Sandiwara of a python

Sandiwara of politics?

You know, when I read in Malaysiakini that Nasha [has been] booted from PAS' syura council and the ensuing rejoicing among many Pakatan people, notably from PKR and DAP, I sighed and shook my head lamentably because they obviously didn't notice what has been involved - namely, that Nasharudin Mat Isa has ONLY been removed from the party's Majlis Syura ... and not booted out from the party itself.

Perhaps their rejoicing has been premature. I'll give my take shortly after we recall why he has been removed from PAS Majlis Syura.

Malaysiakini reported (extracts):

Nasahrudin & Najib in Mecca

Nasharudin was once a leading figure in PAS until news reports claimed that he was trying to convince party leaders to forge closer ties with arch-rivals Umno due to religious reasons, instead of secularist DAP and PKR.

On several occasions, Nasharudin had attempted to drive a wedge between PAS and its Pakatan Rakyat allies, such as by claiming that DAP had prayed for the formation of a Christian state after the Sarawak state election in 2011.

Irking party members further was Nasharudin's apparent cosy ties with Umno. He had accompanied Prime Minister and Umno president Najib Abdul Razak abroad a few times, most recently to Gaza.

(left to right) Palestinian PM Haniyeh, Najib, Nasharudin

Look, I opine if it had not been Nasharudin it could and would have been Hasan Ali, Zulkifli Nor, or a host of other PAS blokes who prefer to be pally buddy with their political foe, UMNO, rather than their mainly non-Malay political ally DAP (or PKR, but definitely the former), so there's no point in blasting Nasharudin because that would not help understand where he has been coming from.

To understand the mentality of Nasharudin and people of his ilk, it may be helpful if we pull up the UMNO Ketuanan Melayu mantra of raja, bangsa, agama dan negara.

Note that I have place negara last as it's my personal belief very few of the UMNO or PAS worry about it, unless they can argue that negara refers to an only UMNO-Malay country.

Okay, maybe if pressed, they would probably rationalize that once the first three, namely, raja, bangsa dan agama have been duly defended and upheld, negara would automatically be taken care of.

We could argue over this all day until Shahrizat's missing cows do the impossible and come home, and still won't agree. Anyway, I opine the so-called Ketuanan Melayu struggle is all about power and its control, and of course the associated and most important privileges and benefits that come along with it. Only in the most exceptional circumstances would UMNO's Ketuanan Melayu be really about bangsa.

Examining raja, bangsa dan agama, this mantra can be further reduced or crystallized into just one word, either bangsa or agama because for a Malay-Muslim, these two factors are indivisible.

What about raja then? In my opinion, raja and the sanctity of the institution would be an intrinsic component of Malay culture and Malay psyche, and again cannot be separated from bangsa.

Thus UMNO can yell bangsa or if it likes, agama, though currently the latter has assumed far greater importance than the former because (a) it demonstrates to the Heartland that UMNO is (still) the intrepid defender of Islam, (b) it allows UMNO priests to issue fatwas to its political advantage, and (c) it drives a lovely wedge between PAS and DAP, or even PAS and Anwar because the latter's stand on the Allah word has deeply riled many PAS people.

Incidentally, on this I must compliment Anwar for assuming a firm Pakatan approach than his usual tap dancing self.

* in case some of you may question why I compliment Anwar on this when I have been consistently against the Christian Church using the Allah word. And that's because they are separate issues.

My stand against the Church has been based on my belief (or suspicion) that the Church's arguments has been obdurately implausible and thus indefensible (and I provided all my reasons for my stand), whereas my compliment for Anwar on the same issue has been about his firm stand on an already agreed Pakatan policy even though I personally disagree with that policy.

I suspect PAS' volte-face has been due to one of two reasons, or even both - it fears that as an Islamic party it's losing grounds as well as its Islamic credentials to UMNO on the Allah word controversy or it has been a coup d’état by its party's Majlis Syura (many of its members other than perhaps Pak Haji Nik Aziz have been uncomfortable working with a secular DAP), or both.

Even PAS party president Mat Sabu has no choice but to toe the Majlis Syura line, whence he did a belakang pusing on the use of the Allah word by the Church, a 180-degrees departure from his earlier stand which indicates an ominous portent of things to come if Malaysia is ever ruled by PAS.

I had warned in my post PAS - from Progressive to Pythonic that once Malaysia has been established as an Islamic State, we can forget about Westminster democracy, where any of its pseudo-democracy and associated institutions under Islamic rule will automatically come under the control of a supreme, non-questionable, non-challengeable (a la the fatwas of the Kedah MB), and totally dictatorial religious Majlis ...

... and as mentioned by RPK in his post Friday prayers are NOT compulsory, said the Mufti, the process in an Islamic environment is not democratic and not questionable even by logic, reason, precedent or rules. 

But the Malay nationalists in PAS (and that's who some of them really are), much as they believe in bangsa, can only scream agama because politically it has only the religious warrant, unlike UMNO which can switch flexibly (or unscrupulously) from bangsa to raja to agama to negara and even to 1Malaysia as its clarion call of the day without any qualms or embarrassment, wakakaka.

