All it takes is a catalyst for things to go pear-shaped, and in the socks scandal, the catalyst for disrupting the peace is Akmal.
His hate speech spread fear among the community but he didn’t see it that way. He told his supporters that he was merely defending Islam.
Socks weaved with the word “Allah”, will naturally offend Muslims, but to allege that KK Mart had deliberately insulted Islam is equally offensive. What would KK Mart founder Chai Kee Kan have to gain from this? Can Akmal prove that this is what Chai had intended?
Akmal is the catalyst who stoked the fires of unrest. Without his hate speech, vigilante groups would not have emerged, and the KK Mart outlets would not have been firebombed.
His ego and hubris blinded him. His actions put the nation on a knife edge.
Putrajaya’s role
What about Putrajaya’s role?
Ever since March 16, Akmal boasted about teaching KK Mart a lesson and shutting it down forever for insulting Islam. He urged Malaysians to boycott KK Mart. He rejected Chia’s apologies.
Malaysians turned to the PM who had just returned from a fishing-for-investment trip in Germany. He muttered some weasel words about focusing on more important issues instead of bah kut teh and school canteens.
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Did his aides inform him about the socks issue and Akmal’s racist rhetoric? The threatening and abusive remarks had the potential to cause unrest.
Are the home minister and the police clueless about managing conflict? Akmal’s provocations could have easily spilt over and snowballed into ethnic-religious conflict.
Anwar, his deputy Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is also the Umno president, and Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail are rather naïve to imagine that Akmal did not present a danger to the nation.
Since 1969, ordinary Malaysians have been swiftly investigated for making allegedly seditious comments. Can it be right that one lacklustre politician who defied the king, be allowed to provoke the public without being censured?
The socks scandal has spectacularly proven that semenanjung MPs just want to play politics and cling to power. Three ministers did try to rebuke Akmal but he dismissed their concerns.
The other MPs did very little, as most were thinking of their own selfish agendas, rather than thinking of the good of the nation.
More importantly, they put the interests of their own party first.
National problem
Two people who made innocuous remarks on their social media profiles were swiftly investigated and then punished, but the vigilante squads which harassed them and the people who exposed the personal details of the factory owner remain free.
An Israeli man who entered Malaysia, allegedly to assassinate a gangland rival was swiftly arrested together with the locals who supplied him with firearms; but the domestic terrorists who firebombed the three KK Mart stores, remain at large.
The Malaysian two-tier level of policing is loathsome.
Akmal is a national problem for creating mass fear beyond just the call to boycott KK Mart. His intransigence will destroy the nation.
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He damaged community relations, firebombers damaged property and the rakyat was crippled with fear.
The business community is afraid that anyone who bears a grudge against them may feel empowered by Akmal’s hate speech and use it as a cover for their own malicious intent.
It does not take much for a pyromaniac, or a juvenile vandal who is egged on by gang initiation or peer pressure, to commit arson.
Akmal’s hate speech may motivate an emotionally unstable, or aggrieved person, to firebomb a business, out of hatred, revenge, or a perceived slight.
The lone-wolf religious extremist may feel that Akmal has given him the go-ahead to defend Islam through violent means. He is prepared to become a martyr because controversial clerics have promised rewards in the afterlife.
Is it any wonder that across Malaysia, millions of people increasingly feel that the Madani government has lost its direction? - Mkini
MARIAM MOKHTAR is a defender of the truth, the admiral-general of the Green Bean Army, and the president of the Perak Liberation Organisation (PLO). Blog, X.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
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