The love and hate of Malaysian politics

By MT Webmaster Last updated Dec 28, 2014

Malaysian politics is no longer about love for the values that you hold dear. It is about hate for the other person. Some support Umno or Barisan Nasional because of hate for the other side. Some support Pakatan Rakyat for the same reason.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

A lot is being said by many people, ex-Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad included. I am not so concerned about what they are saying but more as to why they are saying it. As Islam teaches you, the niat is more important than the deed. This is what decides wrong from right.

This may sound theological or even idealistic but actually it is not. For example, you are driving along the road and someone unexpectedly steps off the curb right in front of your car. You brake and try to stop but fail and end up killing this person.

Is that an act of murder even though you did kill someone? Your niat was to try to not hit that person but you failed. That is not murder according to your niat.

Let us then look at a second scenario. You are driving along the road and someone unexpectedly steps off the curb right in front of your car. This gets you very pissed so you accelerate and hit that person and end up killing him or her.

That, undoubtedly, is an act of murder because it was your niat to ‘teach that person a lesson’ for stepping in front of your car. So you see, two acts that result in death, but one is murder and the other is not. And what makes it murder or not is the niat behind what you did.

Hence Islam says that the niat behind your deed is what matters. This decides right from wrong, even the act of killing.

Governments kill people every day, but for different reasons. Murderers or terrorists who take many lives are killed and enemy soldiers by the thousands or even the millions are butchered.

But we do not regard this as unjustified killings. We consider these killings justified. Russia killed millions of people, civilians included, but it was to defend Leningrad. So it is justified. The Germans killed millions of Jews but it was not to defend Berlin. So it is not justified.

How can one murder be justified and the other not? Well, it is due to the niat behind those killings although in both cases the same number of people may have died.

At the end of the day, people do many things — even kill — either out of love or out of hate. And this is what we need to ask of these people who are bringing Malaysia to the brink of civil war. Is it love or is it hate that is in your heart?

There are people who love their religion. Hence when they see their religion being persecuted or they are denied their right to practice their religion they may rise up in defence of their religion. And they will call this jihad.

Then there are people who hate all other religions and regard them as an affront to humankind. So they kill the devotees of the other religions (or from the other sects) and try to exterminate all those not of their religion/sect. And they will also call this jihad.

But how can both be jihad? Jihad can only be positive. It cannot be negative. Jihad is about defending your rights. It cannot be about denying others their rights. And jihad is about love. It is not about hate.

Malaysian politics has reached a stage where we no longer know whether it is about love or hate. Are you doing and saying what you do and say because of love or you are saying and doing it because of hate? No one seems to be clear about that any more.

In the past, Malays united under a common umbrella that they called Umno because of their love for their race, country and religion. They did not hate the colonialists, although I must admit some did but they were definitely in the minority.

How could the Malays hate the colonialists when they had been colonised for about 1,000 years by so many different regional powers and after that for another 500 years by European powers? Being colonised and calling the colonialists ‘tuan’ was part of Malay culture.

Then the last colonial master of the Malays, the British, suggested that the Malays should start thinking about independence. The Malays should consider self-rule. So the Malays and the British sat down for almost ten years to discuss how Malaya could be given independence.

I may not be too off the mark if I say that the Malays never fought for independence (at least not like the Indonesians, Filipinos, Vietnamese, etc.) but that independence was forced down the throats of the Malays.

And the British knew the mindset of the Malays very well. The Malays are a contented and satisfied lot (Dr Mahathir calls it lazy). The Malays are not greedy or materialistic in nature (Dr Mahathir calls it not ambitious enough). The Malays are peaceful and loving (Dr Mahathir calls it too accommodating). The Malays can accept any community, even foreign rulers, and are feudalistic.

Further to that, the Malays love their culture, traditions, language and religion. As long as these are protected and are not ‘disturbed’ the Malays can live and let live and not worry too much about wealth and power. (And this is why the British wrote the Constitution the way they did).

And then the politicians began to teach the Malays that this is wrong. Love, peace, contentment, satisfaction, leaving things to the will of God, accepting whatever God has decided for you, being grateful for whatever you have even how little it may be, are all attitudes that you must hate. And you must hate all those who have more than you. You must hate all those who are denying you your ‘rights’. You must hate all those who control the economy of the country. You must hate all other races that are trying to politically dominate the country. You must hate the new colonialists who are trying to relegate the Malays into second-class citizens and turn Malays into slaves in their own country.

In the beginning, the Malays were taught to love and to fight for what they love. Today, the Malays are being taught to hate and to fight against those they hate. And the non-Malays are not helping in trying to prove this theory wrong.

Are the Malays stupid? Actually no. The Germans, too, were taught to hate the Jews so that the politicians could use the Jews as the bogeymen and exterminate all Jews with the support of the people. And Germans are not stupid. They were just wrongly indoctrinated. And even clever people can be indoctrinated. Brilliant people, too, can be easily indoctrinated into believing what cannot be proven, such as what religion does to people.

And in such a situation where the politics of the country is the politics of hate, nothing good can come out of it and the future can only be one of conflict and bloodshed. History has proven this so many times.

Raja Petra Kamarudin RPK