Copyright Notice

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the author, at the address below.

Sakmongkol ak 47

ariff.sabri@gmail.com

Tuesday 15 September 2015

Lessons in Politics from Islam. Part 1

Note: I have changed the title of this article from its original. I don't want some people to think this is a writing on Quranic exegesis. That is an area beyond my expertise and experience.There will be Bahasa Melayu versions of the articles.



This and a few other articles carrying the same theme will be posted before I take a self-enforced sabbatical. From October, I will stop posting for an indefinite period.

The time off will be spent on catching up with reading, doing research and stepping back to see things in perspective.

I see UMNO leaders starting to use the vocabulary of religion to herd the pliant masses. I thought it fitting to rebut all these pretensions and posturing by writing a series of articles drawing lessons in politics from Islam.

Political lessons from Islam.

A responsible citizen has a duty to expose wrongdoings. He is instructed not to conceal truth with falsehoods. Especially when he knows the truth. See Quran 2:42.

This duty is applicable to everyone. Including UMNO members and leaders. They know whether Najib is speaking the truth when he said he has never bought loyalty and allegiance from other UMNO leaders.
Just as the RM2.6 billion is regarded as cleansed using the term donation, buying loyalty is thought sanitised with the term support.  
But some UMNO people want nothing of that. UMNO members are willing to make police reports on their president. Some are taking legal actions. 
Najib's esteem has  taken a nosedive.  

UMNO members know of Najib’s involvement with 1MDB and of the manipulations he carried out to conceal his participation. He is the man ultimately responsible for its financial machinations.

He committed breach of trust when he approved and authorised the transfer of more than USD1 billion from 1MDB into Jho Low’s account at Goodstar Ltd.

UMNO members know that Najib prevented the truth from being exposed when he sacked Muhyidin Yassin and Ghani Patail. UMNO members know exactly why Najib interfered in the investigations on 1MDB by transferring MACC officers and caused a furore among the civil service. He is obstructing truth and justice.

UMNO members and the whole world know of the hypocrisy of Najib practising the opposite of what he preaches. See Quran 2: 44.

All right thinking people must reject a hypocritical leader. It is a universal responsibility not confined to Muslims only.  We must reject the hollow leader who preaches  to do good deeds when he himself eschews what he preaches.

The leader must conduct himself with the highest of integrity because he has to be the example to others. He is the gold standard of political correctness.  

That is the true import of the meaning of wasathiyah that Najib has unashamedly promoted. I say unashamedly promoted because in order to validate his and UMNO’s acceptance of wasathiyah, they have to first of all show they are committed to the elements of practising wasatho.

If you say you are committed to moderation, you must prove it. If Najib exhorts citizens to spend wisely, he must stop being profligate. If he says citizens must be moderate, he must first stop extremism within UMNO first. If he says we must not be racists, he must crush racism in his party. He must stop throwing stones and hiding his hands behind his back. He scoots off overseas knowing he and his wife left instructions to UMNO to manage a show of force by Malays.

If you want Muslims to be the beacon and the standard of measure of moderation and being a justly balanced community, Najib and UMNO have first to qualify themselves for claiming to be adherents to wasathiyah. 
Understand the concept and then practise it. 

See Quran 2:143. To be an example to mankind, the Muslims must be fair and just. He brings fairness, justice and reason to bear on parties in disputes. He eschews all forms of extremism.

Otherwise Najib is just a charlatan. Malaysia knows this. His personal rating is now around 30% while that of UMNO is below his. UMNO is a discredited brand name made that way because of the hypocrisy of its supreme leader and other leaders.

The Quran warns mankind of this type of person.

See Quran 2: 204-205. There is a man, says the Quran whose narrative of this world enthralls you; but in his heart, he harbours ill thoughts even as he says things in the name of Allah. Indeed the name of Allah is used liberally as in telling one does not know Altantuya or that Jho low has nothing to do with 1MDB.

As he turns his back on you, he wreaks destruction on this earth, destroying plants and animals. Allah likes not this kind of person.

So people get entranced when Najib vows he will fight to the end. He will not run away from his responsibilities. He carries the mandate of people on his shoulders. No one can make him abandon these responsibilities. He recounts fond memories when he was asked to contest the parliamentary seat of Pekan when his father, Tun Razak died.

We won’t steal his thunder especially when told in a melodramatic and romanticised fashion. Malaysians deserve a romantic story.

