Chinese discontent pushes Umno towards PAS
Islamisation has been taking place so spontaneously and irreversibly that the moment we come to a realisation, we find it seems to have become deeply enmeshed in society.
Kuik Cheng Kang, Free Malaysia Today
Looking back over the past week, my feelings about the country have been rather mixed.
On the one hand I feel worried that the government is doing everything it can to please a particular group of people without taking the possible consequences into consideration; on the other hand, I am also worried about the trend of increasing Islamisation.
Next year, we celebrate the country’s 60th anniversary, but our leaders, for the sake of their own political survival, have taken the country further and further away from the ideals of secularism.
The diverse cultural and religious heritage we had taken so much pride in is beginning to wane.
In order to please the 1.6 million-strong civil servants in the country, the Barisan Nasional government has made it much easier for them to take loans, further accentuating the already serious household debt problem and thus posing even more severe challenges to the Malay community in future.
For years, the Chinese community pinned its hope on a two-party system, but this dream will not be fulfilled soon.
The opposition camp is still deep in a quagmire of internal conflicts, unable to come up with a more reassuring shadow cabinet, or policies that are more convincing than those of the BN.
The Chinese community used to count on the DAP, but the party seems to be constantly embroiled in conflict rather than more productive things; its relationship with its Pakatan Harapan allies is wholly premised upon a delicate equilibrium in power-sharing and interests, one that could be at stake any time.
A closer inspection of current affairs reveals a worrisome and increasingly prevalent trend of Islamisation, which has been taking place so spontaneously and irreversibly that the moment we come to a realisation, we find it seems to have been deeply enmeshed in society.
PAS is putting all its effort and energy to see to the establishment of an Islamic state. What the party is doing now is buying time to wait for its eventual fruition.
Take the steamy “Pretzel Dog” issue, for instance. People started to throw in their comments after the incident came to light, all appearing to target Jakim. Some ministers have also voiced their frustration, blaming Jakim officials for taking things into their own hands.
After the farce turned Malaysia into an international laughing stock, Jamil Khir Baharom, the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of religious affairs, argued that Jakim would not hold back Auntie Anne’s halal certification merely because of the name of a product.
Amendment to halal certification provisions
But, after all the hoohah, has anyone actually taken the lead to call for the amendment of the relevant provisions on halal certification?
The Malay and Muslim population is dominant in Malaysia, and it is this group of people that all political parties in this country have been fighting so hard to win over.
Umno is not going to take the lead to amend the halal certification provisions, nor will PKR and Parti Pribumi Bersatu, let alone PAS.
