Would God weep?

Malaysiakini - The mendacity of Hadi Awang by Commander (Rtd) S Thayaparan (extracts):

I consider PAS a religious sect masquerading as a political party and a component party of Barisan National.

Many PAS members who still hold allegiance to Tok Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat’s pragmatism, if not his religiosity, tell me that Abdul Hadi Awang should just come out of the closet and swear fealty to Umno. This way there would be a modicum of honour in how they conduct themselves in the upcoming elections should Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak have the courage to roll the dice and see where they land.

Hadi’s claim that non-Muslims would embrace syariah law because it showed Islam was fair and just is laughable, not because of the idiocy of the statement but because Malaysians, and this includes Muslims, have very little faith in the current “secular” system in place.

Syariah, as I have argued before, would just be the cherry on top of the fascist cake that the Najib regime and PAS are baking because of the scandals plaguing the former. The funny thing is, Hadi’s conduct would be condemned and judged harshly by the Islamic fanatics he wishes to emulate.

In a speech to various right-wing Malay groups, he said, “When they see that syariah law is better, they (non-Muslims) will automatically choose syariah and this is what is feared by those quarters (who oppose the amendments to the Act).”

This is a blatant lie and Hadi knows this. Hadi knows very well that during Tok Guru’s tenure, the opposition pact was playing hide and seek with hudud - agree to disagree and the various rhetorical permutations gave way to open hostilities that led to the break-up of Pakatan Rakyat after the passing of the PAS spiritual adviser.

He knows very well that most non-Muslims have very little faith in the legal system in this country when it comes to disputes where Malay/Muslim “rights” are questioned or challenged. This covers everything from conversions to marriage, and under the Najib regime where criminal acts are turned into racial issues, the Low Yat fiasco a case in point.

Furthermore, in Malaysia, this question of syariah law has been an impediment to any kind of cohesive opposition alliance. An “Islamic” law the world has proven to be bigoted, unjust, cruel and detrimental to societies that have been dragged into this system by mendacious clerics who ignore the privileged class it creates and subject the rest of the population to its brutal edicts.

In addition, countries shackled by “Islamic” laws are neither functional nor contribute in any way to the development of cordial international relations. Most sane Malaysians - Muslims and non-Muslims - realise this.

Hadi was duplicitous when he claimed that “the syariah court only affects Muslims and has nothing to do with non-Muslims”. Everyone knows that anything to do with Islam in this country has an effect on every Malaysian regardless of his or her professed religion. Everyone has felt the harsh glare of the kind of Islam that was used as a tool by Umno to shore up Malay support and constantly remind non-Muslims that they were interlopers in this country.

The civil service, the security service, the education system, nearly every state apparatus, is a reminder of the influence of Islam on every Malaysian citizen. The Arabisation process favoured by Umno and slavishly followed by PAS is a triumph of form over substance and the rail on which the gravy train runs on.

In other words, Pak Haji has been fibbing on a number of issues regarding syariah laws and non-Muslims attitude towards (and fear of) it. To reiterate what Aneh Thayaparan has written above, Pak Haji fibbed:

(i) when he said, “When they see that syariah law is better, they (non-Muslims) will automatically choose syariah and this is what is feared by those quarters (who oppose the amendments to the Act).”

Remember, he was talking about how non-Muslims, not Muslims, regard syariah. His brazen bullshit is remarkable.

(ii) when he conveniently ignored the Nik Raina's case, how she was both prosecuted and persecuted by JAWI even when it was f**king crystal clear she was innocent.

Oh, those JAWI clerics had the lust to punish a Muslim, kau kau someone, somehow, somewhere, and poor Nik Raina was the convenient Muslim working at Borders which sold a book which JAWI banned 6 days AFTER the sale. For more on Nik Raina's unjust case, please read Why should taxes from non-Muslim sources fund JA-organizations?

And that's what led Aneh to pen "An Islamic law the world has proven to be bigoted, unjust, cruel and detrimental to societies that have been dragged into this system by."

(iii) when he claimed that “the syariah court only affects Muslims and has nothing to do with non-Muslims”.

Aneh wrote: Everyone knows that anything to do with Islam in this country has an effect on every Malaysian regardless of his or her professed religion. Everyone has felt the harsh glare of the kind of Islam that was used as a tool by Umno to shore up Malay support and constantly remind non-Muslims that they were interlopers in this country.

The civil service, the security service, the education system, nearly every state apparatus, is a reminder of the influence of Islam on every Malaysian citizen. The Arabisation process favoured by Umno and slavishly followed by PAS is a triumph of form over substance and the rail on which the gravy train runs on.

(iv) he pretends PAS is an independent political party when it has, under his leadership, effectively become a component party in the UMNO-led Barisan Nasional (BN), a machai for Najib so to speak.

