Gonna plagiarise 3 posts :) -

If you haven’t, check out Li Tsin’s heartfelt piece, which I find expouses the mature, big picture looking approach that is refreshing to hear from any non-Muslim. Excerpts:

I frankly couldn’t care less whether politicians want to label this country an Islamic state or not.

As a student who was exposed to social theories and jurisprudence during her postgraduate days (and got tired of it), I cannot help but depart from a theoretical argument to a more practical one.

Let’s put aside arguments about semantics, post-structuralism and social construction. Instead, strip the phrase down to its bare basics and ask the question, what do we want from the state and what kind of state do we perceive we have?

…

If an ‘Islamic state’ will promise me fundamental freedoms and equality for myself and others then let there be an Islamic state. But if it leaves my fellow Malaysians unable to live fulfilled lives, I will fight it to the end.

However, a secular state run by bigots is no better - if the past 20-something years of my life have been under a secular state but laden with socio-political-economic-religious inequalities, I’d rather not have it and I will fight it to the end too.

Fight until we have a free and just state. I want to see it. I want to feel it. Until then, labels are just immaterial.

That’s my polytikus!

haha, can’t get enough of ratat lah.. :P :D

Also out today, Ronnie Liu - whose writing and commitment to opposition unity I can’t help but feel sets him apart from his peers.

When Najib declared that Malaysia is an Islamic State, I said we should not take him seriously. Just ignore him because this guy knows nothing about the concept of Islamic State. he was actually up to no good. He’s banking on this issue to ‘neutralise’ his Mongolian problem.

And now Abdullah also declares that Malaysia is an Islamic State.

I say just ignore him. I believe he is also up to no good. He knows his popularity is going down fast. Like Najib, he is also trying to make ‘an issue out of no issue’.

Trust me. These chaps have no new issues to attract voters. They are banking on the Islamic State issue to improve their Islamic credential and hoping to attract some Malay votes out of it. And at the same see whether Pas and DAP would fall into their traps.

Imagine Pas starts to claim ownership on the concept of Islamic State. The entire Non-Muslim community will be worked up unnecessary. Mind you, the party has not raise the issue for more than four years now. Why should they dance along with these stooges in Umno now?

And then imagine DAP starts to whack Pas instead of telling Umno off .

Thank God, the scenarios painted by me here did not take place. We should continue to ignore both Abdullah and Najib. Let the two be the laughing stocks. We have more important issues to take care of and we have no time for them.

I’m pretty much with him on this one, and bravo again, for the atypical stand :)

Also, in a great Malaysiakini letter today:

You can count on the DAP to not take this declaration sitting down. The DAP will start the hopeless debate with the BN government about the ‘seribu satu dalil’ (the one thousand and one reasons) why Malaysia is not an Islamic state based entirely on law and historical facts.

The BN government in turn, will only need to show that the DAP is indeed anti-Islam and in turn anti-Malay (in Malaysia, Malay = Islam). This in turn will make PKR, which is cooperating with the DAP, also anti-Islam and anti-Malay for working with the DAP.

Since, PAS is working with PKR, they, too, are part of this anti-Islamic movement. I’m sure the BN government will try and throw in a Jewish connection somewhere down the line. Just to make things a little more global.

The only way the DAP can hope to win in this debate is to counter the Islamic state claim by making its own declaration that Malaysia is a ‘corrupt state’. I’m sure they have ample evidence of this. Take it to the next level and claim that the BN government is insulting Islam by calling Malaysia an Islamic state.

After all, all the bad things they are doing can’t be attributed to Islam. Give all the good examples of how an Islamic state should work and show people that the claim is simply not true because of the BN government actions.

Simpler still, just ignore the declaration and move on to some more pressing issues like the declining economy and increasing corruption.

Well said, Mat Bintang!

Remember, watch out for Umno swinging hard to the right, and burning/dividing Malaysia (esp non-bumi Malaysia) in the unholy process.

But just because these statements are meant to divide, I’m not 100% sure ignoring them is quite right either.

We must avoid being trapped into a counterproductive polemic, but in light of what Chief Justice Tun Fairuz said about abolishing the Common Law and other such nonsense, there are serious undercurrents to take the quest to divide beyond uttering divisive words, and actually installing permanent cleavages.

So be on your guard, and register to vote!!

Tags: Malaysian Politics, Religious Affairs //