Mafulat Muhibbah Malaysians love terrorists?

MM Online - Zakir Naik a guest at PAS’ regional Muslim scholars’ conference (extracts):

KUALA LUMPUR, July 11 ― Fugitive televangelist Dr Zakir Naik has been confirmed as one of the guests to a regional conference for Muslim scholars organised by Islamist party PAS in Kota Baru, Kelantan later this month.

The organisers said it is aware of the controversy surrounding the Indian national who is currently on the run from authorities in his home country, but the conference called International Assembly of Ummah Unity will stay away from any such polemics. [...]

“The issue of Zakir Naik is not an issue of conflict. But it is his personal issue, with others who do not agree with him,” Tuan Ibrahim said.

kt note: Indian authorities indeed do not agree with Zakir Naik. He has been charged for terrorist related activities and money laundering which are non-bailable. Thus those are NOT personal but official issues.

“We take in the context of how the he plays his role in evangelism, how he can contribute in that aspect.”

The 51-year-old medical doctor by training has been visiting Malaysia and Saudi Arabia frequently after leaving India where he is wanted for money laundering and terrorism investigations.

Dr Zakir was conferred honorary membership in Malay rights organisation Perkasa on April 16.

My dear Yang Amat Alim, Pak Haji Tuan Ibrahim,

There is no need to be embarrassed or defensive in having Zakir Naik as your guest. We Malaysians of all colour, culture and creed are known to love having 'terrorists' as honourable guests in our mesyuarats, majlis, midst and mafulat minds.

In fact, Zakir Naik, despite being wanted by India on a non-bailable charge of terrorist associations, is a most honourable member of one of our sacred Malay (though not Malaysian) institutions, namely, Perkasa whose alleged patron is none other than the Chairman of Pribumi, Mahathir himself, the biggest pribumi of all pribumi's, though he has Malayalam blood coursing through his veins - 'fake' credentials? But that's not your problem.

Anyway, that's how we Malaysians came to be known for our muhibbah spirit, at least in our bizarre taste for terrorists, sports and Empat-Ekor, wakakaka. Maybe we should be described as Mafulat Muhibbah Malaysians, wakakaka.

By the by, the naughty word 'Mafulat' is ironically yet another indication of our Malaysian muhibbah-ness. I suspect it has been an outcome of Canto, Malay and goodness-knows-what-else lexiconical melange a la the rojak of Penang Hokkien. But its colloquial meaning is less salubrious, wakakaka, but highly descriptive of Zakir Naik.

OK, on the subject of our Malaysian 'love-affair' with terrorist, especially in the perception of some obdurate (not religious) minded people, wakakaka, let's start off with the Malays as you have put your party forward as a very Malay entity which honours and 'looks up' to Zakir Naik.

Zakir Naik is not the only alleged terrorist or terrorist-related bloke your PAS has been associated with. Back in 2005 I penned a post titled PAS does not believe Dr Azahari was a terrorist in which your current party president, Hadi Awang then said that while PAS supported the Government's move to fight terrorism in South-East Asia, the root causes of terrorism must be identified.

Hadi Awang was implying that poor Azahari was not the root cause but just an unfortunate mere 'consequence' of the root cause.

In that way, government action against terrorism could then be conducted fairly, just in case people like mass-murdering terrorist Azahari could turn up to be another George Washington, an old-time terrorist in 1775, according to allegations by Pommie like King George III.

rebel? turncoat? but 1st President of USA 

Oh, my dear Yang Amat Alim, this represents a wonderful opportunity to use a current popular Malaysian-English word, namely, 'turncoat' because many Malaysians have no idea of what it is. George Washington was a 'turncoat' because he was a Colonel in the British Army before he turned against them, wakakaka. RPK was a member of PAS - has he been a turncoat to you PAS people?

Anyway, Hadi Awang indeed likened the 'allegations' (wakakaka) against Azahari to the lies made against Iraq having weapons of mass destruction. Thus the US bullshit about Saddam's WMD was like, as Hadi Awang asserted, the US bullshit against Azahari.

