A note to Haris Ibrahim
From Anas Zubedy, via e-mail
Dear Haris Ibrahim…thank you for your response to my letter in FMT- Why I Disagree With ABU. Perhaps in your passion for your cause, you missed my message, or perhaps I did not explain clearly enough. Here is another try.
1 My message is not about politics, it is about the process of decision making. What I am against is the kind of decision making that uses blanket, all-or-nothing, blind support or rejection. The same applies in any given situation; it so happens that in this particular note it is dealing with politics.
2 As such it does not matter if it is in the realm of politics, business, or day to day living; my core message to ensure we make thinking decisions warrants consideration.
3 I am not concerned about the politics of Umno, BN, or Pakatan. Nor am I interested about being anti-Umno or pro-Umno. That is each person’s prerogative. In Malaysia today, when someone suggests anything, the immediate concern of a lot of people is whether this person is supporting any political block. A cursory look at the comments to your article and mine would show this clearly. Today, even bread are square-pegged into Barisan or Pakatan. There are things which are more important than politics. In this case, the culture of thinking and making decisions.
4 My article was written to point to the idea that we must not give a free ride to any candidate, including those from UMNO. Is this not a good idea?
5 It stresses the need to choose our leaders with Reason, Conscience and based on our Constitution. If one finds that any candidate is not fit to do the job, based on these three pillars, then don’t vote them, be they from UMNO or otherwise. Is this not justly balanced?
As I suggested, this kind of thinking process that ABU is promoting is the type that will lead people to make fallible, sweeping statements like: ‘sebagai orang Islam, kita harus memilih pemimpin yang beragama Islam.’ It can also encourage other sweeping statements in the future like ‘Asalkan bukan kafir’, etc.
