When Permatang Pauh MP Fawwaz Jan of PAS found issue with the sale of alcohol at the main lobby of Sunway Carnival Mall in Penang, many Malaysians reacted with fury.
But his protest about the promotion of alcoholic products has very little to do with religion, and he should stop dragging alcohol into his political sphere.
The little known cleric is on a high after successfully toppling the Anwar Ibrahim dynasty from their Permatang Pauh seat after decades.
He is trying to generate more publicity for himself and get noticed by members of the PAS central committee. In other words, he is trying to impress the top brass in PAS, and in doing so, hopes to quickly climb the greasy political ladder.
Fawwaz claimed to have strong objections about the sale and added that he was “protecting the sensitivity of Muslims”. He also reminded Malaysians of the adverse effects of alcohol consumption.
What is Fawwaz trying to say? If he wants to curtail sales of alcohol today, the suspicion is that he may want more things to be banned tomorrow, things that are part of the rich diverse culture of the non-Malays.
Is he trying to suggest that Muslim sensitivities are uppermost in his mind and that only their sensitivities matter? What about those in his constituency who are non-Muslim? Don’t their sensitivities matter. too?
As MP, he cannot cherry pick which people he’d like to serve.
Is he admitting that Muslims have thin skins and are easily offended? When he does this, he portrays the Muslims in his community as weak and insecure in their Islamic beliefs.
All Muslims are taught about tolerance, integration and self-discipline, but all that Fawwaz is doing is to undermine their confidence and perhaps, increase their intolerance. There is a chance that he will encourage them to be arrogant.
If the Malays in his constituency fail to fully make positive efforts to understand their religion, Islam, they will gradually destroy its good name and help to create further divisions in society.
The other reason that Fawwaz has decided to make a public spectacle of the sale of alcohol in the mall is that he wants to impress everyone that he is not afraid of having a head-on confrontation with the DAP’s MPs and assemblymen in Penang.
Penang is a stronghold of the DAP. and is the symbolic seat of Malaysian Chinese power.
After years of Umno-Baru and Barisan Nasional failing to oust DAP and Pakatan Harapan from Penang, it is possible that Fawwaz wants to prove to any ignorant Malay, that he, or rather PAS, is more Islamic than Umno-Baru. In other words, he is merely showing off his holier-than-thou traits.
On the other hand, is he saying that non-Muslims have thick skins and can easily dismiss any adverse comments? Surely this can be interpreted as disrespecting and dismissing the rights of the non-Malays and non-Muslims.
Making an issue about the sale, which for decades has not been seen as a problem, has exposed Fawwaz’s underhanded tactics.
He may think he is doing the Malays a service but the opposite is true. He is suggesting that the Muslims in his constituency are weak in their faith.
Malaysia’s first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, said the country was established as a multiracial, multi-cultural and secular state, with Islam as the official religion. Will Fawwaz respect this?
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced the closure of many businesses and many people have been made jobless.
The alcohol and brewing industry provides work for thousands of workers in the ancillary trades, such as the bottling industry, packaging, transport industry, warehousing, import-export, port activities, entertainment, hospitality, duty free sales, tourism and aviation.
The activities from these businesses will help to restore our country’s economy and bring in much-needed revenue for the Treasury.
A high percentage of the workforce in the brewing trade and the various industries it supports, are Malay. Does the MP for Permatang Pauh want to see more unemployed Malays? - FMT
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.
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