“In order to escape accountability for his crimes, the perpetrator does everything in his power to promote forgetting. If secrecy fails, the perpetrator attacks the credibility of his victim. If he cannot silence her absolutely, he tries to make sure no one listens.”
- Judith Lewis Herman, “Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror”
The public comments by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Religious Affairs) Idris Ahmad go far beyond victim shaming but are indicative of the kind of morality that PAS wishes to impose on Malaysia.
This is not a question of ignorance or an ill-advised, politically incorrect comment by an official of the government - but rather a device from the religiofascist toolbox to cow a populace into compliance.
The fact that government officials, political operatives and the various propagandists of this Malay uber alles state (including their non-Muslim enablers) are silent on the malfeasances of PAS political operatives, is indicative of the theocratic terrain that Malaysia is wandering into.
“Shame” in this context is wrapped up in issues such as child marriage, the subordination of women’s sexuality and the patriarchal agenda of religion to ensure political hegemony using religious dogma.
I have no idea what the women who support PAS think, or indeed if they are allowed to think at all.
Nobody battles PAS in the religious octagon because PAS will claim they are going against Islam.
Who let PAS decide what constitutes Islam in this country? Oh, wait.
Having watched the whole video, I can understand how emotionally triggering this may be for the religious minister, especially when the child claimed that not only was her father disinterested in giving her a religious education but also presented himself as an example of religiosity by dress and demeanour to the outside world.
The description of the father as a video game player, porn watcher, public masturbator but most importantly, a molesting cretin, is compounded by the fact that his circle of friends consisted of womanising layabouts who had no issue relating their exploits to a child.
Of course, all this sounds lurid but this is the age we live in, where a young child actor felt the only way she could expunge the pains she suffered from her memory was in the confessional confines of a talk show.
Does this say something about the culture we live in, maybe? The issue here is not the manner in which she disclosed it but how the religious state chose to deal with it.
As I said, this goes far beyond victim shaming but rather a groupthink which is far more dangerous than what idiots think that “woke” groupthink is going to destroy civilisation.
How I despise Western culture wars, but I digress. This is really about how, PAS, through its various agents, proxies and compromised political and greedy political operatives, wants to control the majority in this country - and when that happens, the minorities can only be pak turut.
Even when PAS was in the then Pakatan Rakyat, I was sceptical of their motives.
Not in the sense that they were not upfront about their radicalism, but rather, they managed to play a religious shell game with their non-Muslim colleagues who did the work of advancing Islamism under the guise of Bangsa Malaysia.
PAS is winning
What folk do not seem to understand is that you can mock PAS all you want on social media, but the reality is that PAS is winning and tragically enabled by compliant non-Muslim political operatives.
The ideas of this religious party have seeped into every facet of Malaysian life. The mainstream political establishment is held hostage by this belief system.
Ideas of majoritarian rule and how demographics enable such are themes in an ongoing fascist takeover of this country.
When PAS talks of Western ideologies and their effects on mainstream Malay culture and polity, these are ideas that have been used to justify the Islamisation of this country.
For instance, in March 2017, during a debate regarding the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 (Act 355) proposed amendments, lawyer Aidil Khalid argued: “In turn, some (of these laws) are based on the principles of morality from Christian principles.
"Muslims in this country have been subjected to the civil laws, we do not complain."
Pay attention to this part of the reportage - However, Aidil argued that interpretations of Islam and the Quran should be left to scholars who have spent entire lives dedicated to understanding the religion.
"It is extreme arrogance from us to say anybody can decide on this," he said.
In other words, morality in the kind of Islam that PAS proposes is defined, not by adherents but rather by religious scholars.
This is why religious extremists in this country, or anywhere in the world, want to destroy secular or civil systems.
This is why it is imperative that Harapan offers an alternative Islamic narrative that is in direct stark contrast to the one promulgated by the Malay uber alles state.
It is pointless for political operatives to harp about corruption when we have someone like Zakir Naik telling all and sundry that corruption will be sanctioned by God and that Muslims have to vote for Muslim political operatives, even though they are corrupt.
What is needed is a clear-eyed pragmatic contrast to the corrupt religiosity on display.
If this issue is ignored or we pretend it does not matter, we will always live in the shadow of a state which would not hesitate to use Islam as a weapon against any of its views as compromising its hold over the country - or if Harapan ever comes into power, they will be subservient to extremist groups who will realise that their lack of resolve translates into weakness.
This remains the state of play. - Mkini
S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
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