Yes, more than a few PAS members possess a similar belief in UMNO's Ketuanan Melayu because the ethnocentric Devil is still ensconced in our political-social-cultural DNA.

To remove or defeat it, we will require (a) sterling leadership and example like those exhibited by Brother Haris Ibrahim and I believe too, Zaid Ibrahim, and of course DAP leaders, (b) social re-engineering to purge and cleanse our attitude from the corruption of BTN type ideology promoted during the Mahathirism era, (c) education a la 'Saya Anak Malaysia', (d) official enforcement a la Aussie-Kiwi political administration where public institutions, NGOs and the press would pounce promptly on racism, bigotry and ethnic-prejudice and make mincemeat of people like Pauline Hanson and Ibrahim Ali, and (e) time.

I use the example of Australia's Pauline Hanson and Malaysia's Ibrahim Ali to show two very different types of prejudice, where I opine that of the former is real deep-seated bias due to ignorance (and perhaps incurable), while the latter is opportunistic due to sly intelligence, wakakaka.

Indeed, the ethnocentric Devil in PAS is more lamentable than that exhibited by Ibrahim Ali who is just opportunistically bersandiwara-ing.

As I wrote in my 2010 post Malaysian meaning of 'gratitude':

... we know Ibrahim Ali is a political survivor par excellence, a cheen chnea ch'am* carma† chameleon, and thus we know that his personal interests [is] khusus untuk numero uno, ... [...]

* cheen chnea ch'am is Chinese for bloody pitiful or terrible, wakakaka
† for 'cari makan', an abbreviation coined by A Samad Said

If Pakatan becomes the ruling party one day, Ibrahim Ali will be there beside the new Pakatan PM singing a new song titled ‘Reformasi is for me’; if PAS assumes power, Ibrahim Ali will replace the Kulim Wonder as the No 1 Islamic warrior of Malaysia, and in the unlikely event of DAP becoming the ruling party, Ibrahim Ali of course will be in astronaut costume, helmet and all, to show he’s an ardent rocket jock wakakaka.

Ibrahim Ali, the Malaysian 'Rocket' jock, wakakaka

Alas, I wish Nasharudin was just carma, but the probability is high he is not, but belongs to the group of PAS who believe in Malay unity with corrupt people rather than clean ones, for the reason that the former are Malays while the latter, clean as they may be in politics, governance and public accountability, aren't 'clean' in an ethno-religious sense and therefore not worthy to be allies of PAS.

Nasharudin Mat Isa has considerable strong support in his party, and I suspect that his removal from the party's Majlis Syura is only a temporary measure, at least until GE-13, to neutralise the embarrassing revelation of his overtly anti-Pakatan conduct and his obvious proclivity for Malay Unity and alliance with UMNO to keep Muslims out of power. I forecast he'll be 're-nominated' back into PAS Majlis Syura after GE-13.

His wish may yet be realized, for I recall that Harun Taib rather arrogantly warned DAP in May 2012 that the Malaysian legal system will have Hudud if PAS wins more seats than allies in violation of its agreement with other Pakatan allies. So there's a lot more than just sandiwara-ing in PAS - and it's called treachery.

With much hubris, Harun Taib had declared to NST that the implementation of hudud was 'inevitable', saying “If we have enough majority, if PAS is stronger than our allies, we will implement… even if not with the current partners we have in Pakatan… may be there will be other pacts that will lend us their support”.

Okay, it's known that PAS aspired to embrace hudud, but has that been a Pakatan agreement?

Far more worrying had been Harun Taib’s insinuation that PAS would renege on any Pakatan pre-election agreement (as seen in its betrayal of Pakatan's agreed PM-anoint) and implement hudud regardless, once it believes it has the upper hand, and where necessary, will do so in a pact other than Pakatan ..... meaning??? 

Meaning, to me, that would be the python that will drop down from the ceiling fan - see my post PAS - from Progressive to Pythonic to understand my concerns with PAS' shifty shifting stand.

Thus UMNO and (some in) PAS share the mantra of raja, bangsa dan agama, though for PAS, it would only voice agama but which would be synonymous with bangsa (and raja).

And that brings us to Harussani, the priest who I suspect, unlike other priests who claim to have a direct line to the Almighty, could also SMS or be SMS-ed by the One above.

I'm sure you still remember that disgraceful SMS case which ended up in a coward shifty shifting the blame on to a woman, which nevertheless saw him subsequently receive the award of a Tan Sri.

He has just issued a fatwa that Muslims allowing non-Muslims to use the Allah word would be considered infidels - see Malaysiakini's Muslims become infidels if they let others use 'Allah'.

Now, would a priest issuing a ruling or decree that the Friday congregational prayers are NOT compulsory make him an infidel? See RPK's post Friday prayers are NOT compulsory, said the Mufti.

Would a priest blaming someone for his lying mistake make him an infidel? See my post Perak Mufti pointed at Raja Sherina.

Raja Sherina

Shortly after that SMS wildfire fabrication, SIS programme manager Norhayati Kaprawi said: “This is not the first time the mufti has made careless statements and allegations.”

