Racism rears its ugly head in PAS

 

From P Ramasamy

PAS president or religious supremo Abdul Hadi Awang never ceases to amaze me with his nonsensical, racist and extremist remarks.

Yesterday, he came out with his latest theory saying that the root cause of corruption in the country was the non-Malays and not the Malays.

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He said it was the non-Malays, with control over the economy and politics, that made the Malays become corrupted and mired in financial scandals.

According to Hadi, the non-Malays also take more interest in politics by coming back from abroad to vote in the elections. However, this was not the case with the Malays who are not politically inclined.

He went on to say that the non-Malays, by their pervasive engagement and involvement in business and entrepreneurship have taken control of the economy to the extent they can dictate terms to the Malays.

His conclusion was that the Malays are corrupted only because of the nefarious influence of the non-Malays.

Such was the nature of a most bizarre and ludicrous statement from Hadi, the leader of PAS, the know-it-all Islamic party in the country.

Despite its Islamic credentials, the party under Hadi has virtually become an identical party to Umno.

By spewing the worst kinds of racism and hatred, PAS wants to make itself relevant to the Malay-Muslim masses.

The party leaders know that racism will help them get more support from the Malays compared with their abstract version of religion.

In fact, there is only one party in the country with two names, Umno and PAS.

Hadi’s ludicrous remark that non-Malays are the source of all corruption means that the poor Malay leaders in Umno are not guilty of corruption as they were manipulated by the non-Malays.

If that is the case, Hadi should advise the judiciary not to prosecute the Malay leaders as they are innocent.

The blame should be cast on the conniving non-Malays, the real culprits.

He stopped short of saying that former prime minister Najib Razak should be unconditionally-released because he was the victim of non-Malay connivance and manipulation over the 1MDB scandal.

Of course, Hadi does not make any reference to the funds that PAS received from Najib or Umno that are said to have come from 1MDB.

If the non-Malays are so powerful and deceitful by Hadi’s reasoning then they should be in control of virtually everything in the country.

Why should they just stop at manipulating and influencing the Malays, particularly the elites.

They should be going further.

Hadi is no fool, since the next general election (GE15) is fast approaching, he is merely sharpening his tools to be relevant to the Malays.

By engaging in racism of the worst kind, he believes that more Malays would support PAS.

The party’s religious credentials are just not enough to get the support of the Malays, so it has to outdo the other racial parties by subscribing to the worst and most blatant forms of racism.

Religious universalism has completely evaporated from the party long ago.

It was only a matter of time before racism and extremism reared their ugly heads in the party. - FMT

P Ramasamy is Penang deputy chief minister II.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.