How do you make a stance, whether to support something or go against it? Does not matter where you are. In the parliament or an individual striving to make ends meet, you have to make decisions. And some of these decisions do not bear fruit immediately, you have to wait. Education for example, it take decades to see the return on investment(s) pay off.
The new economic policy that kicked off in 1971, took many years to materialise. You can’t make an effort and expect everything to turn up good in 10 minutes, unless you are cooking instant noodles of course. Life is different, and hence when the private member’s bill was tabled by Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi, it received various reactions. Some of these reactions were supportive, and others on the far side of spectrum down right condescending.
Some have referred to this bill as a hudud bill. Interesting to note that hudud is a state issue and does not need to be tabled in the Parliament. MCA is probably hoping for the bill hudud to be tabled so they can go against it. MCA displayed their “understanding” on the private member’s bill by relating it to hudud.
During a forum organised by Sinar Harian on the 5th of September 2016, MCA held on to their notion of hudud. The topic of the forum was related to the amendment of Act 355, however despite the topic clearly being displayed throughout the forum, MCA still chose to discuss hudud. Something that was beyond the scope of the forum.
The purpose of the forum was to clarify issues related to the amendment of Act 355. For MCA, the issues are still status quo. MCA did not want to learn about the Syariah courts and the Islamic legal system, they were there to oppose. And oppose they did, from the very beginning to the end.
Another point made by Gan Ping Siew was the sensitivity of the non-Muslims in this country. “Being a multi-cultural and multi-religious society, we should respect the feelings and sentiments of the minorities”, said Ping Siew. He also mentioned the unresolved issues pertaining unilateral conversions and body snatching.
Let’s look into the first point, i.e. the feelings and sentiments of the non-Muslims or the minorities. This is a good point to be made from his side and sounds empathetic. Another point to be noted is that, he is as though insinuating that the existence of the Syariah court is oppressive towards the non-Muslims.
I must say, from the perspective of a non-Muslim he makes quite a point, despite being unsubstantiated, it is a popular opinion. We have to remember that Malaysia was established as a Constitutional Monarchy and a Parliamentary Democracy. The term “monarchy” in itself caters to Islam in the Federal and State Constitutions.
The Malay Monarchs, or the Malay Kings are in charge of Islamic affairs in their respective states. For the five states without a king, the Yang di-Pertuan Agung is in charge of the Islamic affairs. That said, the Muslims are a majority in this coutnry, with about 61.3% believers. Let’s go back to term “democracy”. Democracy in very basic words means, “the majority wins”, regardless of how discontent the minority is.
If MCA wants Malaysia to be a democracy then, they probably should adhere to the codes and conducts of democracy. If the establishment of a state were based on sentiments of the minorities then we would have chose a different path. The term Democracy and Minority rights seem to be used (or abused) by certain quarters against wishes of the majority. Can this act deemed as selfish?
MCA should learn to respect their voters, knowing that all but one seat came from Malay majority areas. As “wakil rakyats” they should be representing their voters and not a failing political party.
MCA has lost all of its seats in Chinese majority areas, hence we know for sure that they do not represent the Chinese community. The fact that MCA is representing the Malays, should come as a responsibility for them to fight for their populace. Anything against the wishes of the voters, and MCA can say goodbye to all of their seats. The Chinese voters now, seem to be in full support (literally so) of DAP.
No support from the Chinese and misrepresentation of the Malay voters should be alarming enough for MCA’s survival. If they indeed want to stay in power, they should stop on the “good cop, bad cop” game and start concentrating on their responsibilities.
Rehan Ahmad Bin Jamaluddin Ahmad
Research Fellow, Institut Kajian Strategik Malaysia (IKSIM)
