Thayaparan’s rejoinder to Ahmad Faizal

 

“A lie doesn't become truth, wrong doesn't become right, and evil doesn't become good, just because it's accepted by a majority.”

- Booker T Washington

The only thing Bersatu deputy president, former youth and sports minister, and ex-Perak menteri besar Ahmad Faizal Azumu got right in his response to my piece about him, is this. Yes, my writing has a lot of anger.

But why is my writing fuelled by anger?

Well, I am angry because, by virtue of my ethnicity and status as a minority, I do not have the same privileges (rights) as the majority in this country. This extends to educational, housing and economic opportunities.

I am angry because I am banned from using certain words because the majority claim usage all for themselves. I am angry that minorities are told who can and cannot enter their sacred places of worship.

I am angry about unilateral conversion and how the state security apparatus, which is supposed to protect everyone regardless of ethnicity and religion, is doing nothing to stop religious kidnapping in this country but instead colludes with the perpetrators with the aid of the religious bureaucracy.

I am angry that the Islamisation process has seeped into every facet of this country and this has ruined our education system and everything else it touches.

I am angry that a theocratic party leads the opposition and its religious leader believes that non-Muslims must be pak turut (followers).

I am angry that PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang and Muhyiddin Yassin, the president of Bersatu, have openly defied the royal institution but there has been no sanction from the state.

Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin and PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang

I am angry that leaders of Bersatu and PAS have resorted to downright racist and bigoted language and policies but there has been no sanction from the state.

I am angry that state-sanctioned racial and religious programmes indoctrinate the majority into at best being fearful of the minority and at worst, hating us.

I am angry that every utilitarian policy in this country (and no matter what people say, a utilitarian calculation is the best of the worst kind of calculation to make) has to be tempered because we are told not to spook the Malays.

I am angry because political operatives have to sublimate their democratic impulses (especially non-Malay political operatives) in favour of racial and religious supremacy because political operatives like Faizal would just attack them and claim they are attacking the “Malays” and Islam in this country.

Faizal does not get to claim, that I am somehow against the plurality of society when everything the mainstream political establishment does (and Faizal belongs to the most virulent of anti-democratic forces in this country) is predicated on homogenising the majority community and sidelining the minority communities.

Faizal dares say that working with the DAP is difficult because they appear to champion a specific community and he says this while belonging to a race-based party which is determined to erode the rights of citizens of a plural society in the name of race and religion.

Racial and religious superiority

Faizal’s coalition is the definition of plurality hate in the Malaysian political and social landscape. The main goal of this fascist coalition is to destroy plurality, especially in the Malay community.

I most certainly revile the choice of voters who would choose to reject the plurality of society and believe that non-Muslims/Malays in this country should be pak turut. My survival depends on people who vote against this fascist coalition.

I do not believe that anyone who votes for Pakatan Harapan has intellectual superiority over those who vote for Perikatan Nasional for instance. Their vote is based on fear. Fear that the racial and religious superiority of the majority would be worse under PN, and I do not blame them.

Look at what Faizal’s comrade, the menteri besar of Kedah, has been doing. Not only has he been questioning the status of Penang but he has made it clear that his racial and religious obligations trump the democratic norms of this country. And he tells the non-Malays/Muslims to understand.

Faizal wrote: “I am sure the Harapan support base is aghast that a man with 47 corruption charges in court is now the deputy prime minister. Would it be fair to mirror your comments and say that this is the kind of leader Harapan supporters think the country needs? Of course not.”

Harapan supporters make their compromises for what they believe is the greater evil if PN comes into power, which is the same as PN supporters who have no problem with the corruption charges against Muhyiddin, who is the president of Bersatu.

Indeed when it comes to corruption, it was Hadi who also claimed (Dr Zakir Naik has said the same thing) that it would be better for Muslims to be led by corrupt tyrannical Muslim leaders rather than honest non-Muslims. So do not play this card with me.

Do not ask me to Google whatever defence you think is out there in support of your argument. You were the menteri besar and as you say, “experienced it”. Name names and detail how the DAP attempted to oust you from your position.

Of course, Harapan would abandon Dr Mahathir Mohamad after the Sheraton Move. By Mahathir's admission, he was making moves to consolidate his power and was betrayed by the very minions he tasked to secure him more power.

If Bersatu was really interested in Mahathir's political welfare, you would have come to his defence. Instead seeing how the political winds were blowing, every one of his minions abandoned him.

Faizal claimed that the “We vs Them” discussion is deleterious for Malaysia, but the whole narrative of PN is based on “We vs Them”. Malays vs the non-Malays. What PN hopes to achieve by playing the race and religion card, is that this unity government does its work for them.

If Faizal was really interested in pursuing any other narrative, he would offer it up. Instead, he continues demonising the DAP and trolling this unity government.

And no Faizal, there is no need for us to chat over a cup of coffee, on the fundamental issue affecting this country. If you really had the interests of the rakyat at heart, you would cease the racial and religious trolling, sit down with Anwar Ibrahim and use your grassroots activists to support policies this unity comes up with (with your input) to better the lives of all Malaysians.

But you won’t do that because ultimately PN believes that an unstable government makes political sense and the suffering of the citizens, especially the majority, could be used as racial and religious propaganda.

I stand by everything I wrote. - 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.