Hadi's reason for this notorious comparison has been based on the lack of evidence to indicate Azahari’s involvement in the terrorist bombings, though Hadi was so blind with love for Azahari that he refused to believed the shot-dead Malaysian terrorist was found dead among Azahari's bombs, and that Indonesian military chief at that time, Sutanto, confirmed Azahari's corpse was positively identified through fingerprints.

Aussie federal police believed Azahari killed in excess of 250 people in four separate bombings in a  period of three years.

Hadi Awang wasn't the only Malaysian Muslim who believed accusations of Azahari being a terrorist were lies. Azahari had (has?) many sympathisers among the more conservative Malaysians Muslims.

I've read their comments on his death in some Malaysian blogsites, some initially with sheer disbelief that Azahari had been slain, and then some with religious rationalisation on his departed soul being somewhat akin to the Buddhist belief of reincarnation, in that they were desperate to want Azahari somehow not to die or to be reborn a.s.a.p.

But what about Noordin Top, Azahari's mass murdering mate who was also shot dead by Indonesian police on 17 September 2009? Was he loved too?

Then-Home Affairs Minister Hishamuddin Hussein stated rather sorrowfully he was sad to hear about the death of Noordin Top, one of the most evil and notorious mass murderers-terrorist bombers in the world and then-ranked No 1 on the Indonesian wanted terrorist list. In Indonesia he called himself Abdurrachman Aufi.

Noordin Top or Abdurrachman Aufi was a militant Islamist terrorist in the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a banned terrorist organisation in Indonesia. He made bombs to kill and maim innocent people just to strike terror.

Hisham croaked wistfully: “What he did was wrong. We don’t condone what he did. I am sad that we did not get to rehabilitate him, like we have done with many others, including Jemaah Islamiah militants. I am sad because a life is a life.”

Huh? Why the sadness? As that terrorist was a Johorean, could it have anything to do with the votes in Johor?

It might well have been, but for the Home Minister to voice sadness for a most notorious terrorist being killed by Indonesian police, what would that have said or indicated to Malaysian Muslims?

Oh, incidentally, the Star Online reported that a very influential Indon newspaper said that funding for JI terrorists, Azahari and Noordin Mohd Top, came from Malaysia.

Well, should we even be surprised because as I mentioned, those two (late) fugitives had many Malaysian sympathisers. Yes, even Thai authorities might also have a word or two to say about financial and other support for their insurgents in Southern Thailand.

Anyway, the news said that a foreign diplomat with diplomatic immunity has been the intermediary for the Malaysian fund donors and JI (Malaysians) recipients. Naughty interfering bloke was responsible for channelling the Malaysian donated funds to Azahari and Noordin. According to the Indonesian news, he wanted to create instability in the region, which I must say, he certainly succeeded.

I did wonder who that foreign diplomat could be? I bet you he was not from Denmark, Ireland or South Korea.

OK, next with the Indians (and then we'll come to the Chinese, wakakaka - for weren't we known as Mafulat Muhibbah Malaysians? Wakakaka again).

In 2013 the now defunct TMI (with news from Bernama) reported Man arrested for holding tribute ceremony for Tamil Tigers leader.

The news went that a man was arrested with six others belonging to a certain NGO were asked to surrender after they held a ceremony to mark Tamil Tigers chief V. Prabhakaran's birthday in Kulim, Kedah on Saturday.

Prabhakaran was killed by Sri Lanka military forces on 18 May 2009, so why was his birthday celebrated in 2013 in Malaysia? To console his ghost or to apotheosize him into a 'Datuk Kong'?

IGP Khalid Abu Bakar said the man, who was arrested in Kedah, was being investigated under Section 4 (1)(a) of the Sedition Act 1948 for allegedly inviting the public to attend the ceremony to pay tribute to the late Prabhakaran.

"What has this terrorist got to do with our country? Why try to invite people to glorify a terrorist?

"We see this as an act or attempt to influence or incite people to believe in terrorism."

The IGP was right but did he say that to his then-boss, Hisham for his comments on Noordin Top, or to Hadi Awang for sweet words on Azahari?

That sort of bring us now to the Chinese and their respect for Ong Boon Hwa (Chin Peng), a CT during the Malaysian Emergency.

