RAJA PETRA : THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

5/12: The tried and tested route of history
Category: Articles
Posted by: raja petra
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Why has Malaysia Today not written anything about
the HINDRAF rally of 25 November 2007? Why is
Raja Petra keeping so quiet? Why no comment? The
silence is deafening! Does Raja Petra and
Malaysia Today support or oppose the Hindu
demands?

Yes, I have been inundated by questions,
questions and yet more questions. The fact that
80% to 90% of Malaysia Today’s news, letters,
articles and blog items are about the HINDRAF
rally and the plight of the Indians do not seem
to matter. That is what others say. We want to
know what Raja Petra and Malaysia Today have to
say, came back the reply.

Well, I thought I would allow all and sundry to
get in their two cents worth before I deliver my
K.O. punch. If I make my move too early, then
this would enable the ‘other side’ to modify
their stance. Why reveal what I have up my sleeve
too early? Let them ‘habis modal’ (can translate
to ‘spent force’) first before I show the cards
in my hand. Once they have thrown everything onto
the table and have nothing left to offer, that
will be when I will wham-bam my cards and take
them for all they are worth. I will strip them
down to their underpants and send them home in
their seluar dalam.

And that time is now. But before that, read this
e-mail which has been making its rounds in an
attempt to stir up Malay nationalism and Islamic
sentiments:
#####
ANWAR IBRAHIM - HINDRAF No. 1 FAN

The Muslim community is now closely observing the
actions of the movers and shakers of Hindraf, a
small group of Hindus who are about on creating
chaos in the country whilst maintaining the
parade of championing racial and religious
sentiments. In fighting for and defending the
construction of Hindu temples, they have forsaken
all sense of decency towards the others races in
this country. What is the measure of their
decency when they falsely allege that the
government massacred 100 Indians during Kampung
Medan incident in the year 2000?

Whilst keeping an eye on the antics of this
group, the country was shocked when Anwar Ibrahim
approached them from behind and delivered a
speech motivating the 1500 odd Hindraf supporters
who were congregating in front of the Kelang
court house on 26 November 2007. Anwar urged them
to continue with their struggle in defending
their religion and the temple issue. That is
Anwar, always striking while the iron is hot.

Likewise, during the Bersih street demonstration
of 10 November 2007, Anwar made hay while the sun
shone by making an appearance at the rally, when
the coast was already clear and took over the
lead in the handover of the memorandum to palace
officials. That made the other opposition leaders
look idiotic. They slugged hard, braved the rain
and skirmished with the authorities. In the end,
Anwar enjoyed the fruits of their labour, while
they must be content with only the skin of those
fruits.

That is Anwar! A politically- bankrupt ex-leader
who favours “rear entry” to whatever circumstance
he finds himself in. Weekly, in the “back”
ground, he meets with the Jews and reviles the
government, accusing them of being responsible
for the economic downturn of the country, among
other things.

He has conveniently forgotten that when he was
the finance minister, he agreed to sell out the
country when he proposed to accept the IMF
package. That is Anwar, the Machiavellian prince
with the motto, “the ends justify the means”. He
will do whatever it takes for him to crowned, in
this case, as the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

The silent majority of Malaysia make your stand
now! Do you want this Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Elam sponsored Hindraf to destroy the very fabric
of Malaysian society? Do you want this failed
finance minister who will stop at nothing and
won’t hesitate to employ whatever means necessary
to achieve his political ambitions to become our
leader? Malaysia you need to decide now!

Anwar - the future Hindraf Prime Minister
#####

Yes, that is the e-mail making its rounds, and
the ‘message’ dovetails with the statement by
Nazri Aziz that Anwar is the hidden hand behind
HINDAF. The Umno Youth Leader in turn says that
there are certain forces behind all the marches
recently organised -- from the Bar Council march
on 26 September, to the BERSIH march on 10
November, the HINDAF rally on 25 November, and of
course the Batu Burok rally earlier where two
people were shot. The talk amongst the Umno
circles in the coffee houses and Mamak shops is
that Singapore is behind all these rallies,
engineered to destabilise the government and to
bring about Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s downfall.

The so-called Singapore connection certainly
sounds far-fetched considering that Abdullah is
said to be working hand-in-glove with Singapore
and that the Singapore ‘plant’ in Abdullah’s
government is none other than his ‘economic
advisor’, Kalimullah. We can only assume that
this Singapore spin is designed to deflect
allegations that Singapore has infiltrated
Putrajaya and that ‘Tingkat 4’ drafts policies
favouring that tiny Island Republic. Whatever it
may be, the spin-doctoring machinery is working
overtime and the stories coming out of Umno are
meant to confuse rather than to inform.

Undoubtedly, much of what has been happening has
not been by perchance. If you think that Malaysia
has become a victim of circumstances and
coincidences, think again. There are engineers
and architects at play here. And the endgame is
simple; restore Malay unity.

