"These wild accusations not only show insensitivity toward harmony in a multicultural and multifaith society but also ignore the fact that PAS' views are based on the National Fatwa Council's guidelines."
– PAS Youth information chief Khairul Nadzir Helmi Azhar
With that little snippet, PAS youth information chief Khairul Nadzir Helmi Azhar has defined the problem with religious intolerance in this country and the trouble rational Malaysians are heading into the new year.
What we will be dealing with in 2025 is economic uncertainty brought upon by geopolitical upheavals and the reality that because of these economic uncertainties, the state will attempt to use race and religion to sustain power instead of utilitarian policies that would encourage some form of national cohesiveness.
Crude majoritarianism will be used to justify undemocratic policies, and the minorities will be scapegoated and cowed into enabling policies which are detrimental to economic prosperity and regional security.
Some folks will wonder why there is nary a mention of the big corruption scandals that defined the year but for this writer, religious intolerance and intransigence are the existential threat facing this country.
A country can recover from a kleptocracy but it cannot from a theocracy.
Public flogging in Terengganu
To quote Suhakam on the public caning of a repeat khalwat offender in Terengganu - “Punishments that inflict physical violence and public humiliation have no place in a modern justice system.
“They undermine Malaysia’s commitments to human rights, tarnish its legal integrity and erode the dignity of individuals - a value upheld by all religions, including Islam.”
As someone who is against state caning, the issue here is not about this form of punishment but rather PAS’ intent.
What is PAS’s intention when it comes to this public form of barbarity? It intends to instil fear into the Muslim community.
You will not see hands being chopped off for corruption or high-ranking factotums or their hangers-on being whipped for this sort of thing.
Instead, you will see the average Joe rakyat who most probably voted for them bearing the brunt of these forms of punishment.
This was pure, unadulterated hypocrisy, not to mention the mendacity of the PAS political apparatus, and PAS is essentially thumbing its nose to the secular and constitutional guardrails of this country.
The fact that Madani was completely silent on the matter indicates how much the federal government fears the “Green Wave”.
With the Perlis mufti and his fait accompli announcements, we witnessed the agitations within the religious establishment, which is characteristic of theocracies.
PAS is demonstrating that while it will sustain the elites and the scores of apparatchiks within its theocracy, average Muslims will feel the harsh glare of their atavistic religion on their backs.
CMA amendments
What the government hopes to do with amendments to the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) is to attempt to regulate the flow of information.
Why? Because the state understands that the opposition has a far better grasp of social media tactics than it does.
Keep in mind that for most of the denizens in the corridors of power in Madaniville, freedom of speech was of paramount importance to get their message across when they were out of power.
Now, because of their inability or unwillingness to execute reforms, they resort to "shooting the messenger" type tactics.
Ultimately, what the Madani regime is doing is building more dictatorial foundations for the theocratic state to further build on.
To be honest, I don’t think even Perikatan Nasional would have come up with such a gambit because they understand that there are enough dictatorial tools in the box to handle dissent.
Mufti bill
Together with the amendments to the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act (Act 355), the Federal Territories Mufti Bill only consolidates power with the religious class, which includes PAS and the far religious elements in all mainstream political parties and further diminishes the influence of the supposedly secular DAP.
If Madani assumes that it would control the religious message by passing these bills, it is sorely mistaken.
The far religious right has demonstrated that they are willing to slay sacred cows in their quest for dominance.
Over the decades, ever since these types of bills were proposed, the religious far right, the deep Islamic state and culture war warriors have been pushing for these amendments as an amelioration of secular democratic first principles.
The narrative that religious laws will not affect non-Muslims is merely a talking point. No government will ever give this talking point legal effect. Indeed, no political coalition will ever guarantee that religious laws will not affect non-Muslims.
Why? Because those who advocate for these kinds of laws understand that religious laws influence and erode democratic guardrails and the purpose of such laws is dominion over everyone, believer and non-believer.
Rogue cops blamed for forced disappearances
Rational Malaysians have to decide - is the state’s narrative that the disappearance of Pastor Raymond Koh and Amri Che Mat the work of rogue police officers, or was there something more sinister at play?
Who had the power, if this allegation is true, to order a tactical squad to kidnap Malaysians for whatever reasons? Who had the authority to issue such commands, and who felt secure enough that their crime would go unsanctioned by any elected government?
Who had the political influence to concoct such a manoeuvre that bypassed the traditional state security apparatus and mete out whatever fate befell these people?
Make no mistake, the answers to these questions would offer no relief and would most probably demonstrate either how the political apparatus has lost control of the religious bureaucracy or how the two are no longer mutually exclusive.
Whoever these people are, they are confident that the narratives of the state security apparatus would shield them from whatever repercussions or sanctions of the Madani regime.
The enemy has always been within.
KK Mart socks fiasco
When Umno Youth chief Dr Muhamad Akmal Saleh told his friends at KK Mart to find another business, you have to ask yourself why he didn’t care about “the livelihood of workers - most of whom are Malay Muslims” that Mydin hypermarket boss head Ameer Ali Mydin thinks would be in jeopardy if Akmal continued with his reckless religious agenda.
You have to ask yourself why Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan would write a piece warning people not to be sympathetic to KK Mart and its vendor by describing the former’s business practices as “questionable”.
And what did the prime minister think of Umno wanting to destroy a viable business which hires many Malay Muslims? Did he really think that Umno, a partner in his government, acting this way was going to burnish his racial and religious credentials?
Mohamad is right about one thing. Malaysia is at a pivotal juncture.
Ushering in the new year, I leave readers with this:
“The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose, new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes.”
- GK Chesterton
- 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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