Playing a high-risk high-stakes political game?

PAS: Umno used Himpun to revive unity talks


By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal
www.themalaysianinsider.com


October 24, 2011


KUALA LUMPUR — PAS today accused Umno of using last weekend’s Himpunan Sejuta Umat (Himpun) as a platform to revive failed unity talks between both parties, using “unfounded” threats of Christianisation as a basis for inter-party co-operation.


Selangor PAS deputy commissioner Khalid Samad told The Malaysian Insider that Himpun’s organisers had tried to portray Islam as being “under siege” just so that PAS members would attend and support the event together with Umno.


“Although Umno has stated that they have nothing to do with the gathering, I think it’s obvious when you have affiliated groups like Perkasa claiming the event unified PAS and Umno.


“It’s yet another attempt in pushing for unity talks between both PAS-Umno... you play the religion card with PAS, you try to pit us against non-Muslims, to make us look extremist... they (Umno) are trying again,” said Khalid.


Malay rights group Perkasa lauded the success of Himpun, saying it unified Muslims even from opposing political factions with the presence of leaders including PAS’s Datuk Dr Hasan Ali.


PAS has said it did not support the gathering, but did not stop its members from attending the event as individuals.


“I think those tied to Umno are making a mountain out of a molehill, just because one PAS leader attended the event it does not mean PAS and Umno are now together in arms.


“Why stoke religious tension? There is no concrete proof of Christianisation threats. We’d best use our time and effort to improving other things in this country — fighting corruption, governance,” said the Shah Alam MP.


Himpun was organised by various right-wing religious groups who called for Muslims to rise up and fight the “challenge of Christianisation”.


The mass rally was mooted following the controversial August 3 raid by Selangor Islamic authorities on the Damansara Utama Methodist Church (DUMC), where it was alleged that Christians were converting Muslims.


It is illegal to proselytise Muslims in Malaysia.


Christian leaders have denied claims that Christians were attempting to convert Muslims and have called Himpun’s fight “irrelevant”.


PAS Youth chief Nasrudin Hassan Tantawi said that public support for Himpun over the weekend showed that it was time for the government to enact and enforce Islamic laws in the country.


He said the Barisan Nasional (BN) government should at least “recognise” and “support” Kelantan’s efforts to establish hudud.


“I believe the time is right for Umno to state their preparation to enact Islamic laws because it is part of the demands made by Umno NGOs who supported the Himpunan Sejuta Umat.”


Are pieces of the puzzle now slowly fitting together to reveal the hidden agenda behind recent controversial events?
 
Are the minority Christians being made the bogeyman in a high-risk high-stakes political game orchestrated by the party in power to split PAS and Pakatan Rakyat?
 
Are lies published by 'respectable' newspapers controlled by certain political parties so that Muslims can be pitted against Christians? Like Selangor PAS deputy commissioner Khalid Samad said: "You play the religion card with PAS, you try to pit us against non-Muslims, to make us look extremist... they (Umno) are trying again.”


Is there no regard for the truth in the pursuit of political power? Will the name of God be used in vain by politicians for their own selfish ends?

One-leg-kick Perkasa?

After all the action is over, after telling his members (if there are any) to "stroll around" Titiwangsa park while the Bersih 2.0 rally took place on Saturday, Perkasa's Ibrahim Ali now wants the citizenship of Bersih leader Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasen to be revoked.


One wonders why Ibrahim was absent from the rally when he had proudly declared that he would stage a huge Perkasa rally to counter the Bersih rally.


And when things fizzled out and Perkasa went limpid, his excuse was that Perkasa did not want to hold a rally as that would have insulted the monarchy.


Is it possible that Perkasa did not hold a rally because it could not round up enough supporters to do so? After all even the Umno Youth 'Patriot' rally in Bukit Bintang managed to attract only hundreds - one report said about 500 turned up - of Umno Youth members. In comparison, there were tens of thousands of Malaysians who turned up for the Bersih rally in various parts of Kuala Lumpur.


Could it be possible that Perkasa has been exposed to be a one-man show? That the Malay supremacist body is merely a - what the Chinese would call - one-leg-kick (yat kiok taak) outfit?


Could that be why not a single Perkasa supporter was seen strolling around in Titiwangsa park on Saturday?

