by Ravinder Singh

My heartfelt sympathies to the families of the fallen police personnel who were thrust into very dangerous situations due to the foolish handling of the invasion. And Mahathir has the cheek to tell Malaysians that it was because the invaders were Muslims that the matter was treated as a domestic affair, not an invasion to be handled by the army.

Who is Mahathir to be the one making statements about the invasion of Malaysia (Sabah is part of Malaysia)? Should it not be the Prime Minister or the Minister of Defence updating Malaysians on what happened and what is being done?

Is Mahathir indirectly showing Malaysians that he is the de facto PM and Najib is just his proxy? So was it him who advised the government not to treat the invaders as enemies of the country because they are Muslims?

Was it him who advised that the invasion should be handled by the police as it was an “internal matter” as the intruders were on Malaysian soil already? Did he feel guilty about sending in the army as some of the intruders could possibly be Malaysian citizens through project IC?

And in the next breath, he is lamenting that these Muslims are bad Muslims as they did not follow the teachings of Islam. Has hindsight made him wiser?  All of a sudden the teachings of Islam have become important to him. Has he forgotten what he said in the Malay Dilemma about separating religion from one’s other activities, e.g. business?

He chastised the Malays for being backward and poor because they were too religious, thus opening the doors to corruption, cheating, etc. He promoted the idea that religion (and religious teachings) should be confined within the walls of the house of prayer and religious values should not be practiced in daily life if one wanted to prosper.

He openly, and proudly, proclaimed his idea of administration, i.e.  “TELL A LIE AND REPEAT IT OFTEN ENOUGH AND THE PEOPLE WILL BELIEVE IT IS THE TRUTH”. He fumed that “LAWS ARE A HINDRANCE TO DEVELOPMENT” and did not hesitate to change any law that stood in his way, regardless of the consequences of his amendments on the man in the street.

For this he needed the EC to ensure a two thirds majority, and the EC did its best, even making 18 to become “approximately equal” to 1. Is this method of administration in line with the teachings of Islam?

Looks like the doctor can see the speck in the others’ eyes but not the beam in his own. When he threw people into Kamunting without rhyme or reason, was he being a good Muslim? When he lied about the radioactive dump site in Papan regardless of the consequences to people living in the vicinity, was be being a good Muslim?

What’s happening in Sabah today is but the tip of the iceberg. There is no knowing the loyalties of the hundreds of thousands who were given citizenships on a golden platter. Will any of them join forces with the invaders (who might be related to them) or will they be against the invaders?

How many more Malaysian lives must be lost? Will this end soon or will it become a long-drawn guerilla war in the mountains of Sabah? From the looks of it, the invasion is well planned and the invaders well trained. If Mahathir had been a good Muslim, would he have given out the blue ICs for his political end of ending PBS rule under a non-Muslim Chief Minister?

Why does he hate the non-Muslims so much that he labeled them “pendatang”? Those “pendatang” who were here long before independence are the ones who toiled to build up this country. His own father was one them. They opened up the tin mines, built the roads and the railways.They laboured in the rubber and cocoanut plantations. They were engineers, doctors and teachers. They even provided security as the police and the army consisted of large numbers of them. They did not come to do what the armed pendatangs are doing in Sabah today.

Let me stress that I have great respect for Muslims who go by the teachings of the Quran and admire their culture and manners. They do not draw lines between themselves and others on racial and religious grounds. They are so “sopan santun” and their “budi pekerti” is admirable. Why can’t everyone be like them?

What are religious values for if they are meant to be practiced only within the confines of the houses of prayer and not in one’s daily life?

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* This article first appeared on Free Malaysia Today and the opinion expressed is the personal view of the columnist.