What is hate-mongering?

“Beyond all the other reasons not to do it, free speech assaults always backfire: they transform bigots into martyrs.” 

- Glenn Greenwald

In 2013, the current Isma president, Aminuddin Yahaya (photo, above), who was then its deputy president, accused, among others, Malaysiakini chief operating office Premesh Chandran of being behind the nefarious Comango initiative to destabilise Islam in this country. 

Aminuddin said: “The recommendations were an affront to religious sanctity and the sovereignty of the Federal Constitution for insisting on religious freedom, LGBT rights, the right of a Muslim to be an apostate and the removal of Malay privileges.” 

The Isma president now has a column in the Bahasa Malaysia section of Malaysiakini.

His latest article argues why Pakatan Harapan will win in PRU 15. He posits three reasons. The first is that the Umno leadership is in disarray and the Malay polity does not have much trust in them. 

The second is the Mahathir factor, Aminuddin arguing that the old maverick is a master strategist and capable of “the impossible.” 

Finally, because of the DAP, which Aminuddin claims is cosying up to Malay personalities. He argues that while Malay leaders are making foolish statements, the DAP is busy worming its way into the hearts and minds of the Malay polity. He also implies that there is gerrymandering going on in gazetting Chinese majority areas.

I have always been a fan of Isma. At times they have even been supportive of my radical secularism when I warned of the dangers of the DAP trespassing into the Islamic domain. Funnily, while I may think this is a foolish endeavour, the Isma president seems to think this is working in the Malay community when it comes to supporting the DAP. 

He writes of how the Malay community gets glassy-eyed when they see DAP leaders breaking bread with Malay/Muslim community, and this, he claims, is strange because even though the Malays are facing economic hard times, they love it when they see spectacles like that.

Here we have a far-right personality, who once accused a media organisation of destabilising Islam and Malay rule in this country, now writing for the same media organisation about the effectiveness of the DAP in winning hearts and minds of the Malay community. Go figure!

Which brings me to an important question. What exactly is Isma-like hate mongering? Amanah’s Raja Kamarul Bahrin (photo, above) has mooted a law banning hate speech of the Isma variety. 

This is a continuing effort by the Harapan regime to come up with strange laws to combat the propaganda of the far-right. On the one hand, you have Mujahid Rawa creating a special division in Jakim to handle insults against Islam, and on the other, you have someone like Raja Bahrin arguing for laws which ban Isma-like "hate mongering".

Aminuddin made a fool of himself with "stamp gate" and continues trolling the Harapan religious elite with his columns and comments, but beyond that what exactly is the kind of Isma-like hate speech that some people are worried about? Mujahid (photo, below), Harapan’s religious czar, has claimed that he finds liberals and extremists equally dangerous. 

In defence of the matriculation quotas, he claimed that non-bumiputras dominated the private sector and were generally more well off. This seems like Isma-like hate mongering, or is hate speech solely defined by what Isma says, even though Isma and most Malay politicians share the same ideology?

If Isma is to be on the receiving end of this hate speech law, what about the liberals – especially liberal Muslims – when it comes to them questioning the state-sanctioned religion of this country?

Aminuddin's columns are like the far-right talking points in bullet form. He has questioned Harapan's commitment to Islam, called for the attorney-general to resign, and propagandised the death of fireman Muhammad Adib.

Is this hate speech, and if it is, is Malaysiakini complicit in propagating it? This is what I do not understand about these folks who want to curb free speech. Mind you, I am also including the Isma president in this group. They always want to curb speech that they find offensive, but never want to moderate their own speech, which some would deem offensive.

Isma is not the cause of problems. The cause of the problem, especially when it comes to racial and religious issues, is because we have politicians who do not want to make a stand because they think they would lose votes. They would rather scapegoat extremist speech, never acknowledging that such speech, more often than not, is the basis of the ketuanan ideology which they subscribe to or to enable them to maintain political power. I am including non-Malay politicians and their supporters in this.

The problem is not hate speech. The problem is that non-Malays do not read what people like Yahaya write. If they did, they would understand that what he writes is what most Malay politicians subscribe to. They may say the opposite, but their policies are in line with what people like Aminuddin advocate.

People who are clamouring for hate speech laws and demonising the likes of Isma are enabling Harapan and its Malay power structures in carrying out fascist policies which would further alienate the Malay polity. 

Considering the kind of hate speech that regularly happens on social media and considering the history of Malay power structures, the only people who would become targets of laws like these are the very people who were clamouring for them in the first place.

In a piece about the Isma president I wrote: “Does anyone see a counter-narrative here? Isma, on the one hand, is part of the Harapan government's religious initiatives, and on the other, claims the Harapan government is not doing enough to Islamise this country.

"Meanwhile, the religious czar is talking about creating a counter-narrative, but in terms of policy, he is doing exactly what the Islamic right wing wants him to do.”

I would argue that the problem is not the “hate speech” of people like the Isma president, but rather the toxic reasoning of his opponents, which is slowly diminishing the returns of May 9.

S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. A retired barrister-at-law, he is one of the founding members of the National Patriots Association. - Mkini