MAHATHIR NOW CALLED AN ‘INTERNATIONAL HYPOCRITE’: MALAYSIAN PM ‘CRIES MUSLIM DISCRIMINATION BUT OPPRESSES & SUPPRESSES MINORITY CHINESE HIMSELF’ – REPORT

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Perhaps it’s true that Prime Minister Mahathir has “brain malfunction” as the power-hungry leader rushes against time to build a dynasty for his son. Hey, it’s not me who said that. It was Shri Ravindra Kishore Sinha, a Member of Parliament of India, who made that statement. Apparently, the Malaysian premier has attracted more attention for the wrong reason.

The MP of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) mocked the “short-circuit” PM Mahathir Mohamad for not only interfering in the internal affairs of India, but also making false statements against the country – from reluctance to send fugitive cum hate preacher Zakir Naik to India, to Jammu and Kashmir conflict and the New Delhi’s newly passed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

Zakir Naik, an Indian citizen, is officially wanted by India for money laundering,but Mahathir likes him too much to extradite him. Despite the fact Jammu and Kashmir are part of India, Mahathir falsely accused India of having “invaded and occupied” the territories after New Delhi announced its revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and placed the region under lockdown.

The 94-year-old Mahathir also falsely labelled New Delhi’s newly passed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) as discrimination against Muslims. The law actually provides a path to Indian citizenships for Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian religious minorities fleeing persecution from three countries – Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

Let’s put first thing first. Prime Minister Narendra Modi scrapped the Article 370, which gave the people of Kashmir exclusive rights and a separate constitution, because such rights were misused by “radicalised Islamic terrorists”. Kashmir has become the gateway to terrorism in India and Modi administration was simply closing the gate by revoking them. And Mahathir wasn’t happy.

What Mahathir’s lazy supporters didn’t know was that in February, a bombing in the Indian-controlled Kashmir killed 40 Indian troops. India responded with an airstrike inside Pakistan, blaming a Pakistani extremist group for the attack. It was precisely because of the airstrike that Pakistan called the revocation of Article 370 illegal and has even downgraded diplomatic ties with India.

However, India argued that Article 370 was an internal matter as it did not interfere with the boundaries of the territory. In short, New Delhi said its decision has not changed the “Line of Control”, or the boundaries of the region, which was agreed by Pakistan. But the genius Mahathir blindly jumped into the conflict, just because Jammu and Kashmir are more than 60% Muslim.

Later, speaking on the sidelines of the Kuala Lumpur Summit 2019, Mahathir interfered in the internal affairs of India again. Like the Kashmir issue, he again falsely claimed that the CAA deprives Muslims of citizenship. He said – “Already people are dying because of this law, so why is there a necessity to do this thing when all this while, for 70 years almost, they have lived together as citizens without any problems?”

The CAA, a law recently passed by India’s Parliament, offers citizenship to non-Muslim migrants from several countries. It allows fast-track citizenship for religious minorities, including Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians. Would Mahathir whine, moan and bitch until foaming at the mouth if the law also grants citizenship to Muslims? Don’t think so.

Protesters, primarily Muslims including Mahathir’s ignorant supporters, do not want Indian citizenship to be granted to any non-Muslim refugees or immigrants, specifically because they fear it would alter the region’s demographic balance, resulting in a loss of their political rights, culture and probably land. In reality, the rights and citizenship of existing Muslims living in India remain unchanged.

Hence, it’s absolutely not true for Mahathir to say the newly passed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) will deprive Muslims of their citizenship. So, exactly why was the old man so freaking offended? Ahh, that’s because the old fox knew that the CAA is quite similar to his notorious “Project IC”, a project which grants citizenship to immigrants by giving them identity cards.

The “Project IC” was hatched secretly during Mahathir’s first stint as premier for 22 years from 1981 to 2003 where immigrants – whether legal or otherwise – were systematically granted citizenship in Sabah to alter the demographicpattern of the state to make it more favourable to then-Mahathir government. A former senator claimed that at least 700,000 immigrants had been given citizenships.

