KJ’s rank hypocrisy

 

Former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin should stop pretending he is the nation’s guardian angel by criticising the Madani administration and telling the rakyat what most of us already know.

If he wants to make a difference, is he prepared to rise to the challenge to spearhead a new direction that Malaysia should chart?

Is he courageous enough to start a new narrative to debunk the myth about the two Rs of race and religion? It’s time someone did. He may create a new following.

No one, especially Malay politicians and certainly not Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, would want to commit political suicide by dismantling the ‘2R’ chokehold on the Malay psyche.

Today, Malaysia is in this deep mess because career politicians like KJ did nothing to reverse the tide, though they were aware of what was happening when they were in power and bulldozed their policies through.

They had little desire to consider the long-term consequences of their actions on the nation. Their sights were only set on furthering their selfish agendas. The 2Rs were used to divide the nation and the spoils of Malaysia’s wealth among themselves.

On Nov 29, KJ was somewhat disingenuous, as well as cynical, when he said PKR had become like Umno-Baru which it once despised.

He added that Pakatan Harapan failed to fulfil its promises and instead made numerous excuses for its shortcomings.

The poor performance of the ringgit, the rising cost of living, the littoral combat ship corruption scandal, and Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s DNAA, were some examples of the Madani administration’s inadequate handling.

He must think us dullards not to know that most of these problems had their roots at a time when he and his ilk were in power. They could have stopped the rot.

As the rising star in his former father-in-law, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s administration and later on in convicted felon Najib Abdul Razak’s cabinet, Khairy was already addicted to power.

The MACC and ministers in Najib’s administration denied that their erstwhile boss had been guilty of any wrongdoing in the 1MDB scandal and the RM2.65 billion Arab prince ‘donation’. He was mesmerised by Najib’s charms and became submissive.

When he was part of Umno-Baru, what did KJ do to convince the leadership that a new direction and narrative had to be charted for the party to survive in 21st-century Malaysia?

As a product of the University of Oxford, he failed to put into practice the education that most people could only dream of. He cannot have been that obtuse, not to notice the destruction caused by racism and religious extremism in Malaysia, for both Muslims and non-Muslims.

Islam in Malaysia

Today, many Malays blindly follow the preachings of conservative religious leaders whose interpretations of Islam are corrupted by their political inclinations.

Our neighbours, including the world’s most populous Islamic nation, are most probably having meaningful conversations about artificial intelligence, information technology, space travel, deep sea exploration, environmental protection, nanotechnology, and resource management.

Here in Malaysia, we are reluctantly dragged back into the 6th Century and have mindless arguments about dress code, banned books, rehabilitating ‘deviant’ LGBTs, controlling women’s behaviour, and ensuring the plain water we drink is strictly halal.

Just about everything we do from the moment we wake up must be syariah-compliant, even to the point of kitting out our female gymnasts in syariah-compliant leotards. KJ was once the minister of youth and sports and he should be aware of the frustrations of many women athletes.

Haram food items, even if they are in cans, like spam, or liquids which are contained in bottles, such as whisky, must be transported in non-halal lifts or trollies, and handled by non-Muslims.

Why has no one urged the Health Ministry to ban Muslims from receiving blood donated by non-Muslims?

In Malaysia, we treat Parliament like a marriage counselling chamber. The PAS deputy president has urged the Family Ministry to support men who are capable of entering polygamy.

Surely he is mistaken. It is not moral support they need but financial support to provide for their wives and children. He has also suggested that single over-30s women be married off in a face-saving gesture to already married men. Do women have a choice, or will PAS one day enact a law to force women to marry?

Instead of encouraging polygamy, the syariah laws about child support and alimony should be strengthened and strictly enforced. Many divorcees, or women who were abandoned by their husbands, have been failed by the syariah system.

Malays have an inexplicable fear of dogs, as well as crosses or anything that resembles a cross. Having been brainwashed since kindergarten, they are guarded about making friends with non-Malays. They think the Chinese are either communists or Christians who will corrupt their souls.

In the name of religion, many Malays are easily sucked into fighting other peoples’ wars. They are enthusiastic about the Israeli-Palestine conflict but have no clue where these countries are on the map and how it all started.

The issues related to the two Rs are not unknown. They are reported regularly in the papers.

KJ could focus on these perennial issues to propel the Malay community into the 21st Century.

Altering the Malay mindset will change Malaysia. - Mkini

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MARIAM MOKHTAR is a defender of the truth, the admiral-general of the Green Bean Army, and the president of the Perak Liberation Organisation (PLO). Blog, Twitter.

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