Would Harapan trade Zakir Naik for Jho Low?

“May Allah strengthen his preaching efforts to guide people to recognise Islam."

– Mujahid Rawa

There is all this venom against alleged money launderer and fugitive Zakir Naik online. Truth be told that I have contributed to the venom and am distressed that this time, I cannot summon enough outrage to write a piece about how damaging Zakir is to this country. 

It is the same with Jho Low. People despise him, but if you have hung around the corridors of power in Putrajaya, people like Jho Low are a dime a dozen. Both Zakir Naik and Jho Low, the fugitive and alleged accomplice of Najib and Co, have a couple of things in common.

Both are hated for obvious reasons, but both continue to play the victim card when it comes to their current circumstances. Hiding somewhere, Jho Low continues his tirade that he will not get a fair trial in Malaysia, and measures taken to retrieve his ill-gotten gains are part of a conspiracy against a “Chinaman who stole money and blew it on alcohol”.

Meanwhile, fugitive Indian preacher Zakir claims that charges against him in India and elsewhere are trumped up, part of a vast Western conspiracy and that he would never get a fair trial in India. 

Both made money by manipulating the systems – economic/religious – and had the protection of the state, except, of course, for Jho Low, who lost his protection when the Najib regime folded.

While I can speculate as to why the political establishment in this country would want to keep someone like Zakir around, the same cannot be said for Jho Low (below).

It brings a smile to my face that Zakir enjoyed the protection of the Najib regime and made all sorts of statements against the Pakatan Harapan opposition, especially the Malay Muslim component of Harapan. Yet when Harapan gained power, he slunk over to their side and the very same Malay Muslim politicians who were mocked by Zakir are now coddling him as though he is some sort of a messiah.

I see all these politicians waxing lyrical about Zakir when they have sent back so many other “wanted people”- even Muslims - to countries where they know these fugitives would be tortured or killed, and yet Zakir remains safe and warm in the bosom of the Harapan political elite.

At this moment Malaysia is ripe for bizarre stories. Think about it. A North Korean dictator's sibling was poisoned in our country with his executioners thinking they were part of a reality show. We now discover that this sibling could have been a CIA asset. 

Malaysia smugly continues to resist efforts to deport Zakir, but at what cost? At the moment the establishment has no incentive to dump this charlatan. But what if there is something out there more valuable than Zakir?

There is this scenario that keeps playing in my mind. What if a foreign power got hold of Jho Low and wanted Zakir Naik in return? What would the Harapan government do then? Would they give up Zakir for Jho Low, a fugitive who, if Harapan is to be believed, was part of a conspiracy to destroy this country under the aegis of Najib?

Picture this scenario: A foreign country wants Zakir and would be willing to give Malaysia Jho Low in return for him.

Would handing over Zakir be a fair trade for a fugitive like Jho Low? Would religion play a part in the deliberation?

Of course, someone like me would not need to think twice. The choice seems obvious, right? And it resolves so many issues that would be hard to politically navigate. A choice of keeping someone like Zakir and not bringing to justice someone like Jho Low? This should be an easy choice.

What do you think the Harapan establishment would do? Would they jump at the opportunity or would they “think" about it? Every time the question of Zakir has come up, Harapan politicians have bent over backwards, attempting to justify his stay in Malaysia. 

At this point, I cannot take seriously anything the Harapan government says about Zakir.

All I can do is think of this as one big joke and that we are the punchline.

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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