COMMENT When I wrote the article, ‘I defend Ali Tinju’ yesterday, an anonymous reader just shot a very crude question, “so what’s your point?”

The point is that my observations are accurate and based on facts - that our leaders appear to have lost the moral ground to lead the civil society. They are willing to do anything just to stay in power.

They appear to be doing nothing about people whom we would otherwise label as thugs, who are frequently seen as agitators in our current political landscape.

If you listen to Mohd Ali Baharom or Ali Tinju’s YouTube video again, you will see a man who is fearful of death, yet on the other hand, he claims to have many foot soldiers who will obey his commands.

They are willing to do even those shameful acts like butt dancing that no true Muslim would even think of doing such a thing to two noble ladies and fellow Malaysians - Maria Chin Abdullah and Ambiga Sreeneevasan.

These thug-like characters which also include Ali Tinju himself are out there thinking that they have a “sacred” task of protecting their leaders. Although the names of these leaders have been dragged into public disgrace on a number of occasions, they no longer care. As long as there are people willing to die for them, they will remain silent, even when lives of ordinary citizens are being threatened.

As long as they stay in power, there are people who are willing to die for them, but what if they are no longer in power, who would bother about them? They no longer care for the good names of their political parties. We criticise because we see things are not going in the right direction, and deep down in each of us, we want things to improve for the better.

But all that some leaders care for is to remain in power. So what if Jamal Mohd Yunos is the Sungai Besar Umno chief? So what if Ali Tinju is also a fellow Umno member? Unless they are backed by certain powerful individuals, they would not be at odds with each other even to the point of threatening their opponents with a gun. If ordinary people do what they do, they would have been arrested.

Politicians care for their own survival

Therefore, when a seminar was organised last night to discuss PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang’s private member’s bill, I could only make one simple conclusion.

While to some, there may be concerted efforts by the Islamic Development Department of Malaysia (Jakim) to introduce Shariah laws in the country, to me, it was a red herring to distract people’s attention from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal and the Goods and Services Taxes (GST).

Politicians care for their own survival instead of the good of the country.

We have already seen that during the period of the last by-elections, when Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Azalina Othman Said suddenly stood up to table the bill. The move was clearly to whip up support for Umno and PAS against Amanah.

In a three-cornered fight for Malay votes, Hadi’s private member’s bill was apparently a good strategy to test the waters during the last by-elections. Now that they know the outcome of the Malay votes, come the general election, Umno will not hesitate to whip up its support for the bill again because the Shariah laws are still close to the hearts of rural Malays.

It no longer cares for the non-Muslim Barisan Nasional component parties any more. Even if the other component parties lost the seats, with the support from PAS, Umno thinks that it can still remain in power.

And an opportunistic party like PAS hopes that it will once again ride into the corridors of power to push for the implementation of more Islamic laws.

Unless, of course - I tell you what!

Speaker after speaker at the seminar had addressed Hadi’s private member’s bill from different perspectives. But, what matters the most is the voices of the people of this country. As Edmund Burke had once said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

The question was asked: “What do we do about Hadi’s bill?” My answer is very simple. Go to the social media, and on it, post your unhappiness to as many people as you possibly can, about the way how Umno and the BN government is dancing to the tune of Hadi Awang to implement what many of us are concerned about the outcome of the amendment to the Shariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 in relation to enhancing their punishment provisions.

Remember there are big analytics, a modern tool that the government has used to study the trend of how its past slogans fared during past election campaigns. Is this one reason why 1Malaysia is no longer talked about, since it received such wide criticisms from both sides of the political divides Even a small comment posted on Facebook counts and helps the politicians realise that they would lose votes if they continue in a certain direction.

At the end of the day, everything boils down to the votes that they can garner from each effort, whether it is using intimidating tactics or other political ploys. And Hadi’s bill is no different. It has the emotivity to attract votes. They will use it once again in the coming parliamentary sitting.

If it is passed in Parliament, it is too bad for a few unfortunate scapegoats. And we have ourselves to blame for not making enough noise to gain attention. The countermeasure that ordinary citizens can give to such political ploys is to deny them of our votes and let them know what they are losing if they choose to go down the path of amending the Shariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965.

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.