Hard for Hadi and the Hokkiens
How can intelligent people oppose something they know nothing about?
Sahabat Seperjuangan, Free Malaysia Today
What have Isma and Perkasa taking part in a coming liberalism conference in well-heeled Bangsar, a liberal Malay-Muslim lawyer showing her middle finger to her detractors in a forum on Rang Undang Undang 355 (RUU) in an industrial estate in Shah Alam, and Tuan Guru Hadi Awang’s visit to Wisma Fujian in the heart of KL’s Chinatown got in common?
Where once upon a time the debate on hudud was confined to Islamic enclaves on the East Coast with the passing in the state assemblies of Kelantan in 1993 and of Terengganu in 2003 of the Shariah Criminal Enactments, the arguments are now encroaching upon urban turf on the opposite coast.
What seemed remote 10 or 20 years ago has travelled some way across the Main Range and planted itself in the everyday consciousness of city slickers. It is a rising tide and brings with it portions of elation and frustration, depending on which side you stand on as to the differing opinions doing the rounds on how to save Malaysia.
During the Cold War, the cry “The Russians are coming!” was enough to raise alarm and consternation among the populace of the liberal West facing the prospect of being swamped by godless Communism.
Now that RUU is coming, secularists in Malaysia are worried sick by the Islamists’ insistence that return to a godly obeisance is the way forward.
Tuan Guru Hadi Awang’s foray into facing the Federation of Hokkien Associations of Malaysia (FHAM) on a Sunday morning, fresh after special prayers the day before for a dear departed comrade and Mursyidul Am, Almarhum Datuk Haron Din, did not fare well. Instead, it highlighted the wide gulf that exists between the Fujian Federation and the Islamists.
