PAS targets Menu Rahmah

“In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.”

- Napoleon Bonaparte

Kapar MP Halimah Ali’s recent statement in Parliament supporting Menu Rahmah but worrying that the B40 group would be exposed to “… diseases like cancer, autoimmune diseases, or autism” is exactly the kind of effective propaganda that works for the polity that Perikatan Nasional (PN) is attempting to win over.

I have argued before that PAS and, by extension, PN, is a religious extremist political alliance, and the problem with religious extremists - of any religious belief - is that in reality, they really do not give a damn about the people they want to represent.

You just have to look at the way PAS-controlled or influenced states are run to understand how not only is the religious party not interested in any kind of utilitarian governance but also how a compliant citizenry keeps voting them back in.

For religious extremists, especially the ones in politics, fear is the only tool they have. 

They do not have any solutions to the problems the people face because we are talking about a party, of which its leader Abdul Hadi Awang, said during the Covid-19 pandemic that economic recovery must not be placed above religious principles.

These extremists are all about the end of days. Hence, it makes sense that the political strategies they employ are based on fear. This happens with religious political operatives all over the world. They will tell you to fear everything and only they have the religious solutions to your problems.

Propaganda sells the koolaid

Bukit Bendera MP Syerleena Abdul Rashid, in attempting to debunk what Halimah said, wrote - “Such a statement coming from someone qualified within the medical field certainly raises a lot of questions…”

This is exactly the point when it comes to propaganda. People who support PAS/PN or are inclined to support the alliance will only see the credentials of the person making such ludicrous statements.

PAS and PN know this. They know that people will not bother doing any research but will hone in on the fact that a doctor with experience in the government service made this statement so it must be true.

After all, why would a doctor want to cause them more harm? Keep in mind, we are talking about a group who are at the mercy of not only the religious bureaucracy but also survive on the various entitlement programmes put forward by the religious bureaucracy and state governments.

Hadi, controversial preacher Dr Zakir Naik, and anyone who peddles extremist religious narratives will tell you that the suffering you endure here will be rewarded in the afterlife - if you follow their rules.

Now, the non-Muslims in the B40 group are cut off from the kind of systemic aid given out to their Muslim brethren.

This self-reliance has, in many ways, made them stronger and also made their attempts to leave this group stronger, but this is a problematic point.

Suffice it to say, this has always been used against the non-Malay polity. Self-reliance has been turned into useful propaganda that all non-Malays are better off than their Malay brothers and sisters.

As for following their rules, well that is a dicey proposition and the end game for religious extremists. The whole point of PN is turning this country into a theocracy and the first step is making sure that any non-religious solutions offered up by this government are thrashed, even if it means hurting the very people that PN claims it is advocating for.

So, what we have in this case are religious operatives trashing a governmental aid programme that they will never use themselves.

This, of course, is an important point because all these religious potentates are living in luxury.

If Halimah really cared about the B40, especially children, she would be training her sights on the menu served in religious schools.

There, “low-quality food” is acceptable, I suppose. All one has to do is google the topics and one would find news reports from Astro Awani, New Straits Times, The Sun and The Star - to name a few - showing that hundreds, if not thousands, of students suffer from food poisoning every year due to low-quality food served in these schools.

PAS’ long game bearing fruit

The religious bureaucracy is one of the more well-funded government appendages in this country. Yet the religious bureaucracy is a swamp of incompetence and corruption.

The reality is that successive governments have funded these organisations and yet the majority of Malay Muslims in the B40 group are still suffering. Why? It seems to me that if the basis of religion is compassion, then the millions of ringgit poured into the coffers of the religious bureaucracy should have helped the polity over the decades.

The government is more interested in paying religious leaders, funding think tanks, turning a blind eye to the funds for religious schools, overlooking the propaganda disseminated by these religious schools, getting various small-time preachers on the government’s payroll and then clutching their pearls when scandals, rapes, abuse, deaths and bullying happen with anything connected to the religious bureaucracy.

PAS, of course, could not care less about any of this. Religious scandals are water off a duck’s back to them. They know that whatever the religious bureaucracy has always done only serves to further their own narratives.

All the money lost or the cash stolen from deserving people means nothing to them. Why? Because they have enough doctors, technocrats and grassroots-level operators churned out by the religious industrial complex to further their political narratives.

And now, PAS is reaping its rewards for playing the long game for decades.

I have no idea if Menu Rahmah is working but, obviously, if the opposition is attacking it - with a doctor no less - they are worried that it is gaining traction. After how PN ran the country, is it any wonder that the people, especially the B40 group, need all the help they can get?

Former Umno deputy minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed in February last year said that PAS, which contested 15 seats in the Johor state polls, is bereft of ideas and all they talk about is polygamy and promoting ridiculous practices like saying husbands can beat their wives “lightly”.

Do you still think that will not work? - Mkini

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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.