She cited a number of previous statements made by the mufti, including in February [2006?] where he claimed that between 100,000 and 250,000 Muslims had renounced Islam.

She added: “To date, he has not been able to substantiate these claims, except to merely state that these were obtained from ‘reliable sources’.”

I once wrote of him: Incidentally, HTF did he became a Tan Sri when he was the man responsible for nearly causing religious-racial violence through a seditious SMS in 2006 ...

... and worse, when the sh*t hit the fan he blamed the whole seditious crime on a woman. F* pathetic!

Sherina, believe me, it's for Islam that you take the fall for me

Anyway, in that irresponsible seditious scandal of the wildfire SMS, FT Gerakan asked for the priest's sacking.

Guess who came to his rescue? UMNO?

No, it was PAS.

As I posted in BolehTalk's PAS not seeing woods for the trees? in April 2007:

In PAS: Gerakan biadap I discussed PAS’ anger at the FT Gerakan’s resolution calling for HRH Sultan of Perak to sack Harussani Zakaria as the State Mufti for inciting religious agitation and hatred, with potential dire consequences.

PAS told Gerakan to stay clear of Islamic areas, the sole prerogative of Muslims.

I raised the query as to the total absence of any move by Muslim political groups*, both in government or PAS, to call the seditious Mufti to account. The Mufti is a well-known for his extreme right wing views but his latest folly had been very dangerous to public security. He is a threat to society with his recklessness and irresponsibility.

* NGO Sisters in Islam was the brave exception

And disgustingly, he didn’t even have the backbone of his religious conviction because when it was a case of accountability's push becoming a shove, he blamed a woman to avoid answering for his own responsibility for the lie.

But the FT Gerakan has now back off from the resolution, claiming it was only a personal view of Gerakan FT chairperson Dr Tan Kee Kwong. The Star has also clarified that it carried an erroneous report. Obviously the Barisan Nasional has kicked into play Ops Retreat as Islamic issues could well be damaging to UMNO’s battle for the Malay heartland in the coming general election.

Dr Tan in defiance of Gerakan demanding his resignation for accepting
a job with the Selangor government to head a task force on land issues.
Tan sneered “If they sack me, the public is not going to like it."
"But if they don’t, Umno is going to be very upset with them” wakakaka

But PAS sensing it has a political winner intends to draw out the issue for as long as possible and for every sweet drop of political propaganda, calling for the FT Gerakan and Dr Tan to retract the resolution and issue an open apology.

So it's hardly surprising that PAS FT acting youth chief Kamaruzaman Mohamad said the party would still press for Tan to retract his remark despite the clarification by the Star.

He stated: “Whether or not the call came from a resolution or Tan is now irrelevant. The remark should not have been made. He has no entitlement to that remark.”

He also made a police report.

Now, this is where PAS showed its double standard, Kamaruzaman, with great irony that he obviously didn’t realise, remarked:

“This is a sensitive issue among Muslims that can stir discord among various groups.”

"... stir discord among various groups ..."?

Yes, but what about that Mufti who nearly caused a racial riot with his irresponsible rumour-mongering?

Why shouldn’t he be sacked for seditious agitation? And why hasn't PAS initiate the demand for that to preserve the whole matter within the Muslim community?

In the end, PAS is no better than UMNO, exploiting religion for its own grubby political benefit instead of seeing to the justice that Allah (swt) intends for the Muslims to practice.

If I am kind, I would just say that PAS’ stand is a case of not seeing the wood for the trees. But if I want to be nasty, I would declare it as not unlike the moral in my poem Magic of the 100th name of God, where God is incidental, but Man’s interest reigns supreme.

That's the democratic (or lack of) credentials of PAS where it blindly supported a man just because he's a Muslim but who has been a seditious trouble maker and who was a coward as well for shifty shifting blame on to a woman.

blind support, wakakaka

Such blind support for an unworthy bloke can only spell trouble for a Malaysia we hope will be a democratic one. Ironically, it's not unlike the blind support of Zionists and the Christian Right for an oppressive neo-Nazi Israeli government. 

And that's the so-called democracy we'll likely get from a PAS-led government, without even taking its hudud legal system into consideration yet.

And hasn't it been divine-decreed padan muka for PAS when in mid November 2012 the SMS Priest had the thick hide to pontificate about the what should be done or not done by Muslims (did he exempt himself?) and then accused Pak Haji Nik Aziz of being slanderous for branding UMNO as apostate?

No no, stay out of Muslim affairs, I don't care if he has been seditious
or has blamed a woman for his irresponsible reckless remarks

And on this note of divine-decreed padan muka, I say Amin to the sandiwara of the pythonic PAS in removing Nasharudin from its Majlis Syura ...

... in the same way as I did to its wet dreams of 'electing' Hadi Awang to be Pakatan's PM-anoint and its treacherous intention to implement Hudud after it uses Chinese support to win its way into federal rule.

Go on, eat the apple, it'll be good for democracy,
& I 'promise' I won't bite you, wakakaka