Don’t waste time trying to convert me

By MT Webmaster Last updated Jul 28, 2015

If the evidence (or lack of it) were good enough, then many Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, etc., would have long ago abandoned their faith and belief. However, when you believe, the evidence (or lack of it) is not really important. And that would apply to Najib as well.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

That is basically the message that we are sending the government: don’t waste time trying to convert me.

If I am convinced that Prophet Muhammad is the last Prophet and that the Qur’an came from God through the angel Gabriel and through an inspiration from God then there is nothing you can say that will change my mind. And if you do not believe this there is also nothing I can say that will change your mind as well.

Such is the power of belief. If you believe then you believe. And if you do not then you do not. Very rarely can I sway you over to my line of thinking and vice versa. If I can sway you over that would most probably mean you were not really a believer or were not fully committed to your belief in the first place.

In short, that would mean your iman or faith was not really strong to start off with and all you needed was a slight push for you to take that leap out of faith. If not they could have fed you to the lions and you would still not have abandoned your faith. After all, you would believe that to die for your faith would be rewarded with heaven and we all want to go to heaven (although not today itself though).

The same goes for all the other faiths as well. Can I convince you that Jesus was not the Son of God or that Jesus did not die on the cross for our sins or that the Bible is not the word of God but a book of fabrications or that the Trinity is hogwash and so on?

If you have faith that would be impossible to do and it will also be impossible for you to convince me otherwise. You will continue to believe and I will continue to not believe. The best we can do is to agree to disagree.

Faith and belief are not the monopoly of religion. There are those who believe that Malays are lazy and want to survive on rent-seeking a.k.a. the New Economic Policy. There are those who believe Chinese pray to money and are only interested in getting rich even if it is through illegal and immoral means. There are those who think Indians are drunks and wife-beaters who cannot be trusted.

You may say that this is stereotyping but this is what many people believe. The comments in the social media alone are testimony to this belief. And you can argue till the cows come home but those who believe this are not going to change their belief just because you say so, no matter how convincing you may be.

In politics it is the same.

DAP is perceived as a Chinese party and its Malay leaders as merely ‘Uncle Toms’.

PKR is seen as a party of ex-Umno and ex-Barisan Nasional gulungan kecewa or frustrated group.

PAS Baru a.k.a. Harapan Baru is perceived as a Chinese tool or DAP’s kuda (horse).

PAS is perceived as a ‘Taliban’ party.

Umno is perceived as a party that has lost touch with reality, only ‘fights’ to enrich themselves, and is a party about to go into extinction, probably if not in the next general election then for sure in the one after that.

Can whatever you say change the perception that people have? Certainly not!

First Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman is perceived as an immoral person (at least as far as Muslims are concerned) who drank and gambled, went to the horse races, allowed the Genting casino to be set up when even China would not allow such a thing, and who surrounded himself with his Chinese friends.

Second Prime Minister Tun Razak Hussein is perceived as a racist or Malay nationalist who triggered the May 13 race riots and introduced the racist and discriminating New Economic Policy that until today the non-Malays are pissed about.

Fourth Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is perceived as the man who subverted democracy, destroyed the judiciary, introduced money-politics into Umno, turned Umno into a money-making business-minded political party, and who robbed the country of RM100 billion plus lost another more than RM100 billion in crazy business schemes that all proved failures in the end.

Fifth Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is perceived as the man who literally slept in office and who allowed the country to run on autopilot with his son-in-law and the ‘fourth floor’ boys totally in control.

And the current and sixth Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is perceived as the most corrupt Prime Minister in Malaysia’s history who used 1MDB to rob the country of RM42 billion and who transferred RM2.6 billion of that RM42 billion into his personal bank accounts.

Can anything anyone says change your view on those five Prime Ministers (no one has much to say about third Prime Minister Tun Hussein Onn other than he started an eye hospital)?

As I said, such is the power of faith, belief and perception. If you do not have faith in Najib then you will continue to not have faith in him whatever anyone might say. If you believe he is the most corrupt Prime Minister in Malaysia’s history you will continue to believe so. If you perceive the worst of Najib that perception will remain notwithstanding the evidence or the absence of it.

You have made up your mind and your mind will stay made up. That is how faith, belief and perception work. And even if the evidence surfaces to prove otherwise you will still not change your mind but will argue that the evidence has been fabricated and is a pack of lies.

You will not try to prove that God exists. You will ask those who say that God does not exist to prove He does not exist. You will not try to prove that Jesus was the Son of God. You will ask those who say that Jesus was not the Son of God to prove he was not the Son of God. You will not try to prove that the Qur’an came from God. You will ask those who say that the Qur’an did not come from God to prove it did not come from God.

And the same goes for all the other issues as well, especially those regarding the six Prime Ministers. Like it or not, no one is going to be bothered with trying to prove that Najib is guilty as alleged. The allegation alone is proof enough. It is Najib’s job to prove that he is innocent. And unless and until he can do that then he will be presumed guilty.

And that is something Najib needs to take into serious consideration. He is guilty until and unless he can prove otherwise. And even if he produces the evidence to prove his innocence there are still many non-believers who will say that the evidence is fabricated.

Raja Petra Kamarudin RPK