Big Brothers are eyeballing: 1984 is upon us!

Recently, the 2014 Budget has been the subject of Friday sermons by mosques controlled by the government. The khatibs (speakers) and Imams who gave the sermons told their congregation that GST is good for the community.

They also told that Najib has presented a budget that truly places the interest of the nation ahead of others. The Houses of God have now become mouthpieces of the government. The Umno people must think that Allah is an Umno member!

I am sure these proselytising ustazs have moved the congregation. Some were given to cries of joy and raised their hands in pious gratitude to Almighty Allah.

I have some messages to these khatibs and Imams. The voters in Raub asked me to tell them without fail. Raub people are simple-minded not given to the reasoning sophistry as do these khatibs. They have asked to tell these khatibs so that they can deliver in next Friday’s sermons the following: 1. Raise the price of salt; 2. Raise the price of mutton 3; Raise the price of rice; 4. Raise the price of cloth used for burial shroud.

Consuming lesser salt will lower blood pressure; eating less goat meat will also help reduce hypertension; reducing rice consumption helps prevent diabetes and making the price of cloth for burial shrouds more expensive will force people to delay deaths.

Consumption of these items must therefore be reduced to prevent incurring ill effects. Because according to BN free market logic, consumption of these goods lead to a wide range of medical complications of which some are fatal. Raising the price would reduce its consumption and increase the health of citizens.

But in the recent by election in Sungai Limau Kedah, the BN government abandoned their own logic. Sugar which is to be sold at RM2.84 a kilogram was sold at RM1 per kg.

This had people bee- lining BN sponsored events. It seems that it’s all right to consume more sugar. The recent withdrawal of sugar subsidy had the effect of exposing how much the sugar monopolies make in a year. Before this, government subsidy hid the magnitude of profits reaped by these sugar monopolies. These monopolies are owned by Felda and Syed Mokhtar.

Rice which converts into sugar was also sold at bargain price in Sungai Limau. People came in droves.

Our khatibs and imams have reached a new level. Now they can talk about weighty issues which are specific like GST. Some economists like I for instance have trouble understanding the mechanics of GST. Maybe I should now have to get tuition classes from these khatibs. I was thinking to get Hishammuddin Hussein to instruct me. Sadly, he has to take a back seat to these fired-up khatibs and imams.

The issue of GST and the 2014 Budget is clearly being politicized to the hilt. Why is it possible for mosques to do so when speaking about current issues by imams and khatibs with differing political leanings is prohibited? Will khatibs and imams be allowed to now criticise GST and tell people that Najib’s 2014 Budget is anti-poor people?

1984 is upon us! Najib lied in 2008 when he pompously announced that the age of big government has ended.

On the contrary, it has expanded at an alarming rate. The budget on operating expenditure has increased tremendously to finance the expanding bureaucracy. The biggest beneficiary of the Budget is the PM's office itself.

The government cannot shed its image as the omnipotent spy. The passing of the PCA Bill which provided for the detention without trial of suspects and permission for the government to eavesdrop on telephone conversations all indicate that 1984, so ominously written by George Orwell is indeed upon us!

Our mosques have now become another instrument shaping and conditioning the minds of people. When perceptions are managed by the government, realities get distorted. Black is insisted white, and white is said to be black. The boundaries between good and evil are blurred.

1984 is upon us. - sakmongkol.blogspot.com,

* Sakmongkol AK47 is the nom de guerre of Datuk Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz who is the Raub MP.