Ibrahim Ali is indeed a clown

Looks like the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz has answered the question I posed in an earlier post "Hero or court jester?" (read http://lamsengfattblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/hero-or-court-jester.html)


From www.thestar.com.my 25/5/11


KUALA LUMPUR: Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali is a “clown” and his statements should not be taken seriously, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz.


Nazri said the independent MP could be arrested and charged if his statements caused a riot in the country.


“To me, he is a clown. I do not think people should take seriously what he said. It has been 10 days since his statement and there are no riots. It shows society has matured,” he said yesterday at a press conference on the Public Service Depart­ment (PSD) scholarships.


He noted that remarks uttered by Ibrahim Ali were no longer regarded as sensitive.


“If society feels that something uttered is no longer seditious, who are we to say it is?” he said when asked to comment on Ibrahim’s recent remarks on starting a crusade against Christians.

Hero or court jester?

Perkasa president Datuk Ibrahim Ali may think he is a hero among the Malay masses, but frankly he is seen as a court jester among the non-Malays and he is not being taken seriously by slightly less than half the population of Malaysia.

His latest claim that he believes communists are stirring up trouble and causing chaos by using local groups to take part in the alleged plot to replace Islam as the official religion of Malaysia has made him look comical and terribly ill-informed.

He said he suspected Communist Party of Malaya supporters had infiltrated political parties, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), religious groups and business associations after the party laid down arms in 1989 in order to carry on their activities.

“I believe there are (former) Communist Party members who still hold communist beliefs and want to see the country descend into chaos,” he told The Malaysian Insider in Kampung Baru on May 8.

The "political parties" and "religious groups" he was referring to obviously meant DAP and Christian bodies since the entire issue of the unsubstantiated plot to have a Christian Prime Minister and replace Islam as the official religion started from the infamous Utusan Malaysia report about a meeting between Christian pastors and DAP leaders in Penang.

Ibrahim could improve his knowledge if he were to read this report that was published on May 11:

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese police have detained 49 leaders of an underground Protestant church in a central province, an advocacy group and local official said Wednesday.

The U.S.-based China Aid Association said all three floors of a church building in Henan province's Weishi county were searched and thousands of dollars worth of property were seized during the raid Tuesday on a religious education seminar.

Also detained were three Korean citizens, including a Bible instructor, the group said. South Korea's Foreign Ministry said it had no immediate information about the reported detentions, which reflect long-standing ties between South Korean church groups and Chinese believers.

An official with the Weishi county religious affairs bureau confirmed Wednesday the detentions but gave no details. Like many Chinese officials, he gave only his surname, Sun.

China requires all religious groups to register and accept Communist Party oversight, although millions of believers continue to worship in unregistered congregations that typically have an evangelistic, charismatic character.

That includes members of Beijing's unregistered Shouwang Church, who have recently repeatedly defied police demands and attempted to gather for banned outdoor services, leading dozens to be detained. The group, which includes numerous intellectuals, was evicted from its rented space under police pressure.

Rural congregations, drawn from poorer, less-educated communities, tend to be more vulnerable to coercion from authorities.

This month, a U.S. commission listed China as one of the worst violators of religious freedoms. Beijing denies the charge.

Tuesday's raid came on the second and final day of twice-annual high-level talks between U.S. and Chinese officials that were overshadowed by sharp U.S. criticism of China's human rights record.

In an interview published Tuesday on the website of The Atlantic magazine, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said China's human rights record was "deplorable" and that history was not on the side of governments that resist democracy.

Ibrahim ought to be taught that Communism and Christianity are anathema to each other. In Marxist theory, religion is said to be the opiate of the masses.

In Communist countries like China, Christians were forced to worship secretly especially during the Cultural Revolution. Priests and pastors were jailed or sent to rehabilitation camps. Christians were officially persecuted by the communists then - and even now.

To claim that communists have infiltrated Christian organisations in Malaysia and are creating chaos is at best laughable.

A veteran politician like Ibrahim should know better than to spin alarmist and ridiculous stories for the sake of being populist (among the Malays). If he thinks that by being racist, bigoted and, now, anti-communist can ensure that he is voted into a position of power again in the coming general election as an independent candidate or a member of some political party or even as president of Perkasa (which is more like an NGO), he is sadly mistaken.

There are plenty of younger, well-informed, well-read, more intelligent and more capable Malays out there who would make better next-generation leaders than an opportunistic has-been who has to play the race and religion card desperately in his comeback trail.