Will the real Nancy please stand up?
In forsaking all she has stood for, has Nancy Shukri allowed herself to be made Umno’s scapegoat?
Sandra John, Free Malaysia Today
Parliament is in session again and many an unsavoury character has let fly logic-defying remarks that have wormed their unfortunate way into our media.
Leading the pack of empty vessels was Bung Mokhtar and his unconvincing display of trauma at having his life threatened – all because of a tweet that he should be gotten “rid” of.
More fiery tweet exchanges and a police report later, and we are all still reeling from the utter absurdity of the entire episode.
However one development that has refused to die down is that of Perkasa’s Ibrahim Ali getting away scot-free after threatening to burn all Malay- and Iban-language Bibles containing the word “Allah”.
Appearing like a Godsend to offer up a defence in the form of gibberish was Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nancy Shukri.
Explaining away Ibrahim Ali’s antics as nothing more that his “burning” desire to protect the sanctity of Islam, Nancy committed an even worse sin by saying his threats were in line with the Federal Constitution.
She also went out on a limb, explaining that Ibrahim Ali’s threat only extended to a specific group of individuals and not society at large. Hence the over reaction on everybody else’s part to want the dear fellow charged under the Sedition Act was totally unwarranted.
As the country’s de facto law minister, Nancy has taken a beating for those remarks. In the past few days, she has been accused by political leaders and members of the public for practising “double standards”, talking “rubbish” and being a “coward”.
Christians are incensed with her justifications and even some Muslims are stumped at how she has condoned Ibrahim’s bad behaviour by brushing it off as nothing out of the ordinary.
But for those who know the real Nancy, she is far from the racist and cowardly politician she is made out to be at the moment.
Being a Sarawakian, Nancy comes from a land where racism is a dirty word and religious intolerance is well… not tolerated.
Chinese… Dayaks… Malays… all live together peacefully, respectful of each other’s cultural and religious beliefs regardless of whether they pray to Allah, Jesus or a tree.
Of mixed parentage herself – Scot, Chinese, Iban, Malay, Melanau – Nancy grew up without agonising over whether she was Malay or Chinese. She was just Nancy. And Malaysian.
