WHAT IF I RENOUNCE ISLAM AND BECOME A CHRISTIAN?

Anyway, you have to choose which side you want to regard you as a hero. If I renounce Islam and become a Christian and explain that I do so because I believe in Jesus and I do not believe in Islam I will be a hero to most Christians. So it is not that hard to become a hero if you are prepared to be considered a zero to the Muslims.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

I was once labelled ‘from hero to zero’ because I criticised Pakatan Rakyat, in particular the Pakatan Rakyat Selangor Government (I did not whack Penang, Kedah and Kelantan even though there were some grounds to do so if I wanted to).

I was called a liar and was challenged to return to Malaysia with the evidence and that the Selangor government would help pay for my air ticket if I was too pokai to afford the cost of the ticket.

Later, some of these same issues that I raised (and which were initially denied) were used against Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim to bring him down. They did not, however, say that I was the first to raise some of these concerns.

One example was Kidex. In fact, I raised it way before the federal government approved the project and before anyone had even heard of it. Now Kidex, which was one of the issues used against Khalid, has become a hot issue in Selangor with some in support of it and some opposed.

Zaid Ibrahim, when he resigned from Umno and later joined PKR, became a hero. And then when he went against Azmin Ali he became a zero. Now those same people who called Zaid a zero for going against Azmin are themselves angry with Azmin for ‘blocking’ Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail from taking over as the Selangor MB.

So is Azmin still a hero like when Zaid fought him or now a zero for not allowing Dr Wan Azizah to take over from Khalid?

And is Zaid still a zero for contesting against Azmin or now a hero for campaigning for Lim Kit Siang in the last general election?

Yes, Brutus can be a hero for assassinating Julius Caesar and for saving Rome in one instant, and then become a zero and is killed a short while later after Mark Antony gives his ‘Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears’ ceramah.

Such is how Malaysians sway between the hero and zero and vice versa sentiment. A Christian who converts to Islam is a hero while a Muslim who converts to Christianity is a zero.

The late private investigator P. Balasubramaniam was a hero when he signed his statutory declaration incriminating the Prime Minister and his wife in a murder conspiracy and then became a zero the next day when he retracted that allegation with a second SD.

Then he returned to Malaysia and retracted his retraction and became a hero again. Now that he is dead no one cares about him because he is no longer useful to the opposition cause.

Sirul Azhar Umar was a zero when he was alleged to have killed Altantuya Shaariibuu but now is a hero because he wants to reveal who ordered the killing. Pakatan Rakyat leaders want to fly to Australia to meet him and to try to get him to do a press conference.

If Sirul changes his mind and decides to keep mum after all he will be a zero again.

Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri is a zero for allegedly killing Altantuya. If he does what Sirul did and decides to come clean and reveal the truth about the killing he will also be a hero just like Sirul.

The fact that Sirul and Azilah are convicted murderers does not matter. It matters only if they keep quiet. It does not matter if they finger those who ordered the killing.

I wonder why they executed so many Nazi war criminals even after they revealed that they killed six million Jews not because they wanted to but because Hitler had ordered them to. Should these Nazis not be heroes instead of zeroes for revealing the truth?

Anyway, you have to choose which side you want to regard you as a hero. If I renounce Islam and become a Christian and explain that I do so because I believe in Jesus and I do not believe in Islam I will be a hero to most Christians. So it is not that hard to become a hero if you are prepared to be considered a zero to the Muslims.