YOURSAY ‘Umno controls the Malays by keeping them in the religious prison.’

Zaid: M'sian leaders fear Muslims becoming clever

Wiser: So is it not true that in the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed monster is king? Former minister Zaid Ibrahim, are you saying that there is no one-eyed monster, but it is really the learned, perfectly visioned leaders within Umno who are keeping the Muslims from being clever? If so, the system is heading for doomsville.

The Analyser: The situation is not as simple as Zaid would have us believe. The problem is not one of lack of cleverness as there are plenty of clever Malays. Often their cleverness is misdirected and shows up as sewer rats cunning in their pursuit of power.

The basic problem is fear. In Southeast Asia, for 500 years Islam has used fear to induce young children into believing and not questioning. That's 1,500 generations of non-questioning parents raising non-questioning children and 1,500 generations of parents and teachers feeding incorrect platitudes to children.

If you think Malays will break out of that rut in a few short years, when their dogma is constantly being reinforced by schools, universities, TV and brainwashers like the National Civics Bureau (BTN), then you must be a super optimist. But you have to start somewhere. The question is where?

Pemerhati: When talking about the Malays and Muslims in Malaysia, Zaid said, "All they know how to do now is accept blindly all the rituals that have been approved by Jakim... but this will not trigger the active mind that is needed to make Muslims clever and creative”.

Umno has this magic slogan ‘untuk bangsa, ugama dan negara’ with which it gets the support of the majority of Malays.

Now, if some liberals and other thinkers make the Malays realise that their religious texts can be interpreted in many other ways, they may become like many Western Christians who have dumped their religion and this will be bad for Umno because they will not be able to easily influence the Malays to get their electoral support and their current 47 percent support may even plunge further.

So, Umno needs to control the Malays by keeping them in the religious prison by using the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim) and the sultans as the prison guards. However, some prison guards are known to break Islamic rules with impunity, such as committing khalwat, etc.

Swipenter: What the Umno Baru government, and even PAS, find difficult to handle they ban or urge them to be banned. This has been going on for ages. In fact this is one of the hallmarks of the Umno Baru/BN government, as well as PAS.

Books, films, street dancing, miniskirts, lipstick, high heels, co-mingling of male and females, peaceful public gatherings, dissenting views, etc. No wonder multinational corporations (MNCs) and employers are complaining that many Malaysians, especially those who have no exposure outside the country, lack critical thinking skills, writing skills and speaking skills.

Anonymous #03815719: Dear Zaid, what else can I say, rather than to say, “You are very truthful, and it’s the real happenings to the Malay Muslims in this country".

Except for a few NGOs, most Malay Muslim NGOs are led by highly educated people, who seems to be not using their mind to think, except to churn out venom. It might be their upbringing is not right, for them money is all that matters.

Look at the behaviour of our Malay Muslim brothers at the Speakers Corner in Penang the other day. Why should they be so aggressive to the well-mannered group of people, if not for the money the are receiving. They are real thugs. Leaders should not condone such behaviour and the police should not let these thugs go free.

Kamikasi: During the early period of many Third World countries, the governments of the respective countries, including America, Italy and whatnot, engaged the services of gangsters to help the ruling governments to quash dissent. As time went by, these groups became strong and started to demand their "gifts" for the services rendered.

Upon the failure of the government to give in to the demands, these groups started to blackmail the government. Thus the beginning of a failed state. This trend is becoming obvious in the Malaysian political scene. Even more alarming is that they are using Islam as their tool.

Sadly, the Islamic NGOs are practically unIslamic in every way; their actions, repulsive words and smells of tobacco all over when they storm any civil gatherings. They function like gangsters or "kaki pukul" for you-know-who. To all peaceful and right-thinking Malaysians, we are seeing the beginning of a rogue state.

Anonymous_3f4b: When Zaid quit PKR these Pakatan pakatoons called him a traitor and Umno spy in the closet who deserved to be sacked. Now he is out without a party and criticising Umno and these pakatoons are full of praises for him and laud him for being wise and correct. This shows the type of political times and people we have - all hypocrites and who only live for the moment.

For me, Zaid is the consummate politician, a moderate, educated, liberal, astute, intelligent and world savvy and fit to lead a government better than most of the Pakatoon leaders around and the imbecile and shallow-minded Umno ministers.

Sa tombs: Well said, Zaid ! This is exactly what Dr Mahathir Mohamad has been saying for a long, long time but Umno was too dense to hear and understand wisdom. It is stated very clearly that the god of this world would shut the minds of these people because he wants them to follow his chosen ones against the Almighty God.

Hplooi: Thank you, Datuk. Has the average Malaysian school boy/girl ever heard of Socrates? Or Plato? Despite what many Muslims think, the very foundations of modern ideas (including Islamic and Christian epistemology) have their roots in philosophers of ancient Greece. For example, the teleological argument of "being" (and creation) started more than 2,000 years ago and is still on-going (a 2,000-year-old debate)...

So be careful, Datuk. Too much knowledge may be dangerous. Ahem... words too bombastic ? just Google teleology or searchYouTube if you are too lazy to read.

OSAMA: Zaid will be next on the sedition list, but I am sure he will relish his time in court, defending himself. While he may have failed in politics, he is certainly leading the thinking leadership in this country.

Shibboleth: Datuk , bravo for writing without a condom on your pen. Now, match it with your deeds.

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