It does not mean we accept unquestioningly. The wreckage and destruction have taken place. The NFC scandal fits into the category of animals and livestock destroyed.

Millions of money were siphoned off to finance a bogus project. Thousands of acres of land were given to the project owners. Cows that were supposed to be bought and bred to be distributed to cattle readers were never bought and nothing distributed Money was paid into non existing transactions. Invoices were falsified and prices inflated on non-existent purchases.

The FGV business model took away assets belonging to settlers to be handed to a business entity that never had a good track record. If the new business agenda is to expand the existing business, it was not necessary to reinvent the wheel. Felda itself is already doing the plantation business. It has more expertise and experience than FGV.

FGV had no experience in plantation. Now all the assets including more than 360,000 hectares of felda plantations were handed over to FGV. Under FGV, the price of its share plummeted from the first day IPO price of RM5.30 to the current RM1.60 or something.

It exposes settlers to the possibility of losing all the assets under FGV should an industry player with deep pockets decide to raid FGV. 

15 comments:

Anonymous,  15 September 2015 at 07:46  

We all know that UMNO is an extremely haram party. We also know that those who support UMNo has committed great sins. They will have to fully account for their actions in the Hereafter and cannot give the excuse that they have been misled as the unjust actions and corrupt practices of the UMNO leaders are as clear as daylight.

Soon, they will pay very dearly for their sins.

Be warned.


yobama 15 September 2015 at 09:29  

I just want to quote a Hadith on hypocrisy:On the authority of Abdullah ibn ‘Amr (may Allah be pleased with them both) that the Prophet (sas) said:

"Four traits whoever possesses them is a hypocrite and whoever possesses some of them has an element of hypocrisy until he leaves it: the one who when he speaks he lies, when he promises he breaks his promise, when he disputes he transgresses and when he makes an agreement he violates it.

Anonymous,  15 September 2015 at 11:13  

Bersih 4 condemned Najib for involvement in large scale corruption, and called for his resignation.
This has been spinned into a campaign accusing the Chinese were anti- Malay. Therefore the red shirts rally is meant to defend the dignity of the Malays.
Yet, many folks are buying into this.
Large scale "sakit otak"???

Anonymous,  15 September 2015 at 11:17  

datuk,
but we know fgv will never be raided by anyone especially outsiders, it would be a threat to our race, we must protect it at all cost and voila,
another scheme/scam will be hatch to fight off the potential foreign raiders by pumping another round of tax money

Sumpitan Emas,  15 September 2015 at 12:01  

Dato, from above: “I see UMNO leaders starting to use the vocabulary of religion to herd the pliant masses. I thought it fitting to rebut all these pretensions and posturing by writing a series of articles drawing lessons in politics from Islam.”

Najib, from Malay Mail as appeared in http://www.malaysia-chronicle.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=593981:i-won%E2%80%99t-disappoint-umno-and-malaysia-najib-pledges-amid-crisis&Itemid=2#axzz3ld2ItiN4 :
“I will not disappoint Umno members and the Malaysian people. Every leader will face challenges and once we’ve entered the arena, we cannot quit in the middle of the fight,” he wrote.
“We will fight to the finish and I will continue to exercise my responsibilities to the party and the people.
“For as long I have their support, I will continue to lead. I will not step down, insyaAllahy (sic). We will move forward,” he added.

Vocabulary of religion, huh!

Anonymous,  15 September 2015 at 17:17  

Dear Dato Sak,
I read your blog all the time. Sometimes i check a few times in a day to see if you have a new posting. I respect your need for timeout. But please, please don't stay away too long.

Salam,
Anas

Anonymous,  15 September 2015 at 17:58  

Ahhaaa..the Aussies has shown how dignified(bermaruah) their leaders are although they were descendent of a penal colony. Their great great grandfathers are all convicted criminals.
Their PM Tony Abbot has no qualm to be challenged for leadership of his party and ultimately the office of PM. He has never decried his critics. Never went around saying there is a conspiracy to topple him or a conspiracy to topple the gov't. His police Chief never get involve in the party's attempt to topple him..never ask his officers to investigate or arrest any persons for the attempts to topple Tony Abbot accusing them of activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy. Aussies go about their lives not giving a hoot whether tony Abbot is replaced by other partyman.

