The Outdated Hadi

Nanyang Siang Pau, 12-05-2016

Two or three days before the voting of the Sarawak election, the PAS President Hadi Awang said that the Sarawakian Chief Minister has to be a bumiputra Muslim and his party rejects non-Muslim to hold this position.

Sarawak remains to be “a place with no seat” for PAS until today. This shows that the people of this state don’t care about PAS at all. What rights does Hadi Awang have to speak on behalf of the Sarawakian Muslims? The Sarawakians have the decision-making right to choose the Sarawakian Chief Minister and Hadi Awang doesn’t have any standing to simply make any remark.

On the other hand, we cannot say that Hadi Awang is making such a remark just to get votes for the PAS candidates. It is his usual mindset to make extreme remarks about stripping other races of their rights. He has a track record on this. This is because since the 12th general election in 2008, Hadi Awang has thrown the welfare state that he was advocating before the election out of the window and changed his course to discuss mainly about Islamic state. After the 13th general election, Hadi Awang’s religious remarks that are rather extreme have only increased in number. He has also said that his only goal is building an Islamic state. This has caused some of the party members who are more open-minded and concerned of the multi-religion reality to leave the party and created Parti Amanah.

The PAS troops defeated like a landside

In other words, Hadi Awang’s mindset is indeed getting more religious and racist. The older he gets, the more his mindset rejects other religion and races.

However, Hadi Awang has exceeded his own place and meddled in other people’s affair this time. His operation of “defending the rights” of the East Malaysian bumiputra Muslims would not shine a good light on him. They wouldn’t appreciate his gesture and will laugh at him for wasting his effort.

Unsurprisingly, PAS troops were defeated like a landslide in this election and got a big zero.

In fact, East Malaysian Muslims’ dedication towards religion and the duty of believers is very different. The things that the West Malaysian Muslims definitely wouldn’t accept would be acceptable to East Malaysian Muslims. The pasar in West Malaysia that sells pork must be fenced and not let the Muslims see it. On the other hand, the East Malaysian Muslims can sit together with non-Muslims and have meals. They wouldn’t mind when the non-Muslims consume pork and they would be just natural in conversing.

An East Malaysian Muslim can work in a Chinese temple for few decades and the Muslims would not boycott him and he would still be a Muslim. West Malaysia wouldn’t allow such a thing to happen.

The East Malaysian Muslims can park their cars and bikes around the churches, and have no taboo of walking under the crucifix. But once the West Malaysian Muslims see the crucifix or something similar to the crucifix then they would start to protest.

Therefore, there is a big difference between the East and West Malaysian Muslims on how to fulfil the religious duties and even what amounts to a pious believer. The East Malaysian Muslims wouldn’t reject other religion and have tolerance. It is guaranteed that they can accept non-Muslims to be the Chief Minister. So since when Hadi Awang can object to this?

The differences in race and religion are expanding

For over fifty years, the non-Muslims who are majority can accept Muslims to be Sarawakian Chief Minister so why can’t Hadi Awang accept non-Muslim to hold this position? He is too petty and his mindset is outdated. Our country has been founded for 60 years but the race and religion colours are thicker than 60 years ago. The differences are expanding. This is because there are people like Hadi Awang who encourages racial and religious mindset, and keep on emphasising the differences of one and another.

On the contrary, the people in London who are majority Christian have elected a Muslim as their mayor. This shows that the people of London are the same as the Sarawakian non-Muslims in having great tolerance and it also reflects the petty mindset of Hadi Awang.

Original Source: 落伍的哈迪阿旺