“Man and fascism cannot co-exist. If fascism conquers, man will cease to exist and there will remain only man-like creatures that have undergone an internal transformation. But if man, man who is endowed with reason and kindness, should conquer, then fascism must perish, and those who have submitted to it will once again become people.”

― Vasily Grossman, ‘Life and Fate’

COMMENT | What does the Malay ruling establishment and the Islamic Development Department (Jakim) think about Perlis mufti Asri Zainul Abidin’s comment that the loser of the debate between Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy and Indian Muslim preacher Zakir Naik, “dihantar pulang ke India seperti yang menjadi hasrat mereka”?

Well, I know for a fact that Zakir Naik does not want to be sent home to India and Ramasamy is a citizen of this country, so what is the establishment stand on the racist remarks of the Perlis mufti towards a Malaysian citizen? Does this challenge our value system?

Also, who judges this stupid debate? How would we know who “won” the debate? And why even talk about the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)?

Wouldn’t it be easier for Asri to point to comments made by Ramasamy about his religion (Islam) which could be deemed “extremist”? Would it be easier to point to Ramasamy's long career and public record of his comments to demonstrate that he is a hate monger? I mean that is what people are accusing Zakir Naik of, right?

But that’s not all of it. Where is the outrage in the Malay/Muslim establishment on the death threats and worse, threats legitimising the murder of a Malaysian politician? If this happened before the election, the opposition would have been up in arms. Indeed, we would have the “true Muslim” members of Pakatan Harapan coming to the aid of their comrade and talking about how unIslamic these types of threats were.

These days, it would seem when it comes to these types of provocations, the ruling establishment is silent. Since Harapan took over, we have had provocateurs at Kampung Manjoi, a prime minister hopeful telling us not to spook the Malays, a mufti telling a deputy chief minister of a state to leave the country if he loses a rigged debate and of course, a Malay politician threatened with death because of the fake news that she wants to destroy an Islamic institution.

We are supposed to believe that this is a normal situation? We are supposed to not draw attention to this because the hard work of saving Malaysia means we have to put up with this horse manure?

You know what I really cannot understand about this whole Zakir Naik tension...