Heads I win, tails you lose

Malaysia Today
23 January 2006


Heads I win, tails you lose

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Congratulations! After so many years of trying, and failing, Umno has
finally succeeded in uniting the Malays. The Malays now speak as one,
regardless of political inclination. As usual, it needs an enemy, a
serious threat, for people to come together. People will stand
shoulder-to-shoulder in defence of something they really treasure if
that something faces danger, real or perceived.

One-time Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad tried many
times to unite the Malays, but failed miserably. And when I say
‘unite’ here, as far as Mahathir is concerned, he means under the
banner of Umno of course.

Mahathir tried everything. He declared that the Chinese are
Communists and asked them to go back to China if they prefer speaking
Mandarin to Malay. He cried during the Umno General Assembly and
accused the Malays of forgetting (Melayu mudah lupa). He got the MCA
Youth Leader, Lee Kim Sai, to raise ‘sensitive’ issues so that the
Umno Youth Leader, Najib Tun Razak, could retaliate by brandishing a
keris and threaten to bathe it in Chinese blood.

But nothing Mahathir tried worked. The Malays still remained divided;
between Umno and PAS, then Semangat 46 joined the fray, and when
Semangat 46 exited, in came keADILan.

Pak Lah realises it is not easy to unite the Malays. Mahathir’s
failure to do so has proven this. In the past it was easier. In the
past it was just about race. Today it is even harder. Today, there
are many other issues such as fundamental rights, democracy, freedom
of expression, transparency, independence of the media and judiciary,
corruption, police high-handedness, and many other ‘western’ issues
and values that educated and ‘modern’ Malays now hold dear.

But there is one thing that can unite the Malays, which Mahathir
failed to exploit. And this one thing overrides race, language, civil
rights, freedom, and every issue you can think of, even economic
issues. And this one thing is religion, meaning of course Islam.

Pak Lah started by introducing his brand of moderate or ‘civilised’
Islam called Islam Hadhari. Of course, some Umno leaders are still
confused about the concept and think that hadhari means had hari
(restricted at daytime) and tiada had malam (no restrictions at
night). That is why they are caught in vice raids in the middle of
the night and never in the daytime.

Islam Hadhari was not working out as well as they had hoped. It
became the target of ridicule and was not being taken seriously, even
by Umno members. Clearly Islam Hadhari was proving a failure and was
not uniting the Malays as anticipated. They needed to do more. And
the ‘more’ would be to create an impression that Islam is under
attack from the non-Muslims.

This tactic worked in 1969 when the ruling party almost received a
trouncing in the May 11 general election. Malays had united with non-
Malays to give the Alliance Party a run for its money. So they needed
an issue that would make the Malays come back together again. So the
13 May 1969 race riot was engineered to create an illusion that the
Malays were under attack. And it did bring the Malays together again.
In fact, it even resulted in PAS, Umno’s mortal enemy, joining the
new ruling coalition called Barisan Nasional that practically rose
from the ashes of the Alliance Party like the legendary Phoenix.

Today it is no longer about race of course, like in 1969. That is not
strong enough and cannot work anymore. Today it is about religion. It
is about Islam. And Islam, the religion of the Malays, is under
attack, just like the economy of the Malays was in 1969.

Is it seditious of me to say this? No, not seditious, but the truth.
And the Muslims and non-Muslims in Malaysia had better wake up to
this reality. May 13 was engineered. The racial tension between MCA
Youth and Umno Youth prior to Operasi Lalang was engineered. Do you
think all these happened by accident or were spontaneous? No way! It
was staged and well-planned.

May 13 was staged. Have no doubts about this. I am not saying this.
Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia’s First Prime Minister and Bapa Merdeka
(Father of Independence), said so. And would Tunku Abdul Rahman lie?

The prelude to Operasi Lalang was also staged. Lee Kim Sai set the
mood to enable Najib Razak to retaliate. After that Lee Kim Sai was
advised to leave the country and go hide in Australia for awhile
while the government cleaned up the country with the arrest and
detention of more than 100 political activists, dissidents within
Umno, and opposition leaders. Lee Kim Sai and Najib Razak, the
initiators of the crisis, were not amongst those more than 100 who
were detained.

Twenty years on and we are seeing a repeat of the days before Operasi
Lalang, except it is now more serious than the era of Operasi Lalang.
It started with the Moorthy case. Even Muslims feel that Moorthy’s
widow was shoddily treated by a high-handed religious department.

Moorthy’s widow tried seeking redress in a civil court and was asked
to go to the syariah court instead. The syariah court, in turn, told
her that as a non-Muslim she has no business in a syariah court. This
is not true. In the past, non-Muslims have appeared in syariah courts
to testify as expert witnesses. So, where does she go to then?
Nowhere! She has absolutely no recourse to legal redress.

In retaliation, the non-Muslims organised a month-long candlelight
vigil in front of the court as a mark of protest. This protest was
jointly supported by those from the opposition as well as the
government.

To demonstrate that the non-Muslims are united and that this unity
cuts across all political boundaries, nine non-Muslim Ministers in
Pak Lah’s government sent him a Memorandum last Thursday calling for
a review of laws that affect the rights of non-Muslims. The ministers
were Datuk Dr Leo Michael Toyad (Tourism Minister), Datuk Seri Ong Ka
Ting (Housing and Local Government), Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy
(Transport), Datuk Seri Dr Fong Chan Onn (Human Resources), Datuk Dr
Chua Soi Lek (Health), Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu (Works), Datuk Seri
Dr Lim Keng Yaik (Energy, Water and Communications), Datuk Peter Chin
(Plantation Industries and Commodities), Tan Sri Bernard Dompok and
Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili (Ministers in the Prime Minister's
Department). The opposition Ministers too would have joined this
group of nine government Ministers if only there were opposition
Ministers.

Then, in retaliation, PAS organised a protest demonstration after
last Friday’s congregational prayers at the National Mosque (Masjid
Negara). Many in Umno, though they do not openly say so, support this
PAS effort. This is not about politics. It is about Islam. Did not
the DAP and those non-Muslims from opposition keADILan support and
participate in the candlelight vigil protesting Islam? And are not
the nine non-Muslim Ministers from the government?

The non-Muslims are united across political boundaries. So are the
Muslims. It is no longer government vs. opposition. It is Muslim vs.
non-Muslim. Yes, unity at last. The government and opposition non-
Muslims are united against Islam. So the government and opposition
Muslims must unite as well in defence of Islam.

Fantastic! The plan worked beautifully. If only Mahathir had tried
this, instead of crying at the Umno General Assembly, he would have
succeeded in uniting the Malays.

Today, many in Umno are saying that their differences with PAS need
to be brushed aside. PAS and Umno, plus those Muslims in keADILan,
need to come together. There is a bigger issue in hand than mere
politics. Islam is under attack. Just go into the Internet and see
for yourself. Islam is being ridiculed and challenged, even here in
Malaysia Today. The non-Muslims have demonstrated they can put
politics aside and unite when it comes to opposing Islam. The Muslims
from the government and opposition must also do the same in facing
this challenge from the non-Muslims.

Pak Lah has two options available to him. He can let the present
conflict escalate into something bigger, even at the risk of it
turning into something more serious -- whereby the Malays would
become united in the face of a common enemy -- or he can nip this
whole thing in the bud with another Operasi Lalang -- whereby things
would all go back to normal and the Malays would revert to disunity.

I wonder which option Pak Lah will choose. In the meantime,
Malaysians from both sides of the religious divide are playing right
into Umno’s hands. Even the Federal Territory Religious Department
(JAWI) tried defying Pak Lah’s government by ignoring the cabinet
decision that the Putrajaya Snoop Squad be disbanded. And the more
Muslims and non-Muslims fight with each other, the more Umno wins.
Finally, Malaysia will be divided along the lines of Muslims and non-
Muslims. But at least the Malays would once again be united.

Clever! Very clever indeed! You can certainly fool all the people
some of the time. If you ask me, Pak Lah is actually smarter than he
looks. Even Mahathir could not have come up with this brilliant idea
on how to unite the Malays. Would we see PAS eventually rejoining
Barisan Nasional in the interest of defending Islam against attack by
the non-Muslims? Would Malaysian politics revert to what it used to
be: opposition means non-Malay and government means Malay. Well, you
never know. If the non-Muslims keep this up, they could actually help
restore Malay unity. The ball is at the feet of the non-Muslims I
suppose. However, on the other hand, if the non-Muslims now decide to
back off, it would be a case of ‘heads I win, tails you lose’.