As they say; why reinvent the wheel? Another
cliché: if it is not broken, why fix it? That’s
right; the best route is the tried and tested
route of history. And this tried and tested route
was proven on 13 May 1969, two days after the
ruling party lost its two-thirds majority in
Parliament and a few states fell to the
opposition. Today’s scenario is a duplicate of 11
May 1969. They do not need to wait for the
results of the 12th General Election to know what
the score is. If the 12th General Election is
held today, Kelantan, Terengganu, Penang and
Sabah will fall to the opposition while the
ruling party will loss its two-thirds majority in
Kedah, Perak, Selangor and Pahang.

And that is why the tenure of the Chairman of the
Elections Commission needs to be extended another
year when he retires at the end of this year.
Only he can ensure that the ruling party retains
control of Parliament and the State Assemblies
with a clear two-thirds majority. The postal
votes system can’t be abolished, the Chairman
replied indignantly, because that would be the
only way to ensure that none of the cabinet
ministers get kicked out of office. And when
asked is not the role of the Elections Commission
to conduct free and fair elections, he replied,
with maximum arrogance, that the role of the
Elections Commission is to ensure that the Malays
will not lose political domination. And as to why
the campaign period is so short instead of a
minimum of 21 days, he told the BERSIH delegation
that he does not have the authority to extend the
campaign period and if they are not happy with
that then go see the Agong and ask the Agong to
make the changes.

And so, true to the advice of the Chairman of the
Elections Commission, BERSIH took its case to the
Agong on 10 November 2007.

The government is worried. Umno has accused
BERSIH of ‘dragging’ the Agong into politics. But
the Agong is aware that it was the Chairman of
the Elections Commission who was the one who
brushed off BERSIH and told them to go see His
Majesty. And now the Chairman’s tenure of office
is about to expire in three weeks time. Will the
Agong consent to extending his tenure another
year so that he can rig the 12th General
Elections and make sure that the ruling party
wins, yet again, hands down? This is an unknown
factor. The Agong has already rejected the
extension of the tenure of the Chief Justice,
another crook. Chances are the Agong will also
reject the extension of the crooked Elections
Commission Chairman as well.

So they need to bypass the Agong. They need to
amend the law so that the tenure of the Elections
Commission Chairman can be extended without the
need to seek the consent of the Agong. And they
will do this on Tuesday, 11 December 2007. On
Tuesday, Parliament will pass a law allowing the
government to extend the tenure of the Elections
Commission Chairman another year beyond
retirement age. This will therefore make the
Agong irrelevant. The Agong’s consent will not be
required. The Agong can now be bypassed.

But this is still not enough. The Chinese appear
to have abandoned the government. The Sarawak
State Elections proved this. But the Malays are
split four ways. We have the PAS Malays. We have
the PKR Malays. We have the pro-Abdullah Ahmad
Badawi Umno Malays. Then we have the
anti-Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Umno Malays. At the
last count, the pro-Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Umno
Malays are down to 20%. 80% of the Malays are
with PAS, PKR, and sitting in the anti-Abdullah
Ahmad Badwi camp.

There are no two ways about it. The Abdullah camp
has to pull out another 13 May 1969 rabbit from
the hat. But they can’t wait for the results of
the general election before they do this like on
13 May 1969. That would be too obvious and too
risky. After all, they can already forecast the
result, so why wait? They can do that now. A
slight twist from 1969 -- instead of waiting for
the results, they can pre-empt the results. But
the strategy must be the same, unite the Malays.
Get the Malays to rally around one issue. Then
there will no longer be PAS Malays, PKR Malays,
Anti-Abdullah Umno Malays, and pro-Abdullah Umno
Malays. There will be only one group of Malays; a
group united under the threats and insolence of
the non-Malays.

In 1969, they thought they could contain the
fire. Today, they still think they can contain
the fire. In 1969, race riots actually broke out.
This time around it does not need to break out.
They can just suggest that it may break out and
then nip the whole thing in the bud by rounding
up all those ‘threats to national security’ under
the Internal Security Act. This worked 20 years
ago when they launched Operasi Lalang. Then, too,
the Malays were divided. And, 20 years ago, they
brought Malaysia to the brink of race riots and
then rounded up everyone under the Internal
Security Act and stopped the race riots before it
could happen. But at least the Malays reunited
under the ‘threat’ of the non-Malays -- a tried
and tested formula which works every time.

Ali Rustam was asked to clamp down on the pig
farmers in his state. When the Chinese fought
back, as they knew the Chinese would, that
triggered Malay anger. “They shoot Malays in
Terengganu but the Chinese are let off the hook,”
were the murmurings amongst the Malays. Then Ali
Rustam delivered a speech at the PPP state
convention and said that Umno does not need
Indian and Chinese support to stay in power. Umno
has ruled Malaysia for 50 years and can rule 50
years more without Indian and Chinese support, he
arrogantly declared to the assembly of Indians.

