S Thayaparan
Published: Mar 3, 2025 7:00 AM
Updated: 11:21 AM
“Saya terima banyak ugutan… dan saya sebut kamu salah pilih orang. Selagi saya diberi mandat oleh rakyat, saya tidak akan terima ugutan sebegitu. Bagi kita lawan tetap lawan.”
(I have received many threats… and I say you have picked the wrong guy. As long as I am given the mandate by the rakyat, I will not take such threats. To us, an opponent is an opponent.)
COMMENT | PAS’ despicable and frankly racist statements that the Urban Renewal Act is akin to the Nakba are the direct results of deep-rooted anti-Semitism in the political landscape and the reality that the Madani regime has weaponised the Palestinian issue.
Don’t get me wrong. This Urban Renewal Act is just a fancy term for gentrification, which furthers the corporate interests of developers who have a symbiotic relationship with the political class.
We could be having a discussion on urban planning, the lack of sustaining infrastructure depending on class (not race), how local polls stymy corporate interests and remove power from the hands of federal and state bureaucrats, the corruption of the local councils when it comes to maintenance, especially in working class areas.
But of course, the Malay uber alles opposition does not want to have these discussions because they would probably be doing the same thing as Madani but without the subtlety. Read a rational take by a Malaysiakini reader here.
PAS is claiming that the action of the Madani regime is akin to the genocidal strategies of the Jewish state and the supposed “oppression against the urbanites, especially the Malays from poor backgrounds” is akin to the tragedy that innocent Palestinians find themselves in.
DAP equates non-Muslims
Let me be very clear. PAS and their ilk have always claimed that the urban centres are the domains of non-Muslims and, thus, anathema to Islamic values. They have made it very clear in their strategies and propaganda that DAP is a stand-in for the non-Muslim community.
Published: Mar 3, 2025 7:00 AM
Updated: 11:21 AM
“Saya terima banyak ugutan… dan saya sebut kamu salah pilih orang. Selagi saya diberi mandat oleh rakyat, saya tidak akan terima ugutan sebegitu. Bagi kita lawan tetap lawan.”
– Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim,
Himpunan Malaysia Bersama Palestin
(I have received many threats… and I say you have picked the wrong guy. As long as I am given the mandate by the rakyat, I will not take such threats. To us, an opponent is an opponent.)
COMMENT | PAS’ despicable and frankly racist statements that the Urban Renewal Act is akin to the Nakba are the direct results of deep-rooted anti-Semitism in the political landscape and the reality that the Madani regime has weaponised the Palestinian issue.
Don’t get me wrong. This Urban Renewal Act is just a fancy term for gentrification, which furthers the corporate interests of developers who have a symbiotic relationship with the political class.
We could be having a discussion on urban planning, the lack of sustaining infrastructure depending on class (not race), how local polls stymy corporate interests and remove power from the hands of federal and state bureaucrats, the corruption of the local councils when it comes to maintenance, especially in working class areas.
But of course, the Malay uber alles opposition does not want to have these discussions because they would probably be doing the same thing as Madani but without the subtlety. Read a rational take by a Malaysiakini reader here.
PAS is claiming that the action of the Madani regime is akin to the genocidal strategies of the Jewish state and the supposed “oppression against the urbanites, especially the Malays from poor backgrounds” is akin to the tragedy that innocent Palestinians find themselves in.
DAP equates non-Muslims
Let me be very clear. PAS and their ilk have always claimed that the urban centres are the domains of non-Muslims and, thus, anathema to Islamic values. They have made it very clear in their strategies and propaganda that DAP is a stand-in for the non-Muslim community.
They have accused DAP of interfering in Islam, most recently in Perak, and secretly controlling the Madani government.
Hence, this supposed displacement of urban, especially Malay poor, is said to be through the secret manoeuvres of DAP because they are the supposed puppet masters of the Madani regime.
Mind you, they do not have to say this openly because they do not have to. This is exactly the kind of anti-Jewish rhetoric that has been around for decades and not only in Malaysia. This is the kind of dog whistle politics that the Malay political establishment has been enabling for decades.
Remember, blaming the Jews for the problems of Muslims is exactly like blaming the Chinese for the social, economic, and political problems of the Malay community.
PAS has played this card before. Just last year, PAS had a very vocal and overt campaign comparing Malay ownership in Penang to the Palestinian issue.
As reported in the press, “The party claims that Penang has carried out a ‘systematic seizure’ by taking over ownership and control of areas that were originally predominantly Malay-Muslim. They allege that this was done by changing the status of rural land to urban land and implementing mega projects and luxury developments.
“If this matter is not stopped, it is possible that in 50 years, the Malays will disappear from their own homeland.”
Hate speech
Everything most Malays are taught about the Palestinian conflict, they get from National Civics Bureau courses and state-sponsored sermons in mosques.
This is why PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang gets to say something like this: “When Umno and PAS unite, they are accused of wishing to go to war with other races. (Our accusers are) like the Jews who did not want Muslims to be united during the Prophet’s time. This is a disease we must fight. Let’s join forces and send the enemy to hell.”
PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang
Consider the hate speech of Muslim convert Ridhuan Tee Abdullah, a preacher, who took anti-Semitism to a new level by comparing his Chinese brothers and sisters to the most obscene stereotype of Jews, pleading special knowledge about their community since he was a kafir (infidel) like them before embracing Islam.
Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad claimed that the Jews are “crooks”: “(So) what is the reason we don’t allow Israelites to come here? We say they are crooks (penyangak), and we just got rid of one crook.”
And this was when he was stumping for a non-Muslim Pakatan Harapan candidate.
This idea that spreading hate for the “Jews” makes good capital is what every Islamic political party in this country does.
No subtlety
Except, of course, when the real world intrudes and Islamists are made to understand that you cannot expect to be part of the international community and think you are exempt from certain rules.
This is a competition about who defends the Palestinian cause better for a local audience. And in case the prime minister hasn’t noticed, he is playing a rigged game that the state (and him) created decades ago.
Consider the hate speech of Muslim convert Ridhuan Tee Abdullah, a preacher, who took anti-Semitism to a new level by comparing his Chinese brothers and sisters to the most obscene stereotype of Jews, pleading special knowledge about their community since he was a kafir (infidel) like them before embracing Islam.
Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad claimed that the Jews are “crooks”: “(So) what is the reason we don’t allow Israelites to come here? We say they are crooks (penyangak), and we just got rid of one crook.”
And this was when he was stumping for a non-Muslim Pakatan Harapan candidate.
This idea that spreading hate for the “Jews” makes good capital is what every Islamic political party in this country does.
No subtlety
Except, of course, when the real world intrudes and Islamists are made to understand that you cannot expect to be part of the international community and think you are exempt from certain rules.
This is a competition about who defends the Palestinian cause better for a local audience. And in case the prime minister hasn’t noticed, he is playing a rigged game that the state (and him) created decades ago.
Remember in 2017 when convicted felon and then-prime minister Najib Abdul Razak, in propping up the Palestinian cause, claimed that he will not back down from the Jerusalem issue even if his body is cut into pieces, did anyone else think of the “It’s just a flesh wound” scene from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”? Maybe it is just me.
Of course, the non-Muslim component of Harapan will keep their mouths shut because by opposing anti-Semitism, they suddenly become anti-Muslim, except of course when they need the help of Malay political operatives on the campaign trail.
Ultimately, it’s hard to blame PAS for following this rancid playbook because everyone else does it, too. It is just that PAS is not subtle about it.
If the Malays are the Palestinians in this narrative, who do you think the Jews are?
S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”
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