Make a clear stand on national issues, Hadi

 

The time has come for the PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang to personally state his stand on various important issues like corruption, Islamophobia and national unity - instead of leaving it to his subordinates to clarify them with the most unsatisfactory explanations.

Until now, Hadi has taken a very ambiguous stand on such matters. Could he make a clear-cut stand?

On corruption, Hadi has taken a racist stand, blaming non-Muslims as being at the root of corruption and even stating that giving cash handouts during elections is a charity and not a form of bribery.

Hadi had also made a preposterous allegation that the DAP promoted Islamophobia but has not been able to cite an example in the last two months.

Instead of admitting his error, Hadi compounded his mistake and came out with a widened and more ridiculous definition of Islamophobia, stating that it was used to stop “the true Islam” from taking power and governing the country.

No Islamophobia in M’sia

By Hadi’s new definition, he made Bersatu and Gerakan guilty of Islamophobia as not only they did not want Hadi as prime minister but they also did not want him as parliamentary opposition leader although PAS has more parliamentary seats than Bersatu.

Is Hadi in a position to state how many of the 57 countries in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) practise “true Islam”?

Hadi had been the special envoy to the Middle East for two prime ministers but he is not aware that the OIC has an Islamophobia Observatory in Saudi Arabia.

The unit conducts global and daily monitoring of Islamophobia and the OIC Islamic Observatory - in its 14 annual reports since 2007 – has not found any Islamophobia in Malaysia.

Lim Kit Siang

Since his allegation, there has been a clear case of Islamophobia, with the Swedish-Danish far-right politician Rasmus Paludan burning a copy of the Holy Quran in Stockholm on Sunday.

Our prime minister has condemned Paludan. I have criticised the politician too. The minor PAS officials have condemned Paludan but Hadi has been silent. Why?

And what is Hadi’s stand on promoting interracial and inter-religious understanding, harmony and peace in Malaysia?

Does he accept the five nation-building principles enshrined under the Rukun Negara?

Does Hadi also accept the aspirations of our first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman that Malaysia becomes “a beacon of light in a difficult and distracted world” as Malaysia is at the confluence of four great civilisations — Malay/Islamic, Chinese, Indian and Western?

And there is no reason why Tunku’s aspiration cannot be realised if Malaysians can leverage on and be guided by the values and virtues of the four great human civilisations of the world. - Mkini

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LIM KIT SIANG is the former Iskandar Puteri MP.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.