Chin Peng as anti-Japanese fighter award OBE by British 

Chin Peng as anti-colonialist insurgent considered terrorist by British 

Chin Peng as signatory to Haadyai Peace Accord still considered 'undesirable' by Malaysian Government, even after his death

But some Chinese Malaysians including some Malay politicians (obviously not from UMNO but in fact from PAS, wakakaka) argued that the Malaysian communists were no longer terrorists as they had signed a peace treaty with the Malaysian government and pledged loyalty to HM the Agong.

Wikipedia informs us (shorted by kt): In 1988, the MCP leadership in the northern part of Malaysia agreed with the Malaysian government offer to attend a negotiation to a peace initiative. ... since early 1981, Deng Xiao Peng had encouraged them to seek a peace accord with the Malaysian government.

... Malaysia by that time was one of the newly developed nations in Asia. Malaysia’s economy was strong and the majority of Malaysia’s citizens refused to accept communist ideology.

After a series of negotiations between the Malaysian Government and the MCP, with the Thais acting as mediators, the MCP finally agreed to sign a Peace Accord in Haadyai, Thailand on 2 December 1989.

The peace accord did not require the MCP to surrender; it only required that the MCP cease their militant activities. With the signing of the Haadyai Peace Accord, the MCP agreed to disband their armed units and destroy all of their weapons. They also ‘pledged their loyalty’ to His Majesty the Yang di Pertuan Agong of Malaysia. This date marked the end of the MCP insurgency in Malaysia.

At the end of the peace accord, it was estimated that there were about 1,188 MCP members still on the active list. Some of them chose to return to their states in Malaysia and the rest selected to stay in a "Peace Village" at the Thai border. The Malaysian Government had paid them all some compensation money. First RM 3,000 was paid on their immediate return, and another RM 5,000 was paid three years after their return.

Under the terms of the agreement, Chin Peng was one of the MCP officials who would be allowed to return home. However, successive Malaysian administrations have blocked his return on a number of justifications.

In 2005, his petition to enter Malaysia was formally rejected by the High Court. In June 2008, a Court of Appeal also rejected his petition, upholding an earlier ruling compelling him to show identification papers to prove citizenship; Peng claimed he could not because they were seized in a 1948 police raid.

Peng died in Bangkok, Thailand on 16 September 2013, and was cremated according to Buddhist rites. While he has previously voiced wishes to be buried in Sitiawan, Perak, his remains continued to be denied entry to Malaysia, as its government claimed that the one-year window after the agreement to reapply for citizenship has long lapsed and he has relinquished his rights to return.

The Malaysian government's deliberate harsh treatment of Chin Peng, apart from not honouring its own 1989 Haadyai Peace Accord, contrasted sharply with its pampering treatment of terrorists Azahari Husin and Noordin Top whose corpses were repatriated to Malaysia for burial. Many described the difference as blatant racism.

Zahid and his ministerial deputy Wan Junaidi, were asked to explain why the remains of two notorious Malaysian terrorists-bombers, namely Dr Azahari Husin and Nordin Top, were allowed to be repatriated to Malaysia and buried in their respective birthplaces, while Ong Boon Hwa wasn't despite being a signatory to the 1989 Haadyai Peace Treaty?

Both Zahid and Wan Junaidi retorted that was because the two terrorists had not spilled Malaysian blood.

Zahid forgot that Azahari Husin and Noordin Top did not repent but remained as hard-core mass murdering terrorists until their deaths, while Chin Peng was no longer a CT after the 1989 Peace Accord, a useless treaty which means nothing to the Malaysian government, unless of course the former CT was/is a Malay (who might also have spilled Malaysian blood, to wit, killed Malay soldiers or policemen or just Malay civilians).

While others have condemned the differential treatment as racism, I believe it has more to do with the government's politicised opportunism rather than racism per se, namely, to please the Heartland who might have forgiven (or even hero-worship) Muslims like notorious terrorists Azahari Husin and Noordin Top, and former Malay CT but not a non-Muslim like Chin Peng.

It seems the Malaysian government didn't view the murderous activities of Azahari Husin and Noordin Top in Indonesia as terrorist activities, perhaps in a way not unlike their current favourable views on Zakir Naik.

