DOES ANYONE WANT TO GO TO HEAVEN?

Is he going to follow the AG’s instructions to close the file? What were the MACC’s core recommendations? Is he not ashamed that the AG can tell him how to run the MACC?

Zaid Ibrahim

A Malay passenger who was seated next to me on a Firefly flight yesterday congratulated me on publishing the book Liberating The Malay Mind, written by Dr M. Bakri Musa. My fellow passenger then quickly added that it was not the Malay mind that required urgent treatment, but the Malay soul.

“Do you think (Attorney-General Mohammed) Apandi Ali would have made the same decision on the Prime Minister’s financial scandal if he had a free mind, a liberated mind?” my fellow passenger asked. “He probably would have. Only if his soul were free and he feared God in a proper way would he have made the right decision.”

I didn’t want the conversation to continue focusing on the serious issues facing the country, so in the end we talked about the declining number of places where it’s possible to eat nasi dalcha in Penang these days. (He told me to try Sungai Ara, but he also suggested Permatang Pauh for kepala kambing bakarand Pantai Merdeka for seafood. The nasi campur in the kampongs outside Butterworth is also good, he said. I told him I would visit all these places on my next trip to Penang next month.)

But when I reflect on the earlier part of our conversation, I think he is right. The problems in our country will not end as long as elite Malays continue to abandon their soul.

At present they are quite happy to live with lies. Sure, they fill up the mosques every Friday and during the Hari Raya celebrations, but they still live their lives with no regard for truth or honesty, and they still don’t listen to their conscience.

Apandi is not fit to be Attorney-General, but he is there because we have a Prime Minister who is also not fit to be PM. He is our Prime Minister because UMNO is no longer fit to govern the country; today it is made up of people who give priority to holding power and nothing else.

UMNO is like that because these elite Malays do not fear God, although they claim to be God-fearing. God asks them to live a life of truth and to fight for justice. These are God’s commands. Malays want to go to Heaven but they want the easy way. They are willing to carry out the easy, more obvious rituals — the daily prayers, for example, and the annual month of fasting.

They think that if they go the Mecca more than once, listen to the mosque sermons every Friday, fast every year during Ramadhan and pay zakat, they will be okay. But these Malays will probably not go to Heaven. Rituals are easy, and if doing them means we will be rewarded with entry into Heaven, then we can’t expect there to be anything special in Heaven.

A place in Heaven is reserved for those who follow Allah’s commands and who fight for truth and justice. The personal sacrifices that Allah wants from us are difficult to make — that’s why they are called sacrifices. Fighting for what is right and for justice is difficult. Finding the truth about the 2.6 billion in Datuk Seri Najib Razak account is risky, and that’s why it requires sacrifice.

Sacrifice means MACC chief Tan Sri Abu Kassim Mohamed and his team must make their stand clear. One day someone says they were not happy, the next they do not disagree with AG’s decision.

Whats going on? Why not call a press conference and state your stand? Is he going to follow the AG’s instructions to close the file? What were the MACC’s core recommendations? Is he not ashamed that the AG can tell him how to run the MACC?

Sacrifice means they must stand up to their findings — and be prepared to be jobless — for the sake of the country. MACC’s Board of Advisors and its many Advisory Committees also must declare publicly their stand or they should resign immediately.

If indeed the money was a straight forward donation, absolutely legal and moral, then let them meet the press and the public and answer some questions. Is that too difficult to do?

For so long as the top Malays are not willing to stand up to people like Najib and Apandi, how do we expect the shopkeepers and the labourers stand up to him. For so long as these top Malays are not prepared to live how God had commanded them, there is no hope for this country.

The top Malays must not be part of this cover-up. If they had been involved, they must repent. They must dissociate themselves from it, and do more than save their jobs. They must honour their office. Keeping silent is condoning a lie and a crime. If there are no sacrifices then we will have more Najibs and more Apandis. Stealing will become just a distraction, nothing more.

Question is, will these top Malays do the right thing, and not sell their soul?