Neutralising the Christian 'threat' tactic

So Muhyiddin Yasin plays the Christian scare tactic against DAP and Pakatan Harapan - yet again.

He claims that Anwar Ibrahim caved in on the non-Muslim use of the word "Allah" because he was "manipulated" by the usual bogeyman – DAP.

This is a tired sequel to Muhyiddin's claim in Nov 2022, just before the general elections, that Harapan was an "agent" of Jews and Christians who were out to "colonise" Malaysia.

How on earth, or heaven, did DAP get this "evangelical" image?

Yes, their most well-known Christian leaders are Hannah Yeoh and Teresa Kok.

Who else? Party secretary-general Anthony Loke? His deputies V Sivakumar and Liew Chin Tong?

Perhaps party chairman Lim Guan Eng? Or his deputy Gobind Singh? Vice chairman M Kulasegaran? Caretaker Penang chief minister Chow Kon Yeow?

How about the Malay leaders in DAP?

Religion is personal

As far as I know, DAP is a secular party, and most leaders don't advertise their religion as it's personal. Arguably, this is better than claiming to "defend" a religion while getting dirty with corruption.

Perhaps people like Muhyiddin are taking advantage of kampung voters' ignorance that many Malaysian Chinese adopt English names not because of religion but because it's a fashionable "Western" thing.

All of my Chinese classmates from Seremban took on names like Raymond, Ivan and Yvonne when they moved to Kuala Lumpur without becoming Christian. These are seen as English, not Christian, names per se.

Take former DAP Damansara MP Tony Pua. I don't know if he is a Christian or not. Neither did his party colleague, former Raub MP Ariff Sabri, who wrote In The Rocket in 2015:

"I don’t even know whether Anthony Loke, Tony Pua and others are regular church goers or not. It’s a private matter."

"The only thing Tony Pua preaches on is 1MDB and he wants to convert people into believing that 1MDB is the mother of all scandals. He has converted many, even Dr Mahathir."

In other words, it's not about the religion of DAP leaders. It's about pushing for a clean, capable and trustworthy government. Surely, people of all faiths can agree on this?

Unless some politicians are clueless and incompetent (as seen during the Covid crisis)? And unable to come up with solid policies to improve Malaysian lives? And thus resort to racial and religious fearmongering?

Muhyiddin Yassin

Repeat big lies

Yet the magic trick of politics, as former German Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels said: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."

This is made even worse in the age of social media where scientists have found that fake news travels six times faster than the truth.

After all, it's only human to love juicy, malicious gossip rather than real but boring facts. This is why this "Christian threat" tactic has been recycled again and again.

For example, back in 2011, the DAP was falsely accused of asking pastors to pray for Malaysia to become a Christian state and to have a Christian Prime Minister.

This was splashed on the front page of (then) Umno-linked Utusan Malaysia. As per the usual playbook, Malay rights pressure group Perkasa also lodged police reports on this nationwide.

This "conspiracy" was strongly denied by the Christian Federation of Malaysia, which said these are "dangerous lies that make Christians the object of hate".

Christians are just 9.1 percent of Malaysia's population, according to the government's own census of 2020.. Muslims are 63.4 percent.

How can such a small minority be a "threat" to the huge Muslim majority? Especially when they control the civil service, the armed forces and the police. It just doesn't make any sense.

Image and branding

But sadly, Malaysian politics is not about logic or rational debate but racial and religious scare tactics.

It's an image game and Perikatan Nasional seems to have successfully branded itself as the new "protector" of a certain group while Umno is now accused of being MCA-like "traitors" who "sell out" their own race.

So here's my suggestion. It's time for non-Christian DAP leaders to make their Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh or Taoist backgrounds more prominent.

For example, RSN Rayer, the DAP MP for Jelutong, has holy ash or vibuthi worn on his forehead.

RSN Rayer

So maybe those DAP leaders who go to Chinese temples should hold bigger and longer joss sticks? Or carry the deity's sedan chair?

Not eye-catching enough? Heck, how about walking on fire or piercing their cheeks with metal rods during the next Nine Emperor God's festival?

And the Hindus of DAP? Why stop at holy ash? How about carrying a kavadi during Thaipusam)?

OK, OK I am (half) joking on the latter ideas. But how else can they create a strong image that they are not part of some Christian "conspiracy"?

This is the tragic comedy of our politics. - Mkini

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ANDREW SIA is a veteran journalist who likes teh tarik khau kurang manis. You are welcome to give him ideas to brew at tehtarik@gmail.com.

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