Zakar Naik with our "Great Leader"

No deportation of Zakir Naik for now – Mahathir

Vijay47: Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, this blowing hot and cold as the moment suits you do not augur well for the country. When the nationwide furore over Dr Zakir Naik’s performance in Kota Bharu first broke, you seemed genuinely furious and concerned, even with more than a touch of regret, that you had showered so much tolerance, affection, and leeway to the renegade from Mumbai.

Your outraged stand gave us considerable comfort and assurance that Zakir's offensive and divisive conduct would soon draw to a welcome close. This was especially so when we recall how you earlier appeared willing to offend a longstanding friendship with India. You even had the cheek to say that this foreigner holed up in Malaysia could not be certain of receiving a fair trial in Delhi, you had the gall to describe the charges he was facing as politically trumped-up.

Sir, you were acting as though you were his defence counsel, ignoring the fact that you are the prime minister of this country. You have changed tack again and now seem hesitant to deport him. What has Zakir done since Kota Bharu to earn this further compassion from you? You seem willing to sacrifice our relations with another sovereign nation, a bond that goes deep into and beyond history, for the sake of this extremist dangerous fanatic on the run from the law.

In the Mahabharata, Dwaipayana Vyasa says, “To save the family, abandon a man; to save the village, abandon a family; to save the country, abandon a village; to save the soul, abandon the earth.” I pray, sir, that your soul is safe. What good has this fugitive done for our country? Nay, what good has he done for even his own religion? Is a person whose only skill is not the glorification of his Islam but the running down of other faiths such a blinding light of religious guidance?

And to add to the adulation, suddenly there appears on the horizon voices protective of this bigoted alien’s “human rights on humanitarian grounds." If Zakir were a Christian priest, I would have hung my head in abject shame and beseeched God’s mercy on my soul.

Unspin: As a Malaysian, I feel embarrassed every time I see photos of Mahathir with Zakir, particularly the one showing them sitting down together at Mahathir's office.
It looks like Mahathir was star-struck in the presence of 'his holiness' Zakir. Come on, Mahathir, you are the leader of Malaysia – a peaceful and prosperous nation of 33 million people. You do not have to pander to an outcast preacher who is allegedly involved in money laundering and terrorism. Give us some dignity, please!

My2cen: Mahathir only serves Mahathir. He is keeping the dog on a leash and from barking for now, and he will let the dog out when he thinks he needs to. It’s very stupid of Mahathir – people were willing to overlook and almost forgive him for all the corruption and rot he started during his first 22 years – he had a big opportunity to serve the people before he goes to meet his maker, and yet he chose to continue with his old ways.

He is either wrapped in a time capsule, or he is just another conniving, wicked autocrat. Either he is senile or a very bad person. I thought he still had a heart, but alas, I was wrong.