The men who hunt Hannah Yeoh

The men who hunt Hannah Yeoh

S Thayaparan


"It is unlikely that it is a coincidence that both officers are non-Muslims.”

- Bersatu leader Badrul Hisham Shaharin, better known as Chegubard, said here.

COMMENT | There is a conspiracy in the “Jom Ziarah” fiasco and it is a conspiracy against Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh. So far the conspirators have been extremely successful in tarnishing the image of the government.

A sitting minister no less has given her statement to the police.

The conspirators are having their cake and eating it, on the one hand dragging the reputation of the government into the muck and on the other playing the race card when it comes to investigating “Malay” personalities fighting for bangsa dan agama.

It is ludicrous and perhaps even demeaning for the state security apparatus to ask for a statement from a minister on the report based on ramblings of propagandists and saboteurs, but this is the country we live in.

If a non-Malay made such accusations against the state security apparatus, minions from the state would be all over the individual and people like Chegubard would be calling for his or her head for insulting a Malay institution.

Keep in mind that Chegubard's accusations are not original. Indeed it is the same old racists tune that ketuanan types use when confronted with their malfeasances.

Remember when Nazri Abdul Aziz was stumping for BN in the Semenyih by-election during Pakatan Harapan’s first time in the hot seat?

Nazri said: "Take, for example, the attorney-general. Everyone said Adib was sacrificed. We ask why no charges were brought against the people who were arrested for allegedly assaulting Adib back then. None has been charged.

"People can see that the attorney-general and the suspects have the same skin colour, so don't blame the Malay because they thought the attorney-general is not fair.

"What is the problem? Just charge (them to court). I was made to understand it (the prosecution) was withdrawn and (they) just kept quiet.

"This has led to dissatisfaction among the Malays because (they) do not trust a non-Malay holding that position can be fair, instead of acting according to the skin colour."

Bersatu leader Badrul Hisham Shaharin @ Chegubard


Going by the logic of these ketuanan types, non-Malays can never have justice because the people entrusted with the administration of such are predominantly Malays, who would look after their own community at the expense of the non-Malays. Maybe this is true and perhaps a topic for another time.


Specific agenda

What is happening now, though, is that the men who hunt Yeoh have a very specific agenda which makes her a convenient target.

The Youth and Sports Ministry could be a very important portfolio when it comes to shaping young minds. While the ministry has a history of being a treasure trove for kleptocrats, in reality, it is one of the more important but underused mechanisms for a progressive state.

The ketuanan types and their religious, fascist comrades understand that an effective Youth and Sports Ministry has the potential to bring young people together in a way that has been used by the ketuanan types for decades to keep young Malaysians divided.

If ever there was a forensic audit of the types of programmes carried out by the ministry, we would not only discover pecuniary corruption (which is a given) but also the ideological footprints of racist and religious extremists who have slipped into sub rosa programmes to indoctrinate young Malays for decades.

Indeed for the deep Islamic state, the ministry was perhaps one of the more useful state organs to propagate their dogma.

Propagandists from Bersatu and PAS, connections that deepened when both were part of Harapan, were delighted when Yeoh was given this portfolio. It made their job easier.

Keep in mind that Yeoh has been vocal about how her religious beliefs led her to politics and civil service. She has been a hate figure for a variety of propagandists, both state and independent, for close to a decade.

The fact that she receives almost devotional-like support from the DAP base makes her a very convenient target for political operatives and religious extremists, for whom she is an “Exhibit A” when it comes to the political lie, that the DAP is out to “Christainise” this country.

So far, these cretins have offered not one shred of evidence that this is happening. What they have done, and very effectively, is use Yeoh's words against her, contorting them to fit a very specific emotional narrative.

Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh


To be clear, as someone who has been critical of Yeoh’s political rhetoric, I have always maintained that non-Malay politicians should keep to a strict secular line. In public, word and deed, they should maintain that separation between the place of worship and state.

Here is the thing, when you do not have a reputation or history for talking about religion, when you do stand up for religious rights it becomes more potent. Furthermore, the first rule of politics is, you never give your opponent political ammo.

This is why the men who hunt Yeoh are having such an easy time when it comes to this issue. Keep in mind the target audience.

Folks like Chegubard do not care about the outrage from the non-Malays and liberal Malays. Their audiences are those who have been indoctrinated to believe that someone like Yeoh is an existential threat to their racial and religious way of life.

It does not matter how often she dons a tudung and preaches religious moderation, because to them all of this is merely religious hypocrisy.

Now of course they have a convenient target. Yeoh as a non-Malay Christian politician is getting all this libel and slander thrown her way because the men who hunt her understand that this particular composition of the government cannot afford to launch an effective counterattack.

They understand that this is an extremely emotional issue, which they have used for years.

While Yeoh has given a cogent rebuttal of the lies spewed her way, the reality is that it is ineffective against the ketuanan base.

They do not see the hypocrisy of what their religious leaders say because they believe in religious supremacy, which means that nearly everything their leaders do should not be questioned.

In other words, when they do it, it is correct but when a non-Muslim does it, it is wrong or deceitful.

For the men who hunt Yeoh, too much is never enough.



S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”