“In 2008, he, Lim and I signed a document (upholding) Islam as the national religion. Lim signed it, Hadi signed it and I signed it.”
– Anwar Ibrahim (2022)
The great tragedy of Malaysia is the DAP is nothing as how Abdul Hadi Awang describes.
Far from being a moderating or civilising force for religious extremism in this country (which is what secularism is), the DAP has colluded with and enabled various Malay power brokers in an attempt to sustain power in state and federal legislatures.
At that time, the current prime minister questioned why Hadi was going about carrying on with this “fitnah” (slander) against the DAP.
The answer is simple, especially when you consider a supremacist reading of religious texts.
All of this is the farce of the “social contract” which in reality, is unofficial dogma for political power sharing.
Malaysia Madani just renamed it “don’t spook the Malays”.
Hadi’s fabrications and mendacious political rhetoric against the DAP comes at a time when the institutions of Malay power, the “tiang seri” as Umno terms it, is shaking in its foundations because of what Hadi, who claimed to have initiated the Sheraton Move and the formation of a far-right Malay government which was Perikatan Nasional (PN), did.
Hadi and his fellow racial and religious supremacists have been also busy chipping away at the royal institution.
The Bon Odori festival where a PAS operative openly incited rebellion against the advice of a sultan was just the beginning.
Muhyiddin Yassin, ignoring the advice of the royalty about the formation of this unity government, was a demonstration to the PN faithful that the coalition considered itself above the terms of legal and societal norms of the Malay polity.
And of course, we have Hadi openly defying the Sultan of Terengganu about politics in the mosque and getting away with it.
Hadi is treading on dangerous even seditious ground when he accuses the DAP of using the monarchy as a “shield” as the colonialists did.
Actually, it is far more complicated than that and if Hadi wants a history lesson on the nature of the complicity between monarchy and various European power brokers, I would not mind giving it to him.
However, the seditious and dangerous argument that Hadi is making, is that if the DAP and those aligned with the political party are manipulating the monarchy, then the monarchy is in danger and the only way to save our royals and the country is through open conflict.
This is why Hadi attempts to paint the DAP as “pro-communist” when everything the DAP has said and done demonstrates that they are unrepentant capitalists.
This has led some dissenters of the DAP’s group to characterise the party - Developers Action Party.
If DAP were really anti-Malay and anti-Islam, this would mean that Penang is governed by a political party which is a threat to the Malay community and Islam but they do so without any sanction from the State - which is supposed to safeguard both.
This would also mean that the royal houses in states where DAP enjoys support are complicit in supporting the anti-Malay and anti-Islam agenda of DAP.
Is DAP secular?
Is Hadi really telling the Malay community that DAP and the royalty are conspiring with their anti-Malay and anti-Islam agenda?
And what a load of horse manure that the DAP is a secularist party. The fact is DAP working with Malay power brokers has increased funding to the religious bureaucracy.
It has gone to great lengths to demonstrate to the Malay polity that they will not only dress up for the religious occasion but also throw secularism under the bus if it helps their Malay partners remain in power.
Keep in mind that Lim Kit Siang said that the DAP supports the Islamisation of this country.
Claiming that DAP supports Islamisation based on the Federal Constitution is nonsensical since the Islamists claim the very same in their quest for religious supremacy as Hadi did in his latest broadside against Lim.
The reality is that the Federal Constitution, like religion, is open to interpretation, hence any attempt to impose an ideological or religious agenda when framing policy “based on the Constitution” is an exercise in sophistry.
How exactly is “Islamisation based on the Constitution” that DAP supports different from what the deep Islamic state has been doing?
As I have said numerous times, there are no true religious values; there are only true humanist secular values, and it does nobody any good to place religion in a position of power and hope that the majority of its adherents believe in what you – a non-believer – believe in.
And really the DAP has always tried hard “not to spook the Malays” and Hadi knows it. Remember the historic Penang DAP convention in 2010 where for the first time, a doa (Islamic prayer) was recited? This was said back then:
“The Penang DAP convention raised a few eyebrows when for the first time in the history of the party, a prayer was recited before the event began.
“Often labelled a ‘chauvinist and racist' party by its detractors, the convention invited Tanjong PAS commissioner Yaacob Omar to recite the prayer.
“When he went up to the stage, Yaacob explained to the crowd to remain silent during the recital, which went on for about four minutes.”
"Islam is for all regardless of race, social standing or political allegiance," Yaacob said before the recital. "It is not wrong for anyone to recite prayers at an event that is attended by many non-Muslims as Islamic teaching preaches what is good for all," he was reported as saying.
I have always maintained that the DAP, and indeed all non-Malay political operatives, should be strictly secular in terms of how they present their ideas and agendas.
They should not give in to the temptation of thinking that they could go the easy route and manipulate religious sentiment for populist appeal.
All these non-Muslim political operatives do, when they don the hijab (for instance), is highlight the hypocrisy, and moral and intellectual bankruptcy of their own religious agendas.
What is funny is that anecdotally speaking, the DAP’s base seems to think that all this is wonderful.
Unfortunately, the base is wrong. The reason why Hadi fears secularism is that it would eventually loosen the theocratic grip of the State on the Malay masses. This is why he uses this strategy against the DAP.
Religious bureaucracy fears ‘liberating’ secularism
He understands that they and their allies are too pusillanimous to offer an alternative to the Malay polity, even if it causes them short-term pain but long-term gain.
Readers may have noticed that I have not addressed Hadi’s ramblings about communism because to do so would require a deep dive into the Malaysian left - which Umno had destroyed.
It would mean delving deep into the left-wing politics of PAS and its Marxian undertones - not to mention personalities. This is a topic for another time, maybe when Hadi becomes prime minister.
The political terrain of this country would be a lot more hopeful if what Hadi says about the DAP’s secularism were true.
Unfortunately, it is not and this is why the politics of this country is damned. If the DAP were indeed secular, the community which would benefit the most are the Malays.
Proving Hadi wrong means exposing the reality that the DAP is not only failing in its secular agenda but failing in its strategy to woo the Malay vote.
The main reason why Hadi, the deep Islamic state and their political proxies fear secularism is simple.
Secularism protects everyone, even people of faith from the coercive aspects of religion. - 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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