The fabrications of Hadi Awang

“Bigotry against any group should be disqualifying for high office.” - Alan Dershowitz

DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang does not want to be prime minster. Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng does not want to be prime minster, and since I know politicians like PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang mean the Chinese when they go on about non-Malays, nobody in the greater Chinese community wants to be prime minster.

Some would argue that this is a problem – hold on a minute, I did make that argument, right here, when Lim Guan Eng said that non-Malays would never want to be prime minister:

“But if you accept this premise, then you have to accept the premise that non-Malays will never truly be citizens in this country. You have to accept that what we will have are non-Malay powerbrokers working with Malay potentates having some control of the direction of this country, but this will always be a weapon that will be used against non-Malays when the hegemonic interests of Malay power structures are under threat. This applies to not only BN but also Pakatan Harapan, or whatever it is called.”

Hadi also claimed that Islam is fair to all. But religion cannot be fair to all when, as Hadi has said numerous times, the non-Malays have to be “pak turut”.

Ask the people who have have been surreptitiously converted to Islam here in Malaysia. Ask the parents whose children have been separated from them because of religion in this country. Ask the people who, by virtue of their religion, cannot use certain words.

Ask the people who have looked on helplessly when the state security apparatus claims that there is conflict between religious law and civil law. Ask the people who have had their public and private spaces invaded.

These people will tell you that there is no such fairness as Hadi claims. This is why people leave this country. People do not leave this country because of corruption, they leave this country because they know as non-Malays, they will not be treated fairly. They will be told by politicians like Hadi that they are “not clean” and “non-believers”.

Just can't win

But that is not all. Even Muslims are allegedly leaving this country. They apparently leave this country because they do not belong to the privileged ruling class who are not harassed for their beliefs. They do not have the money or power to shield them. It is why someone like former law minister Zaid Ibrahim - isn’t he in enough trouble already? - says, “So I urge young Malays to plan their lives properly. Don’t make the same mistake I did. Malaysia is a sick Muslim country that teaches you the wrong things - and people all over the internet either cheer or babble on about staying and fighting."

But the reality is that there is no winning with bigots, especially when they are amidst the majority. While a Malaysian Muslim like the great late Kassim Ahmad is vilified by the establishment, preachers like Zamihan Mat Zin (photo) are valued as deradicalisation assets. There is no winning against politicians who weaponise religion, because these politicians know that people are afraid. Muslims are afraid to go against this bigotry because they will be vulnerable to sanctions from the state and their own community.

Does anyone ever wonder why I vehemently rage against the religious machinery in this country? Besides how it intrudes in our in most sacred private and public spaces, more importantly because under the guise of religious beliefs, politicians like Hadi and nearly every mainstream establishment politician incites racial and religious hatred against the non-Malays - in this case, the Chinese community.

That, and the hypocrisy of course.

Always the hypocrisy. Forget about the lavish excesses of well-connected Muslims compared to the state in which the disenfranchised community has to make do with. Forget about the special rights that are supposed to grant privileges, but of which there is no evidence beyond an artificially created middle class borne out racists and bigoted policies. The most recent and perhaps most shocking displays of hubris and hypocrisy are the rabble-rousing when it comes to US President Donald Trump’s Jerusalem move.

Where was all the protest when children died in an Islamic school fire that was deemed a safety hazard? Where was Muslim solidarity in demanding that the state explain why schools like this were allowed to function without proper safety? Where was all the Muslim anger when children perished in a fire that could have been avoided if the school was not a safety hazard? Where was that righteous anger towards a bureaucracy that had allowed the school to operate even though it was a safety hazard?

Instead what we get from people like Hadi are the lies that Chinese opposition personalities want to be prime minster. What we get are the lies that Malays will be “bangsat” in their own lands. What we get are the lies that Christians want to usurp Islam as the religion of the country. What we get are the lies that Chinese want to destroy Malay rights and Malay institutions.

All this because there is conflict within the Malay community, as I wrote earlier: “ What would happen if a majority of Muslims in this country decide that they have had enough with state religious authorities intruding in their lives? They have had enough with money going into religious organisations while essential services that benefit their community are underfunded and mired in bureaucratic corruption. What would happen if they grew tired of the hypocrisy of the state where Muslim elites were immune from the harsh glare of Islam but the rest of the polity were not?”

There was a time when PAS could claim the Islamic high ground, even if it was the battle ground for people like me.

That time is over.

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S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy.- Mkini