Then Khir Toyo demolished a Hindu temple in his
state and that triggered Indian anger. The
HINDRAF petition to the Queen was mooted. Someone
slipped in that most controversial petition that
talked about ethnic cleansing and which called
for an end to policies favouring the Malays. The
HINDRAF committee never got to read the petition.
Those 30,000 who came out that Sunday, 25
November 2007, did not know what the petition was
all about. Many were not even aware of the
existence of a petition. They were told that they
are rallying in support of the trillions being
claimed from the British government. Every
Malaysian Indian is going to become a
millionaire. They came out on the promise of the
money. They were not aware that in the background
was this most controversially- worded petition
which would trigger the anger of the Malays and
unite them all under Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Now the HINDRAF committee thinks that the
petition was a mistake. They agree that the
petition could have been better-worded. Granted,
the Indians’ plight needs to be addressed. But
words such as ‘ethnic cleansing’ and whacking the
Malays across-the-board will not achieve what
they are looking for. How did all that get
slipped in? Who slipped it in? Why did no one
notice? In all that euphoria why did one man
handle the petition instead of the HINDRAF
committee, which should have been the one that
makes the last call on what the petition should
have said?

Nevertheless, the focus was on crowd
mobilisation, not on what the petition said. And
that was what everyone concentrated on, not
realising that the petition would set HINDRAF
back in its efforts to highlight the plight of
the Indians. At 2.00am on Sunday, the crowd
started moving into Batu Caves. At 4.00am, when
the Indians tried to start their march, they were
pushed back into the temple grounds and the gates
locked. At 4.20am, MIC gave the order and the
water cannons started shooting into the temple
grounds with volley after volley of tear gas
until they ran out of stock. New supplies were
brought in and the shooting continued under the
watchful eyes of the MIC Youth Movement which was
‘directing’ the police operation.

Batu Burok is not the icing on the cake. The 10
November episode at Masjid India is also not the
icing on the cake. The 25 November battle is not
the icing on the cake either. The big bang is yet
to come. This ‘tension’ is yet to peak. And it
will peak when word that the government is going
to clamp down on un-Islamic religious symbols and
statues reaches the ears of Muslims and
non-Muslims alike.

On 25 May 2006, the Kudat Town Board sent Chong
Kah Kiat a letter ordering him to stop work on
the construction of the Goddess of the Sea statue
in Kudat, Sabah.

On 6 June 2006, Sabah’s Ministry of Local
Government and Housing sent the Kudat Town Board
a letter informing them that the Sabah Chief
Minister had ordered all work on the statue to
stop.

Then, a letter from the Chief Minister’s office
was issued on 23 June 2006 reiterating the stop
work order on the statue.

On 27 June 2006, the Kudat Town Board again sent
Chong Kah Kiat a letter informing him that the
government wants him to stop all work on the
statue.

On 7 July 2006, the Mufti of the State of Sabah
issued a religious decree (fatwah) that said the
construction of any statue or replica of a living
thing, either human or animistic, is forbidden
(haram) according to the Shariah to prevent any
heretic act of worshiping statues. The Mufti then
asked that construction of Buddhist statues be
stopped to protect the sensitivities of Muslims
in Sabah in particular and Muslims in Malaysia in
general.

And with that religious decree by the Mufti of
the State of Sabah, this brings into focus that
giant statue in the Batu Caves which comes under
the jurisdiction of Khir Toyo, the same Menteri
Besar who ordered the demolition of that Hindu
temple in Shah Alam and which triggered the
HINDRAF rally of 25 November.

In another incident last week, an Umno Member of
Parliament asked that all Christian crosses and
statues at missionary schools be removed. Going
by what the Mufti of Sabah has decreed, the Umno
Member of Parliament was not out of line. But why
are they suddenly making this move against Hindu
temples, Buddhist statues and Christian religious
symbols? Surely Umno is not on self-destruct mode
because they must know that the non-Muslims would
rise up in anger. Or are they supposed to rise up
in anger like in 1969 so that the Malays would
become united again, like in 1969?

Yes, that is why I reserved judgement and refused
to comment on the HINDRAF rally. It appears like
there is more than meets the eye here. If the
HINDRAF committee members were not aware of the
most controversially- worded petition to the
Queen, then who was? And was HINDRAF an isolated
and unrelated incident or is it tied to the
Chinese pig-farming issue plus is it connected to
the Sabah Mufti’s fatwah declaring Buddhist
temples haram and the call by the Umno Member of
Parliament that all Christian religious symbols
be removed?

Anyway, whatever it may be, those behind these
religious controversies may have met their
objective. The Malays may finally unite under
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as planned. And once that
happens, Abdullah can safely call for the
dissolution of Parliament to make way for the
12th General Elections. Okay, so they lose the
Chinese and Indian votes. Okay, so they only
garner 60% of the votes. But that does not matter
as long as the 60% comes from Malay votes because
these 60% votes from united Malays command 80% of
the seats. And all Abdullah needs is two-thirds
and 80% is more than two-thirds. And, in the
meantime, all non-Muslim religious symbols and
statues are declared haram and will no longer be
allowed in Malaysia, by religious decree.