UMNO’s killing 2 birds with 1 stone’ game plan…
Tumpang Sekole…?
The Christian saga seems to continue on and on, and no one knows how it may end. Throughout the whole of this saga, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has tried to portray himself as a hero of Islam, a defender of the Islamic faith.
The chronology of events thus far appears carefully planned:-
1. 7th May 2011 – a local Malay daily highlights on its front page lies about Christian pastors being in cahoots with DAP to form a Christian state;
2. 11th May 2011 – Najib meets with Muslim leaders and assures them that everything will be done to safeguard the position of Islam as the country’s official religion;
3. 12th May 2011 – Najib meets with Christian leaders (priests and pastors) and after that gave a press conference on his own without including his meeting partners. He announced that the Christian leaders had pledged to uphold the Federal Constitution and respect Islam as the official religion. His statement implied that the community had not been doing this all along. Najib’s solo presser stirred suspicion and further angered Christians in the country.
4. 14th May 2011 – Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein says there is “some basis” for Utusan’s controversial new ‘report’.
Portraying Christians as liars
To seasoned political watchers, the whole episode reeks of an “insidious plot” cooked up by the UMNO elite to discredit PAS as PAS has pledged to stay in Pakatan Rakyat.
“By also gunning at DAP, UMNO tries to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. The whole contemptible plot is hatched by UMNO to show the Malays that PAS should quit Pakatan as its Pakatan coalition partner ‘DAP has intentions to create a Christian state,” Nizar Jamaluddin, the Bukit Gantang MP, told Malaysia Chronicle.
According to Nizar, the deposed mentri besar of Perak, Najib was the one who set in motion the move to portray the Christian leaders as liars.
“First, he said the pastors informed him that there is absolutely no intention to create a Christian state. Then Hishammuddin said there is so-called new evidence which forms the basis for Utusan’s front-page article. So what this makes out to be is that the Christian leaders were lying to Najib when they told him that they had no intention to create a Christian state. This is an extremely unhealthy development indeed,” said Nizar. Right or wrong diagnosis, Hishammuddin’s latest announcement does put the Christians and DAP in a bad light.
Perhaps the UMNO elite is also counting on the Christians to be meek and humble and to forgive them 77 times as exhorted by the Gospel teachings. Nizar added that the Christian leaders were merely the pawns in UMNO’s political chess game to bring down PAS.
The Christians should have seen the plot and realized that Najib’s meeting with them was just a slick public relations exercise to polish his image and make him a hero amongst the Malays and Muslims so as to secure their vote.