Therefore, Mahathir’s “Project IC” is no different from Modi’s “Project CAA”, if the hidden agenda is to alter the demographic balance or pattern. But at least, Prime Minister Modi has the integrity to do it legally. Yes, both revocation of Article 370 and Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was passed in the Parliament of India. Did Mahathir ask for permission for his Project IC?

That’s fine. If the defiant Mahathir wishes to make a fool of himself on the international stage despite his status as a veteran leader, why should he be stopped? Whenever he is criticised, Mahathir would quickly flash the democracy card, defending his right to freedom of speech, never mind what he said about Kashmir and citizenship issues in India were factually inaccurate.

It would be a waste of oxygen to persuade, let alone argue, with the world’s oldest prime minister that he should try toning down his racism, extremism, xenophobia, Malay supremacy and all forms of bigotry. His brilliant tactic, whenever he is cornered, appears to be his right to freedom of speech or freedom of expression or whatnot. That’s fine too.

However, what is breathtakingly hypocrisy about Mahathir’s version of freedom of speech is that after he complained about discrimination against minority Muslims in India by the Modi administration, he gladly discriminates the minority ethnic Chinese in his own country. Yes, Modi cannot discriminate minority Muslims in India, but Mahathir can discriminate minority Chinese in Malaysia.

But Mahathir went a step further. Not only the premier discriminates the minority Malaysian Chinese, he also bullies – suppresses and oppresses – the ethnic people. Instead of allowing the Chinese to enjoy the same freedom of speech Mahathir claims he is entitled to, a court order was issued to block Chinese educationists from holding a “closed door” congress on Saturday (Dec 28).

The police, under the leadership of IGP (Inspector General of Police) Abdul Hamid Bador, argued that allowing the Chinese meeting – even behind four walls – could lead to “riots”. For some very mysterious reasons, the police didn’t bother to question, let alone arrest, the radicalised and extremist groups (all of them ethnic Malays) who openly threatened to unleash racial riots.

So, Mahathir-Malays can organize Malay Dignity Congress (MDC) but the Chinese cannot do the same. Mahathir’s MDC can attack and threaten the minorities that their citizenship could be revoked, but Chinese Organization Congress can’t even hold a meeting behind closed doors just to discuss Khat Jawi lessons being forced down the throat of Chinese and Indians primary students.

And only Mahathir owns the rights to freedom of speech while the local ethnic Chinese have none. This is obviously a new low which the premier has breached. Why a clever man (he was a medical doctor, mind you) like him can’t engage with the Chinese education group Dong Jiao Zong and argues his case like any intellectuals as to the reason why the non-Muslims must learn Jawi?

Again, like the case of Indian’s Article 370 and Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Mahathir the Fibber lied about the Chinese Organization Congress, saying – “If you start making attacks against other races or going against the Constitution, the end result will be chaos, instability and everybody will be poorer for it and we will see a lot of Malaysians migrating to other countries.”

The Chinese had no intention of attacking ethnic Malays. How would the minority Chinese dare to attack the majority Malay when 98% of the Malaysian army are Malays while in the Royal Malaysia Police, 80% are Malays? The Chinese just don’t want to waste time learning Jawi, the Arabic script used to learn the Koran / Quran. Is that too much to ask?

You force Chinese and Indian students in vernacular schools learn Jawi and when they refused and asked for justifications, you quickly label them as anti-Muslim, anti-Islam, anti-Malay and whatnot. Hilariously, some fake holy man like President Hadi Awang of PAS Islamist Party claims that since the Malaysian minorities live in the “Malay World” (whatever that means), they have no choice but do as ordered.

There you have it – the reason why “Islamophobia” spread like wildfire across the world. It’s exactly people like Mahathir Mohamad and Hadi Awang who give a bad name to Islam. The funniest part is this – Mahathir was the same man who called for all Muslim countries to cooperate with Malaysia, Pakistan and Turkey to counter Islamophobia through the formation of a television channel.

It is as clear as crystal that the short-circuit Mahathir practices double standard at an industrial scale. Even at his advanced age, he is still a spectacular grand old bully and a fantastic racist. And he is definitely a great serial liar who could put Najib Razak to shame. More importantly, he has graduated to become an international hypocrite. That’s indeed priceless!!

FINANCE TWITTER