What a contrast we have here with the like of Najib and Khalid the twitter King. Both Malaysia and Aust are former British colonies. Both adopted the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy. Bot have Parliaments which consisted the lower(MPs) and the upper(Senate) of the House. Tony Abbot has surviced a no confidence vote. A Sabah sulu warrior who happens to be the speaker said, there is no provision in the standing orders for a motion of vote of no confidence. Aussies 'ada lebih maruah dari melayu lahhhh'. What a shame.

Anonymous,  15 September 2015 at 18:43  

For you-know-who to be able to do all the despicable things you mentioned plus those you have not mentioned there are those in the country who do the same thing in smaller scale - you mentioned two of these (the lembu and felda debacles). Indeed, he and those plunderers are able to do the nasty things time and time again for there are still others who do similar thing over the years in various parts of the country - with the rest of the country either suffering in silence or keeping quite as if it is no business of theirs to say anything. Malaysia is a cash cow for the plunderers - and they shall never let go of it without a fight! The focus then should be not just on these plunderers who pretend to be the Malays/Malaysians hope for the better future but also on the people who continue to keep them in power. In fact, I would like to propose that from now on those who love this country should spend more energy and time and other resources on the latter. Simply because the corrupt leaders will never change - in fact from what we can see these days they have become more daring in their reprehensible conducts. So, why waste resources to get them to realize their errant ways? Instead, the focus should be on the small people who many I believe have yet to register as voters! We should try to do all - even if we die trying... After all, it is really up to Allah swt to do whatever He wants. But surely we can expect Him to give rewards to the deserving ones? Wassalam.

Anonymous,  15 September 2015 at 20:25  

FGV is ready for the plucking. Like 1MDB. Designed by the same team.

Anonymous,  15 September 2015 at 20:53  

This was a long time coming. Even if we forget about politics and leadership for a minute, in the past few years the entire national economy has taken a sharp 'neoliberal' turn. Islam clearly and logically dictates that trade and business must revolve around real, tangible assets. Countries like Dubai which removed themselves from these principles paid a heavy and painful price in the 2008/2009 crisis. Yet here we are, copying their strategies. Instead of focusing on areas like agriculture, food sufficiency and safety, water conservation, eco-sensitive products, rural projects, quality education and financial literacy, we have become enthralled by the economics of 'FIRE' (finance; insurance; real estate). One very visible outcome is that KL is practically choking on empty high-rise condominiums that the local middle class, save a few speculators, cannot afford to buy or rent. Across the board, economic values have shifted dramatically from what is real, tangible and socially justifiable towards what is fictitious, speculative and profit-driven. And social values won't take long to follow suit: Once money is the be-all and end-all, everything else starts to appear as practically worthless, including human interactions, human relationships and ultimately human life itself. That is the world we live in today.

Anonymous,  16 September 2015 at 01:04  

As a Muslim, you know who is your friend. You are 100% sure you cannot work with UMNO. But how come you distant yourself from PAS, the only party that want to re-introduce Islamic law in this country. I don't see any other party that want to do that. Yes PAS is equally bad. Can you tell me the cleanest party in this country.

delara 16 September 2015 at 10:52  

Dear Dato Sak (sorry if I am being too familiar, but seems like after all this time reading your blog that I feel like your are a dear and close friend), I totally agree with Anon 17.17 that I will certainly miss your postings so please don't stay away too long. Take care and all the best.

Sumpitan Emas,  16 September 2015 at 21:13  

Dear Dato, you deserve a break, and in the light of what is happening in our country, this temporary, precious detour will provide much needed peace of mind to allow you to come back to "active duty" later, ever more determined to fight corruption and large scale thievery.

My best wishes to you, and here's hoping for more of the best from your sharp mind ever ready to put things right for our beloved country.

Bersama kita menegakkan keadilan dan daulat bangsa Malaysia di bumi ini hingga ke akhir zaman!

Anonymous,  17 September 2015 at 07:22  

PAS is a joke...I think I would rather vote for other right thinking party than voting for PAS, the parti agama sendiri? I found nothing Islamic about that party.
To be honest, i'd like to see Dato as an independent MP. I don't like DAP, PKR, AMANAH..I hate UMNO.

Anonymous,  17 September 2015 at 18:55  

Dear Dato,
Hope you get some good rest in the coming weeks. Please stay safe and we look forward to your return.

Anak Pahang

  © Blogger templates Newspaper III by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP