JUNE 3 — In a peculiar little sideshow on Friday, two pro-Malay activists were forced to lodge police reports to deny their involvement alleged death threats and a declaration of war against the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government.
In a viral Facebook post, a man calling himself “Ayahanda Fadzley Mohd Yusof” claimed Malaysia is currently plagued by conflict from a witch-hunt.
The post called for “Zionist” Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to be thrown in jail, labelled Defence Minister Mat Sabu a “clown”, and claimed Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail to be unfit for her deputy prime minister post because she is a woman.
The post claimed to have received the support of notorious pro-Malay vigilante groups and thugs — including the now fugitive Jamal Yunos and his Red Shirts, Pekida, and the Malaysian Muslim Consumers’ Association (PPIM) — against Dr Mahathir and other PH leaders, and called for the return of Barisan Nasional (BN).
Rani Kulup Abdullah, a character famous for holding the record for most police reports lodged, made (yet another) police report claiming his group Martabat Jalinan Muhibbah Malaysia was wrongly linked with that group.
One Fadzley Mohd Yusof has also lodged a separate report, claiming the viral post was not from him as he is a PH supporter himself, and he has now himself had his safety threatened. It could not be ascertained whether Fadzley did or did not make the threat.
While the ending was definitely anti-climactic — and for good reason — this serves as a reminder of the sentiment gurgling among some in the Malay-Muslim community.
If you feel that there has been an increase in racial and religious discontent this past week, you are not really alone.
On Monday, a group calling itself Hindraf 2.0 delivered 25 demands to the Institutional Reforms Committee to improve the lives and livelihood of poor ethnic Indians.
Among the demands were land schemes, education opportunities, business licences, and repatriation of illegal foreign workers — but one demand caught the most attention: opening up Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) to everyone, and not just the Bumiputeras.
It received the wrath of the UiTM alumni association, which is usually silent on many other issues. A petition was started to oppose the demand.
Umno-owned paper Utusan Malaysia used the front page to oppose the demand, proclaiming “Do not try to touch the rights of the Malays.” A report cited former UiTM vice-chancellor Ibrahim Abu Shah accusing the group of trying to bully the Malays.
“The situation in Malaysia right now will make the Malay majority bullied and their rights oppressed without shame by the minorities,” Ibrahim reportedly said.
Imagine that? Being someone from the majority group with a position of authority, and still feeling like you are being “bullied” by one of the most marginalised groups in the country?
Besides unfair comparison with vernacular schools — which up until now has always remained open to Malays — some have also pointed to historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) in the US to support keeping UiTM closed to non-Bumiputera.
It turned out to be a tragic comparison, as HBCU were mostly started as a way to segregate African-Americans from white colleges. And even HBCU have started opening their doors to other ethnicities since 1960s when segregation policies were scrapped. Now, some HBCUs even have as much as 90 per cent non-black students.
It remains a travesty and an irony that UiTM accepts international students, but not its own Malaysians.
Dr Mahathir’s brief announcement of a committee to review and reform federal Islamic body Jakim has also riled up others unused to having their privileges examined.
PAS leaders Nasrudin Hassan and Ahmad Dusuki Rani lamented that Jakim was to be reviewed, but vices such as 4-D games Sports Toto and Magnum could remain — a laughably false equivalent, considering one of them does not force Malaysians into playing, nor does it bleed money from the nation’s coffers. Spoiler alert: it is not Jakim.
Several Malay media have also carried responses by some clerics opposing the abolishment of Jakim.
In a now deleted tweet, Puteri Umno chief Mas Ermieyati Samsudin said she would “do anything” to prevent the abolishment of Jakim and closure of tahfiz schools.
If you have paid attention so far, you should realise by now that nobody, not from PH nor the government, has called for Jakim to be abolished, what more tahfiz schools. Any claims of such was nothing more than fear-mongering.
It is undeniable that in a country with a sizeable Muslim population, a federal agency of Islamic affairs is useful for seemingly petty tasks such as standardising prayer times, halal certification, regulation of mosques and religious teachers, and administering pilgrimages and tithes.
What it does not deserve is being put under the Prime Minister’s Department, nor being made a tool for a ruling government to use Islam to control and manipulate its citizens. Nor should it be allowed to go rogue and dictate anti-human rights and anti-liberalism policies, in a bid to further the Islamist lobby’s agenda.
And it surely does not deserve its inflated annual budget of around RM800 million, only to have its attention focused on “converting” the LGBT, as well as inspecting the genitals of genderqueer celebrities.
After three weeks of efficient house-cleaning and setting a new path of Malaysia, it is understandable that PH has touched a nerve with those who are resistant to change.
For too long, the status quo has been comfortable with their privileges protected, and abused their positions endorsed by BN. Now the rug has been pulled from under their feet, and calls for equality feel too much like oppression to this privileged lot.
The next challenge for PH would be not only to continue, but succeed with their reforms within their first term, while at the same time preventing such divisive and malicious ethno-religious sentiments from flaring up by the next polls.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
