Anwar’s ‘buts’ are causing the race-religion divide

Anwar Ibrahim, the next prime minister in 18 months’ time, who is going to rule for ten years from 2020 to 2030, needs to tell us. And if he cannot tell us, or refuses to tell us, then he should not be Malaysia’s Eighth Prime Minister. The Eighth Prime Minister must be the person who can tell us how to solve Malaysia’s race-religion divide and not be the person who is contributing to the problem. 

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

The letter/article ‘THE MALAYSIAN MALAY’ by Dr Syed Alwi of Singapore makes interesting reading. I do not agree 100% with what he wrote but I published the piece anyway for the benefit of those who may not have read it yet (READ MORE HERE).

Syed Alwi has over-simplified the issue. That is like telling the Arabs (such as Syed Alwi) that the Jews also have rights so what’s the problem with letting them have a bit of land in the Middle East called Israel/ Palestine? After all, there is so much uninhabited land in the Middle East so what’s the big issue?

Maybe Syed Alwi is ‘liberal’ enough to recognise Israel and respect Israel’s right to annex the Arab lands surrounding Israel. But 99.9% of other Arabs would condemn Syed Alwi and if he were NOT living in Singapore they would probably put a bullet through his head.

Does Syed Alwi also respect Israel’s right to exist?

Syed Alwi should first convince his fellow Arabs to respect the rights of the Jews before he tries to convince Malaysian Malays to accept the rights of Chinese, Indians and others. And why are Sunnis and Shias killing each other? Are they not of the same race?

Since 1990, the so-called ‘War on Terror’ has killed four million Muslims. And it is Muslim killing Muslim as proxies of America and Europe.

Malays do not treat non-Malays like this

In just August 2018 alone, more than 6,700 Rohingya Muslims, including at least 730 children under the age of five, were killed in Myanmar while 640,000 were driven from their homes.

Yes, if Syed Alwi wants to know what persecution is, that is persecution, not what the Malays do to the non-Malays or non-Muslims in Malaysia.

There are two points I wish to make. First is that Umno and Barisan Nasional are no longer in power. Pakatan Harapan is. So, what has Pakatan Harapan done to solve the problem that exists? — and I do admit Malaysia has a racial and religious divide that is getting more serious by the day.

It was Anwar Ibrahim when in ABIM who fought against this and encouraged the Muslim-Kafir divide

Let us take the Prime Minister-in-waiting, Anwar Ibrahim, as a case in point. Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is expected to be out within the next 18 months or so and Anwar will be taking over as Malaysia’s Eighth Prime Minister in early 2020. Anwar will then probably hold office for at least 10 years or two terms, which means until 2030. By then Anwar will be about 83 or so, unless he dies before then.

Okay, what type of Prime Minister will Malaysia be getting? Will Anwar contribute towards solving the worrying racial-religious divide? Let us analyse what type of person Anwar is and see whether a person like Anwar can or will solve the racial-religious problem in Malaysia.

When Anwar is asked whether he supports Shariah laws, he replies that as a Muslim he has no choice but to support Shariah laws — BUT THEN Malaysia is a multi-cultural country so we first need to educate Malaysians on the Shariah and only when they are ready to accept it should Malaysia implement it.

Anwar can dance with the Arabs, dance with the American Jews, and also dance with the Hindus

Ask Anwar about Israel, gay rights, ICERD, RUU355, Hudud, the right of Muslims to leave Islam, the NEP, Article 153, the monarchy, Allah being used in the Malay language Bibles, MA63, 18-Point Agreement, 20-Point Agreement, etc.

Anwar will say something and will add a BUT THEN to separate the first half of his statement from the second half. And we all know when a sentence has a BUT in it, the second half of the statement cancels out the first half.

Until and unless Malaysia has leaders who are honest and sincere and really wish to solve the problem of the racial and religious divide, Malaysians will always be living under what Lim Kit Siang calls ‘a time-bomb in Malaysia’. I will disagree with many things Kit Siang says but that is one thing he says which I agree with wholeheartedly.

Change must come from the top. But the top is not serious about change and is not helping towards the effort of change. And if Anwar becomes prime minister this is going to get even worse. Mahathir may be a dictator but at least he rules with a firm hand. Anwar will say one thing but will do the opposite. And he will make every statement with a ‘BUT’ in it.

Sabah and Sarawak feel they were colonised by Malaya and now that Umno-BN has collapsed it is time for them to break free

In short, if the top does not have the political will to end race-religion politics, then the problem is going to continue and is going to get worse and finally explode like a timebomb, as Kit Siang predicted.

The second point is historical. Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore were forced to join Malaysia if they want independence. That is why Sabah and Sarawak are not happy and consider West Malaysia as being colonialists.

Lee Kuan Yew was clever. He agreed for Singapore to join Malaysia and then purposely upset Tunku Abdul Rahman so that Singapore would be thrown out of Malaysia. The Sabah and Sarawak leaders were not clever enough so until today they are ‘trapped’ in Malaysia.

Can you fault the natives of Sabah and Sarawak for hating the Malay ‘colonialists’? I would, too, if I were born in Sandakan instead of Surrey. Syed Alwi probably thinks of the Malays the same way. But then that is because he is Singaporean and not Kelantanese.

The Malays were forced to agree to citizenship for the Chinese and Indians in exchange for certain privileges

In that same spirit, the British told the Malays that Malaya would not be given independence unless the Chinese and Indians were given citizenship. The Malays at first disagreed. So the British offered to compensate the Malays with certain privileges if they agreed to grant the Chinese and Indians citizenship. And overnight the Malay majority dropped from 90% to just 50% (if not Pakatan Harapan would not be in power today).

For the Malays to now give up their privileges while the Chinese and Indians do not need to give up their privilege of Malaysian citizenship is hard to swallow. Of course, some say citizenship is a right, not a privilege. But then rights cannot be taken away from you, privileges can. So, if you can lose your citizenship, then it is a privilege, not a right.

The Malay mind is simple. We gave you citizenship in exchange for something. If you take back what you gave us, then we, too, take back what we gave you. Fair exchange.

So how do we solve this? Syed Alwi did not say. Anwar Ibrahim, the next prime minister in 18 months’ time, who is going to rule for ten years from 2020 to 2030, needs to tell us. And if he cannot tell us, or refuses to tell us, then he should not be Malaysia’s Eighth Prime Minister. The Eighth Prime Minister must be the person who can tell us how to solve Malaysia’s race-religion divide and not be the person who is contributing to the problem.