ABU message : Dont fall for the MCA hudud bogeyman

“Islam is the official religion and we are an Islamic state” – Najib, then DPM, on 17th July, 2007, as reported in Malaysiakini.

“I think my colleagues in the government will forgive me for saying that I will not agree that we are an Islamic state,” – Bernard Dompok,  almost 3 week after Najib’s statement, and also reported in Malaysiakini.

Where was MCA then, when Najib made his pronouncement?

Where was MCA when Dr M declared our nation an Islamic country back in September, 2001?

Last Saturday, Selangor MCA boss, Donald Lim pledged that MCA will stem creeping Islamisation in Selangor should BN recapture the state. Malaysiakini has the report HERE.

“MCA will continue to defend the interest of the Chinese and will never let Selangor become an Islamic state. This will also not happen in any state and the country that is governed by the BN. This is our promise to the Selangor people”, Donald is reported to have said.

He cited as an example of Islamisation in Selangor under the present Pakatan state government, the recent attempt by the Kuala Selangor town council to have gender-segregated seating in cinemas.

You may recall that this had not been approved by the state government, which immediately ordered the town council to freeze the implementation of this move.

In fairness to the state government, and as observed by MCA’s Sungai Pelek state assemblyperson Yap Ee Wah, this was a matter of certain local councillors going overboard and making such rulings on their own in the local council. Malaysiakini has that report HERE.

Well, maybe Donald or anyone else in MCA would like to tell us what they did to check on the creeping Islam – as I say -tion, at the instance of UMNO-led BN, in 2007, when :-

• a proposal to improve the election process by the introduction of the use of indelible ink had to be first approved by the Fatwa Council ;
• Jakim raided and  seizure property at restaurants in Bangsar ;
• a church of an Orang Asli settlement in Gua Musang was demolished ;
• numerous Hindu temple demolitions occurred ; and
• there was a move to set up religious vigilante groups.

When viewed in this context, it might seem that MCA’ s recent posturing as the vanguard against moves to turn Malaysia into an Islamic state can be summarily dismissed as cheap talk that no one in their right mind is going to fall for.

I hear, though, that down south, in Johor, MCA is taking a different approach in pushng the hudud bogeyman to the Chinese community.

Aided, no doubt, by PAS’s Nasharuddin’s recent instigations,  calling on the PAS leadership to clarify if they are still committed to implementing hudud in the country.

Aided, too, by ex-DAP Tunku Aziz’s sinister and deliberate move to cause alarm amongst non-Muslim voters by contending, amongst others, that ‘It is certain that if a new opposition government rides to power, the party of god would want to exert its influence to set up an Islamic state where hudud would have full play. This is unacceptable because the votes of non-Muslims should not be interpreted as an endorsement of the religious platform of a hudud-driven party’.

Read the entirety of his article, carried in FMT, carefully, and you will discover the subtle message intended for consumption by non-Muslim readers.

Tunku’s message seems to be that vote for a change of government come the 13th GE and prepare to be subjected to hudud law!

So what has MCA been spewing in Johor to get the Chinese all fretting about hudud dictating their way of life if Pakatan comes to power?

I had a late supper with Hawkeye last Tuesday night.

He’d spent the Raya weekend in JB, and did the usual round of open house visits.

Seems MCA accepts that it is futile to deny  that BN is corrupt to the core.

So they are telling the Chinese that bribing to get things done has always been the Chinese way to get things done and that for most Chinese, it has proven to be effective in advancing their businesses. And  now, suddenly, the Chinese want a corruption-free government? Vote BN out and Pakatan in? Get rid of corruption and trade the same for hudud? Is that what the Chinese want?

And to lend some credence to this dire warning, create a little drama so that MCA can flex its anti hudud muscle for the Chinese community to take in.

Enter Umno’s Kemelah state assemblyman Ayub Rahmat and his proposal during the 20th June 20 sitting of the Johor state assembly that Johor  become the first state to implement “true hudud”, which he claimed would differ from PAS’s version, in that it would apply to the adherents of all religions would be subjected to it in Johor.

Part two of the drama : enter hudud slayer Chua Soi Lek, putting his foot down on any suggestion that hudud will be inflicted upon non-Muslims.
Malaysianinsider has the report HERE.

Chua Junior gets in on the act and warns that MCA would leave the Barisan Nasional coalition if Umno tries to implement hudud. FMT has the story HERE.

So what’s MCA really saying?

Vote BN and MCA will make sure UMNO never implements hudud.

Vote Pakatan and who’s to stop PAS implementing hudud?

Time for a reality check, folks.

Things as they are right now, could either UMNO or PAS, alone, implement hudud, or move to make Malaysia an Islamic state, whatever that phrase might mean?

I’ll say no to that question, and here’s why.

Post 12th GE, UMNO won 79 parliamentary seats.

By itself, it could not even form a government, much less move to implement hudud.

PAS won 23.

Need I say more on PAS going it alone to implement hudud?

What about PAS acting in combination with others? Could they then implement hudud?

Idiot PAS Ulama chief Harun Taib things thinks it can be done.

“We will implement hudud and amend the constitution even if (it is) not with the current partners we have in Pakatan (Rakyat)… Maybe there will be other pacts that will lend us their support,”, Malaysiakini reports him saying.

He’s talking rubbish and here’s why.

Lets use the 12th GE results again.

UMNO’s 79 parliamentary seats includes its 13 in Sabah

Even a combination of the seats of UMNO and PAS would not have been enough to form the government.

A PAS-UMNO merger would leave them with 102 seats.

They would still need MCA’s 15 seats and MIC’s 3 to give them a simple majority government of 120 seats in parliament.

And with hudud and an Islamic state as their stated agenda, could it be expected that the non-Muslim BN component parties in Sabah and Sarawak will remain in the coalition, or align with those who will oppose this move?

I think the latter is the more likely.

Islamic state aspirations will require a 2/3 majority in parliament.

An UMNO-PAS move to establish an Islamic state would require that they command 148 seats in parliament to make the requisite constitutional amendments.

Co-opt 28 Muslim frogs from PKR?

Well, do a quick count and there are only 16 Muslim PKR MPs now ( 18 if Zul Nordin and Zahrain hadn’t froggied last year ) out of a total of 31 when the results were announced.

Even if all hopped over to the UMNO-PAS pro-hudud newly formed coalition, working with the treacherous MCA and MIC MPs, that would give them in all, 136 seats in parliament.

138 if you include Zul and Zahrain.

139 with Ibrahim Ali.

1 less than what the BN government has now!

So how to amend the constitution and make this an Islamic state and impose hudud, lah, Harun Taib?

How, lah, MCA?

What if PAS increases its number of seats in parliament at the 13th GE, some of you might ask.

Well, for every additional seat PAS win, chalk it down as a loss for UMNO.

Their combined total will not, therefore, differ significantly.

As things stand, we have no reason to fret about hudud being implemented post the 13th GE.

Folks, if I have made sense, please share this with your non-Muslim friends.

Posted in: 13th General Elections, Asalkan Bukan UMNO, Dishonest politicians