Iskandar Dzulkarnain
Monday, 19 March 2012 00:19
I think it is highly unnecessary of
political analyst Khoo Kay Peng to comment on whether Opposition Leader
Anwar Ibrahim should or should not meet with Salman Rushdie, or to
engage him in a forum organized by India Today Conclave forum in New
Delhi India.
Khoo, who purportedly understood Anwar’s
predicament, said that the opposition leader should be prepared to
engage Rushdie or anyone else, stressing that his rejection may dent his
international image as a reformist, leading the international community
to think that Malaysia’s democracy has yet to mature.
Analyst Wong Chin Huat also agreed with
Khoo that Anwar was trying to avoid another debacle that may trigger
more attacks from his opponents locally. Wong however said that Anwar
did not possess enough clout to do more for freedom of speech as Anwar
could only do as much as he can. Anymore than that, he may hurt himself
and the other causes he is championing," said Wong.
Really, political analysts like Wong and
Kay Peng would do better by giving Malaysians a truthful prediction on
who will win the election, or at least to publish a truthful analysis of
the pro’s and con’s afflicting our current administration or to predict
the date of the next election rather than to analyse whether it is
prudent of Anwar to reject or to accept who he wants to debate with.
Knowing fully well that local
politicians are more prone to play up foreign issues such as Israel and
the Jews as opposed to internal issues, it will be suicidal for Anwar to
be anywhere near Salman Rushdie.
One must understand that Salman Rushdie
is internationally renowned for the wrong reasons. Excerpts from his
book has hurt the international Muslim community, and today there is
still a price tag on his head, although Muslims are not as blood thirsty
as some would think, to go out and take his life.
24 years ago, Rushdie wrote the "The
Satanic Verses" which had sparked international outrage and wide spread
condemnation among the international Muslim community which deemed his
piece as an insult to Islam. Since then, he has spent many years in
hiding, under heavy guard after Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini issued an edict in 1989 calling for his death.
When the Wall Street Journal quoted
Anwar as saying that he "supports all effort to protect the security of
Israel.", these words alone have caused the Malaysian government to
crucify Anwar mercilessly, accusing him of sleeping with the Jews.
Anwar came under constant fire from Umno
and even PAS, a political party with the opposition coalition which has
called for the former to retract his statement.
During the onset of parliament, there
was a heated argument between UMNO Youth Chief Khairy Jamaludin and
Anwar Ibrahim over the ‘Israel’ issue while UMNO information chief Ahmad
Maslan had made a statement that Anwar’s ties with Jewish Organizations
was a serious cause for concern that warrants an investigation.
Today, Anwar spends a lot of his
precious time answering absurd allegations lodged against him, attending
court and giving police statements leaving him with little time to
strategize and plan the opposition’s next move.
Anwar knows better than to put himself
in another embarrassing position or give his detractors room to
manoeuvre his schedule, or opportunities to pile upon him any new
trumped up charges. He still has the upper hand, and he intends to keep
it that way.
On another note what is the big deal
about the Jews? Most Malaysians would not recognize a Jew if they see
one, or know about any credible Jewish conspiracies to conquer the
world, let alone the simple Malay folk that resides deep in the
interiors of the country.
Lately, allegations of Malaysian palm
oil exports to Israeli ports at a time when Malaysia was running out of
cooking oil were highlighted, but the government seemed to be very quiet
about it.
No one seems to be chiding Mahathir for
writing to the Israeli Government in the past, nor his meeting with
Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli Prime Minister in Paris in 1994.
So it is highly unnecessary for the government to ask DAP and PAS to state their stand on this issue.
And for the current government to use
the anti-Jew bogeyman to embarrass the opposition coalition is rather
childish. There are 14 million Jews in the world today against a billion
Muslims, and do we think that the billion Muslims are the least bit
concerned or obsessed with what the little green men from Israel may be
up to?
In a statement by PAS President Hadi
Awang; he said that there is nothing wrong to embark on a commercial
venture or to cooperate with the Jews, as long as Muslims do not support
‘Zionism’ which is a fanatical ideology that some Jews practise.
Hopefully, this statement will put to rest the current ‘obsession’ by
the current government on anything Jewish. You can be sure that UMNO is
not going to keep quiet about this issue, and it will be exploited to
further embarrass PAS as Jew sympathizers in the near future.
And now that PAS has made known its
stand on the Jewish non issue, it is up to the government to think of
something more creative and credible to tarnish the opposition than to
continue trumpeting the anti-jew issue which seems rather comical. And
by the way Salman Rushdie is a Kashmiri and not a Jew.
ISKANDAR DZULKARNAIN
(The views expressed above belongs to
the author in its entirety and does not represent the opinion of
Malaysian Mirror in any way)
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