COMMENT by Terence Netto: Former Inspector-General of Police Abdul Rahim Mohd Noor has weighed in on the debate – firmly on the side of us keeping our solemn commitments as outlined in an international peace agreement.

Chin Peng, longtime Secretary-General of the Communist Party of Malaya, was denied entry into Malaysia and now that he is dead, his ashes are barred from being brought into the country for interment, presumably at the Chinese cemetery in the village of Pundut, in Lumut, where the graves of the CPM leader’s parents lie.

The disbarments, according to Rahim Noor (3rd above), are in violation of the Hatyai Peace Accords signed in December 1989 between the governments of Malaysia, Thailand and CPM.

If it wasn’t for the fact that former IGP was the man who headed the Malaysian team in the negotiations that led to the Hatyai Peace Accords, his opinion that we are making an international “laughing stock” of ourselves in refusing Chin Peng’s ashes to be interred here would not have mattered, given the nature of the public debate, suffused as so many things are in Malaysia with racist sentiment.

Rahim has weighed in the public debate on the sanest side possible in this wrangle. This is the side of the letter of the Hatyai agreement that brought peace to the Malaysia-Thailand border, the focal area, between 1960 and 1989, of the conflict between communist terrorists belonging to the CPM and Malaysian and Thai security forces.

As Special Branch head at the time of accords with the CPM and as the government’s lead negotiator, Rahim should know the terms and conditions of the Hatyai agreement.

If there is anybody who can hold forth authoritatively on the contentious matter of whether Chin Peng had a right to come back to Malaysia and, now that he has died, have his ashes buried in his hometown of Sitiawan, it is Rahim.

Rahim said the government was in violation of the agreement when it barred Chin Peng from returning to Malaysia as the former Secretary General of the CPM desired and, when he was baulked, petitioned the Malaysian courts for recourse.

The courts upheld the government’s bar on Chin Peng’s return and now the government thumbs its nose further at the Hatyai accords by barring the entry of the CPM leader’s ashes.

Rahim believes in keeping his word

Rahim’s opinion that the government is behaving less than honourably is the more remarkable because he has appeared in recent years at public forums organised by Perkasa, the Malay right wing group that is prominent among the voices defending the government’s disbarments of Chin Peng.

At least, Rahim believes in keeping his word and in the government keeping theirs, but the NGO Rahim has seen fit to patronize does not.

Yes, the government has been far more unforgiving on the killings of MCP, notwithstanding the by-now-viewed-as-useless-or-dishonoured 1989 Haadyai Peace Treaty between the Malaysian government (signed by Mahathir) and the MCP.

But then what about MCP leaders like, for example, Syed Hamid Ali and Shamsiah Faekah who were allowed back into Malaysia to settle down as Malaysian citizens? Did they have still have identification papers showing their citizenship? Did they spilled Malaysian blood? Yet Ong Boon Hwa (Chin Peng) after his death could not even have his ashes buried in Sitiawan, his place of birth.

Ignoring for an instant the blatant double standards exhibited by the UMNO-led government in their treatment of Ong Boon Hwa, a Chinese former CT, and Malays like mass murderers Azahari and Noordin Top and former CT Syed Hamid Ali and Shamsiah Faekah, don't the above narration show our Malaysian 'love affair' with terrorists, mass murders and former CT (except for Chin Peng, wakakaka)?

That's why, Yang Amat Alim, I suggested earlier for your PAS not to be embarrassed in inviting Zakir Naik to be your honoured guest at a PAS-organised regional conference for Muslim scholars in Kota Baru, Kelantan later this month, notwithstanding that he is wanted for money laundering and terrorism investigations.

Wait wait wait, I withdraw my words. It seems Zakir Naik is not only wanted for activities related to terrorist where 'terrorism' seems to be okay with us Malaysians, but he is also wanted for money laundering.

Now, that's not okay. As you know, Najib and his mates have also been accused of such naughty Chinaman activity, namely the laundry business, wakakaka.

I am sorry I have to withdraw my encouraging words to you about the subject of Zakir Naik. Surely we don't want an alleged money launderer to be your PAS' guest?

Salam mesra.

Yang ikhlas and most kuai lan, wakakaka,

kaytee