The announcement by the Terengganu Mentri Besar, Samsuri Mokhtar that the four states of Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu are forming an official co-operation group, with Mahathir Mohamad as its unofficial adviser, reminds me of what Mahathir wrote in his book “Capturing Hope – The Struggle Continues for a New Malaysia” after the 22-month Pakatan Haparan Government, for which he became Prime Minister for the second time, was toppled by the infamous Sheraton Move political conspiracy in February 2020:
“In 1981, Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang of PAS declared that the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) was a party of kafir. I wrote about this on my blog on 7 January 2013, and I think it is worth repeating: ‘There was no such division among Malay-Muslims in Malaya until PAS was formed. Immediately, PAS declared that those who did not join it were infidels (kafIr). But the most potent cause of the split among Malay Sunnis is due to the pronouncement of Hadi Awang. His diatribe against UMNO and condemnation of UMNO Malays as kafir has resulted in the continued rejection by PAS members of UMNO imans during prayers. They would hold separate prayers behind their own imams. PAS members even build their own mosques, refuse to eat meat slaughtered by UMNO supporters, reject the validity of marriages officiated by UMNO kadis, and bury their dead in separate burial grounds. Members of the same family who are UMNO followers are shunned by those who support PAS. In fact, PAS members truly believe that the three million UMNO members, their families and their supporters are not Muslims. They are all kafir – infidels and apostates.’ If before there was no religious divide among Malay-Muslims, now there is. And the divide is deep, caused not by the teachings of Islam but by politics.”
Now, Mahathir is eating his own words by becoming unofficial adviser to the four PAS states although PAS, under Hadi, is trying to do on the Malaysian scale what he had done previously, condemning DAP as anti-Malay, anti-Islam, anti-Royalty, communist, spreading Islamophobia, without any iota of evidence or proof whatsoever.
Hadi’s speech in Parliament in the debate on the Mid-Term Review on the 12th Malaysia Plans is a lesson that Hadi has no qualms about using lies, falsehoods, fake news and hate speech on contemporary events, just as he has no compunction to use them for historical events.
I commend the police for facilitating the Perikatan Nasional rally in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, although the chief organiser of the rally stayed away from it because its turnout was too small.