Malaysian politics have fallen to a new low when political leaders from the Opposition make preposterous allegations about Islamophobia and Malaysians selling organs to survive with no respect for integrity of information or truth.
PAS President Hadi Awang made the wild and preposterous allegation that the DAP was promoting Islamophobia but despite being repeatedly challenged, he has not been able for five months to offer an iota of evidence to substantiate his most serious allegation.
Hadi was the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy to the Middle East for two “backdoor” Prime Ministers, Muhyiddin Yassin and Ismail Sabri, but he seemed to be unaware that the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) has an Islamophobia Observatory since 2007 which monitors Islamophobia worldwide and issues an annual report on Islamophobia but he had never submitted any report of Islamophobia in Malaysia to the OIC Islamophobia Observatory!
The Bersatu Youth leader, Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal, made the serious allegation that there are people selling their kidneys to make ends meet, but when challenged to substantiate his allegation, meekly said his allegation was based on posts from Facebook groups and it was up to the authorities to investigate the truth or otherwise of his allegation.
At a time when the world is awash with lies, falsehoods and fake news and when political leaders should lead to clean up the social media and the information landscape, it is most deplorable that there are Malaysian political leaders who have no compunction to add to the lies, falsehoods and fake news to further their own political ends and to polarise race and religious relations in plural Malaysia.
In Scotland, an ethnic Pakistani has become the First Minister and leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party. In the United Kingdom, an ethnic Indian is the Prime Minister and leader of the British Conservative Party. But in Malaysia, we seem to be going backwards with voices screaming that the Malays have lost political and economic control of Malaysia.
I was taken aback yesterday when I saw a Tik Tok message alleging that I am related to Chin Peng, Lee Kuan Yew, Tony Pua, Teresa Kok, Anthony Loke, Nga Kor Ming and Ngeh Koo Ham with the wording: “kalau betul mereka ini keturunan komunis kenapa di bagi jawatan dalam kerajaan”.
There is no truth whatsoever in the allegations that I am related to Chin Peng and Lee Kuan Yew and I never knew Tony Pua, Teresa Kok, Anthony Loke, Nga Kor Ming or Ngeh Koo Ham until they joined the DAP a few decades after my first involvement in the DAP.
These were lies and falsehoods calculated to defame me when I was active in politics for over half a century but I thought that since my retirement from frontline politics in March last year, these lies and falsehoods will cease.
But the perpetrators of lies and falsehoods have respect for integrity of information or truth and are only interested in misleading the most number of people to create national disunity by polarising race and religious relations in plural Malaysia.
But it is most unfortunate that we have political leaders who have equally no respect for the integrity of information or truth and these political leaders should be exposed.