Aneh narrated: I consider PAS a religious sect masquerading as a political party and a component party of Barisan National.

Many PAS members who still hold allegiance to Tok Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat’s pragmatism, if not his religiosity, tell me that Abdul Hadi Awang should just come out of the closet and swear fealty to Umno. This way there would be a modicum of honour in how they conduct themselves in the upcoming elections.....

I use the word 'fib' to describe the recent actions of Pak Haji because I am a kinder, less stern, wakakaka-ish person than Aneh.

Fib means 'a small or trivial lie; minor falsehood', whereas Aneh's big word 'mendacity' is the noun of the adjective 'mendacious' which means 'telling lies, especially habitually; dishonest; lying; untruthful' where unlike my fib, there's nothing small nor trivial about his lies, wakakaka.

Of course Aneh has been spot on when he decried Abdul Hadi Awang's mendacity, hypocrisy and buat-ta'tahu in not just coming out of the closet to swear fealty to Umno, as told to Aneh by what his described as many PAS members who still hold allegiance to Tok Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat’s pragmatism if not his religiosity.

But you know kaytee as a kind-hearted person who still has a bit of respect for Pak Haji, purely due to his age and not his behaviour or politics, wakakaka, thus I have tried to find reasons for his closeted behaviour (not the AI variety, wakakaka, but one of already sucking up to UMNO). Let's start by examining PAS' federal performance over 4 general elections and the likely cause for its good or poor achievements, namely:


1999 - won 27 seats, riding on the back of Barisan Alternatif - DAP's LKS and Karpal lost their federal seats in the election due to Chinese perception of the DAP playing footsie-tootsie with PAS.

2004 - won 7 seats in a solo bid - there was no coalition like in 1999 - DAP went on its solo way after suffering the ouster of LKS and Karpal from parliament in 1999

2008 - won 23 seats (riding on the back of Pakatan Rakyat

2013 - won 21 seats riding on the back of Pakatan but I suspect that because its Kedah MB frightened the nons, it didn't do as well as it did in 2008 - in fact PAS lost the state of Kedah.

Thus PAS only did well when it was in a coalition. Without being in a coalition, and support of non-Malay votes it was nothing more than a provincial political party.

Aneh also wrote: In one of my numerous articles on PAS, I wrote, “The only reason PAS has enjoyed a political resurgence is because of its affiliation with the former Pakatan Rakyat. Their resurgence is not based on any cultural or social shift but rather the compromises made in joining mainstream Malaysian politics.

“And PAS was not the unwanted stepchild that it makes itself out to be, but rather contributed valuable logistical and public relations support to a newly resurgent opposition pact that greatly benefited from its politics of inclusion, somewhat flawed it may have been.”

There are many pragmatic voices within PAS who do not view an alliance with Umno as anything but disastrous to them in the end. This is why there are so many contradictory voices in Hadi’s PAS. This is why PAS fears Amanah. Amanah did not fare as badly as the Umno “advisers” predicted in the last by-elections.

Coincidentally 4 days ago, I had penned my take on why Pak Haji went over to Najib in my post Quo Vadis DAP? in which I stated:

Despite the news that PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man is also keen to form a united opposition against Najib, I believe that PAS president Pak Haji Hadi, having realized his erstwhile dreams of riding on Chinese support to a 60+ federal seats victory is now kaput, being kaput-ized by his own too-eager and thus premature announcement of his hudud-aspirations, has accepted and prepared a more achievable and also more beneficial role for PAS in 2018, that of a spoiler in triangular contests in relevant electorates in covert support of UMNO candidates.

Yes, Pak Haji Hadi and Najib might possibly have done a sub-rosa deal for 2018, one in which Najib has devolved 3rd party demolition tasks to PAS. I actually dread whatever political-legislative quid pro quos both of them might have kowtim-rized a la 'bisa diatur'.

Before we close, allow me to quote another extract of Aneh's article, as follows:

PAS thinks that Najib is weak and that concessions could be extracted from his regime. The problem is that Hadi is in a weak position himself. PAS seems oblivious to the vagaries of dealing with Umno and Umno is every ready - especially now - to use PAS as just another of its outsourced political thugs, or as one Umno insider told me.

“Do you really think that hudud is going to happen here in Malaysia?” She continued, “Hudud and Hadi are convenient fillers to break the news cycle. Nobody takes them seriously. How could anyone take them seriously?”

Pak Haji thinks he's another clever LKY and can ride the wounded UMNO-Najib tiger, but in reality his party is a wounded pussy cat and it won't be long before the UMNO tiger turns around and swallows it as had been done several times before, wakakaka.

But in the end it seems that for all his religiosity, Pak Haji is not above fibbing as Aneh's article has shown. It kinda makes me sad because I have to ask (again), is there no morality and honesty even among so-called men of god?