The Umno-DAP alliance is a positive development

Anyway, current developments in Perak and DAP’s willingness to work with Umno has shattered 55 years of propaganda (since 1965) regarding Umno. Suddenly, people like me no longer look like scumbags for working with Umno since 2015. DAP has sanitised us and has given us legitimacy for working with Umno.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

I have always said: most people look at half a glass of water as half empty rather than half full. Negative people will say half a glass of water is half empty whereas positive people like me will see it as half full.

Both mean the same thing, right? The only thing is, it reveals your true mentality when you always see things as negative when it is also positive at the same time.

If you crash your car, I will say, “Nasib baik tak cedera.”

If you are injured, I will say, “Nasib baik cedera ringan.”

If you are badly injured, I will say, “Nasib baik tak mati.”

And if you die in the crash, I will say, “Nasib baik mati cepat, tak siksa.”

So, you see, I always see a silver lining in a dark cloud. My late Tok Guru Abdul Rahman Pattani taught us there is no such thing as a bad thing. Everything is good as far as Allah is concerned because nothing happens without the will of Allah. In good there is bad, and in bad there is good, Tok Guru Rahman told us.

Hence is the current development in Perak good or bad? It is good. There is no bad. Even if you think it is bad there is still good in that perceived bad.

DAP’s main political strategy for 63 years since 1957 is to say that Malaysia is a failed state, and that Malaysia has a kleptocrat government. DAP operatives such as Superman Hew dan orang-orang yang sewaktu dengannya say this is because Malaysia has a Malay government. If Malaysia had a Chinese government like Singapore, says DAP, Malaysia would not be so backward like it is now.

Malaysia is a failed state. Malaysia is a kleptocracy. Malaysia is a third-world country. And it is all because for 63 years since Merdeka Malaysia had an Umno government (until May 2018).

People like us who support Umno (when we had been opposing Umno and had been arrested and jailed so many times from 1998 to 2008 because we opposed Umno) were called all sorts of nasty names and were accused of being bought by Umno (cash is king, they say about us).

Actually, we opposed Umno for 40 years since PAS broke away from Barisan Nasional in 1975 and only supported Umno since 2015 when discussions to form Muafakat Nasional started. And the reasons why we opposed Umno had nothing to do with the reasons why DAP opposed Umno.

Anyway, current developments in Perak and DAP’s willingness to work with Umno has shattered 55 years of propaganda (since 1965) regarding Umno. Suddenly, people like me no longer look like scumbags for working with Umno since 2015. DAP has sanitised us and has given us legitimacy for working with Umno.

Maybe the Umno-DAP alliance will not happen in the end. The DAP supporters, especially the non-Malays, are so outraged that DAP may be forced to abandon the plan to work with Umno.

This has happened before. In 1999, DAP entered into an alliance with PAS (plus PKR and PRM). DAP assured the non-Muslims that PAS has abandoned its plan to turn Malaysia into an Islamic State and to implement the Sharia laws of Hudud.

But still the non-Malays were unhappy, and they punished Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh (they lost their parliament seats). So, two years later, in 2001, DAP pulled out from Barisan Alternatif on the excuse that ‘PAS is too Islamic’.

There is a possibility that the Umno-DAP alliance may not happen in the end because DAP’s supporters are barking like mad dogs. If DAP proceeds with the Umno-DAP alliance, the non-Malays might punish DAP — like they did in 1999 (forcing DAP to do a U-turn in 2001).

Nevertheless, it is the intention that matters. Even if the Umno-DAP alliance does not happen in the end, the fact they considered it and talked about it is what matters. In Islam, it is the niat and not the perbuatan alone that decides the crime. It becomes murder when you intentionally knock down someone crossing the road — if not it would be just an unfortunate traffic accident.

And that is why I look at the proposed Umno-DAP alliance as positive, even if in the end the plan is abandoned. I have been having a hard time trying to explain why I see the need for PAS to work with Umno. The DAP and Pakatan Harapan people have been very nasty towards me since 2015, especially since Muafakat Nasional was officially launched in September 2019.

Now I have been cleansed of my sins and have been rehabilitated. Alhamdulillah. The Lord sure works in mysterious ways. Now no one can call me a scumbag for propagating the Muafakat Nasional alliance between PAS and Umno. They can no longer accuse me of being a recipient of the money stolen from 1MDB. Today, I am no different from DAP.