How Lim Kit Siang is not like Lee Kuan Yew

Umar Mukhtar

First, of course, Lee Kuan Yew (LKY) was an intellectual giant. Lim Kit Siang (LKS) did not even lap at the former’s feet. Second, LKS only knows how to ride Chinese chauvinism. LKY knew how to ride and lead it to where he wanted it to go. And third, whilst LKY focused on foundations and pillars, LKS is into decorative windows.

Let me expand if I may. LKY knew that sometimes you have to stoop to conquer. For example, there was no way that the British were going to give Singapore Independence without risking British investments in Singapore to communist insurgency, and without incurring the wrath of Indonesia and Malaya (as it was then). So LKY had to find a way that will pacify all parties.

It meant that he had to go through the pretensions of merger with Malaya as a junior partner, using the spectre of the communist bogeymen and then to manoeuvre himself to be kicked out by Sino-phobic Malaysian leaders. LKY would appear in public regretting the expulsion complete with crocodile tears! The British had little say but voila! Chinese-majority Singapore was home free in the sea of Malays. LKY was king of the hill free to build Singapore the way he wanted.

LKS too had his chance for power-sharing in Malaysia but he was blind to it. When Anwar’s career-ending incarceration was getting inevitable, LKS should have approached PAS’s Abdul Hadi privately to talk Malaysian realpolitik. No fanfare, no playing to the gallery, only steadfastness at what really matters.

He doesn’t know Hudud well. Only the fear-mongering he is used to and indulges in. Unlike LKY, he didn’t do his homework. Armed only with raw animal instinct, he chose to champion non-Muslim fears. As if he stood any chance to appear a hero to those who matter in Malaysian realpolitik – not just with the Chinese. That is superfluous. He is already their hero. And where would this stance take him as a paranoid leader of a minority community?

He should have known what Islamic law means to Muslims. Never run it down. Dispute its implementation as of now by all means, but never tell Muslims what is appropriate or not appropriate practice, especially when it touches on their religion. It is not upon LKS. He should have used empathetic reasoning and broadcast his empathy with Muslims, as to their sense of yearning for divine fulfilment.

Does it really look to LKS as if Barisan Nasional is going to support the implementation of Hudud at present? On the one hand, you say they are crooks, on the other hand you have no doubt that they will accept a legal system that will cut off their hands as thieves? You will see a cabinet of one-handed ministers! So you alleged. Malaysian Muslims know these hypocrites’ game. Some of them in their daily practice are the biggest adversaries of Islamic law. They fear it. They fear it. They fear it.

Why didn’t LKS co-sponsor Hudud with Hadi? It will never see the light of day anyway as long as BN rules. And LKS would have won the hearts and minds of Muslims. Meanwhile, with the bridge he already built, discuss your fears so that better safeguards are installed so as to avoid inconvenience to non-Muslims. Hadi is so obliged with the leg up you have given him he will reciprocate. It’s the Islamic way.

Tip: Egypt, which has the more than a thousand-year old Al-Azhar University as her guide, is still apprehensive on how to implement Hudud well. And they speak the Prophet’s (pbuh) language too. Study Marslow’s ‘Hierarchy of Needs’.  Some Malaysians haven’t even achieved the baser ones yet. Let BN do the ‘dastardly’ act of laying all kinds of excuses to avoid and indefinitely delay Hudud. Let them be the bad guys. For they fear Islamic law.

But no, LKS missed his chance by playing to the gallery instead. Karpal Singh was playing goalkeeper. We understand, hence the ‘over-my-dead-body’ shit. But LKS is a striker and he needs to create space for his dribbling. I guess his mental capacity was wanting. That’s why not everybody is a Messi or a Ronaldo. It won’t be a popular move to recognise Hudud as divine law with the Muslims, among the retarded racists, but so was LKY’s speak-no-dialect move. In the end, he triumphed and all is well.

I guess it’s too big a leap of faith to expect from a five-foot-way racist. His aversion of Hudud is so frenzied that he appears as if he cares for the Muslim outlaws threatened with such apparent harsh punishments. LKS is contented with providing his brood with decorative windows for a house that may collapse anytime. As if an effort at inter-racial bonding may threaten his brood’s premium life-style. Unlike LKY who was a strategic thinker.

LKS’s future will be mired with such blind spots and he will remain someone that Malaysian Malays love to hate, while LKY will forever be someone Singapore Malays hate to love.

End of shelf life for this token-master of limited means. And we are left in confrontational mode. How stupid!