The opposition has just put a price on every Chinese head

The opposition has opened a Pandora’s box by politicising the ransom issue. They have put the Malaysian government in a dilemma that may even trigger a diplomatic crisis between Malaysia and the Philippines. What is more dangerous is the fact that they have told every terrorist in the world that a Chinese life is worth RM4 million.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

The opposition always opens Pandora’s boxes that once opened can never be closed again. By the way, in case some of you do not know what a Pandora’s Box is, this is what Wikipedia has to say about it:

Pandora’s box is an artefact in Greek mythology, taken from the myth of Pandora’s creation in Hesiod’s Works and Days. The “box” was actually a large jar given to Pandora, which contained all the evils of the world. Pandora opened the jar and all the evils flew out, leaving only “Hope” inside once she had closed it again. Today the phrase “to open Pandora’s box” means to perform an action that may seem small or innocent, but that turns out to have severely detrimental and far-reaching negative consequences.

So, when you open a Pandora’s box, only evil comes out of it while harapan (hope) is trapped inside the box once you close it again. Is this not an apt analogy for the collaboration of hope, Pakatan Harapan?

Anyway, one Pandora’s box that the opposition opened was the issue of the ransom that was allegedly paid for the four Sarawakian hostages. The opposition thought it was a good idea to politicise this issue and force the Deputy Prime Minister and the IGP into an embarrassing situation.

The opposition knew that this issue was a hot potato because the government would be hard-pressed to either admit or deny it. If the government admits that it paid ransom then it would be admitting to breaking the law. Furthermore, it would reveal that the Malaysian government is dealing with terrorists and hence officially recognises terrorist organisations.

That would be very damaging. Even the US and UK would not openly admit they deal with terrorist organisations and when they do deal with them they do so though middlemen and intermediaries — sometimes more than two or three layers just to cover their tracks and not leave any trail.

But then the opposition got certain people to come out and admit that they collected RM12 million and that the money was handed to Malaysia’s Special Branch. So either the Special Branch admits that they received the money and that the money was handed to the terrorists or they deny it (which raises the question of what happened to the money). But then how to deny it when the people who collected the money said they did hand the money to the Special Branch?

This is a huge diplomatic disaster. So now the Philippines has to come out and whack Malaysia and accuse Malaysia of breaking the law, of dealing with terrorists, of not respecting the sovereignty of the Philippines, and so on. The truth is the Philippines could actually be involved in the negotiations with the terrorists or could actually be the middleman but they cannot admit that.

In short, Malaysia will be perceived as a Pariah State (just like Libya or Uganda, which also dealt with terrorist organisations), which is precisely what the opposition hopes to achieve.

But then this is a very dangerous game that the opposition is playing. Are they hoping that Malaysia and the Philippines will go into confrontation? What if anti-Malaysian sentiments explode in the Philippines and a number of Malaysians get killed in riots?

What is even more dangerous is the fact that the opposition has played up the issue that a Malaysian Chinese hostage is worth RM3-4 million per person. So now no Chinese is safe and every Chinese is a target for kidnapping. If you want to make money just pick any Chinese off the streets and bring him/her back to the Philippines. You will then receive a lot of money.

What is wrong with these opposition people, in particular the Chinese? You have just put a price on the head of every Chinese. A Chinese life is worth RM3-4 million and if you kidnap any Chinese you will be guaranteed of receiving RM3-4 million.

That is what I would call opening the Pandora’s box. Now what are you going to do when another few Chinese get kidnapped over the next few months? Pay another RM3-4 million per head or let the hostages die by beheading?

Another Pandora’s box is regarding the Syariah Amendment Private Member’s Bill that the opposition lied to Malaysians and called it the Hudud Bill. So now everyone has been led to believe that this is Abdul Hadi Awang’s attempt to implement Hudud through the back door.

That may have been effective in making sure that PAS did not get Chinese support in the recent two parliamentary by-elections. But now that the by-elections are over what are you going to do about this issue?

Pakatan Harapan is making it seem like this so-called Hudud Bill is a secret deal between PAS and Umno. But then by politicising Hudud and saying that this is not about Islam at all, they are sandwiching the Malays-Muslims in the opposition between a rock and a hard place.

Okay, let us assume that both Umno and PAS support Hudud but then they leave it to their individual Members of Parliament to decide which way to vote and the party will not force them to vote one way or another. In other words, this is not a political issue but you vote according to your conscience. You can either support Hudud or oppose it: that is your personal choice.

Once Umno and PAS take that stand the matter is cleared up. But then Pakatan Harapan would now need to clarify their party stand. They can, of course, take that similar stand and say that they leave it to each individual Member of Parliament to vote according to his or her conscience.

But then that would mean DAP, PKR and PAN do not oppose Hudud. So if DAP, PKR and PAN do not oppose Hudud why did they kick PAS out and close down Pakatan Rakyat and form Pakatan Harapan? Was that not because PAS supports Hudud while DAP, PKR and PAN do not?

So that is the second Pandora’s box that the opposition opened. Pakatan Harapan must openly declare that it opposes Hudud. It cannot say it supports Hudud. But then what are the Malay supporters of Pakatan Harapan going to say about that? More than 80% of the Malays-Muslims would never dare oppose Hudud when at least some of the aspects of Hudud are in the Qur’an (such as that mentioned in the Chapter of the Light or Surah An-Nur: chapter 24).

Many Malays drink. Some even eat pork. But do not ask them to openly declare that liquor and pork are halal. They will insist that liquor and pork are haram. And if Malays would never openly declare that liquor and pork are halal, would they dare openly declare that the Qur’an (such as the Chapter of the Light) can be ignored?