- Christopher Hitchens, British-American author and journalist

COMMENT | As reported by Malaysiakini, PKR vice-president and cabinet member Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said, “At the end of the day, we can’t outflank Perikatan Nasional in terms of playing the Malay card or the Islamic card, because we know that that is their comparative advantage in a way”. When I read this, all I could think about was the prime minister presiding over the conversion ceremony of a young Hindu.

When the current prime minister presided over the conversion of this Hindu youth, he was representing the religious reality that non-Muslims face in this country. He was not merely welcoming a new convert into the religion, he was reinforcing religious narratives. This is the main agenda of the far-right.

And this is the problem with the political discourse. Nik Nazmi says Pakatan Harapan should “not abandon its ideals and risk losing the coalition’s core supporters in an attempt to win over far-right opposition voters”.

This sounds good but first Harapan has to demonstrate what exactly those ideals and principles are and how they differ from what the far-right offers.

Read the article in full here.....

Just a Malaysian : As the world moves towards greater competition for limited resources and getting into AI and digital technology, our kampong mentality is counting how many eggs are going to malay and how many go to none.

Such self defeating mentality defines our psyche. Throw in religion we are turning into a moribund paralysed state. The whole nation is obsessed with how many malays are getting from our shrinking pie and how many imaginary insults the nons are throwing at the Muslims.

Such destructive unproductive mental state will impoverished the nation pushing the weaker community into serious sufferings. Maybe this is karma for being stupid.

Sealthedeal : As usual Commander excellent analysis. Sock gate was allowed to run by the alliance and the authorities. They have still not prosecuted one single vigilante and that is beyond shameful it's criminal in itself and should never be forgotten.

DAP must leverage their position to remedy it including forcing out the the current useless IGP. As to the wider issues, ask most ordinary Malays if they want the likes of PAS, PN to proscribe and prosecute ever increasing strict religious rules that govern their lives from cradle to grave and discriminate their non Muslim neighbours and in a lot of cases employers and they will tell you no way.

Anwars sickening appeasement of the right wing conservatives leads many to question his liberal credentials and his motives. Does PKR have an enemy in the camp? The average Malay wants freedom from those who profess to interpret the religion and with that control their lives.

The average Malay wants freedom and to worship according to their own rules and they don't want the likes of the grossly inflated Jakim and a myriad of other Islamic quango's breathing down their neck.

The alliance must tackle right wing religious extremism full on or lose the game. Malaysia will deteriorate into civil war before it is forced to become an Islamic state. The non Muslims will in the end revolt supported by the Chinese and the West who are dead against Islamic extremism.

So there is only one option and that is to re-enforce liberal values, dilute the powers of the Jakim and other Islamic enforcers and come down hard on extremist behaviour every single time.

If this government does not do this Malaysia will descend into chaos. Non Muslims have literally had enough of this religious nonsense played up by the unscrupulous operatives for their own selfish power grab.

MS : A confidence trickster who carefully concealed his Muslim Brotherhood/Islamist agenda under layers of reformasi gobbledygook has been convincingly outed and that is something to rejoice. But the damage he has done to accelerate the decline of a once-promising country is irreversible.

For that and the craftiness of his self-serving ways, he will remain the worst prime minister the country has had the misfortune to suffer. The damning picture of him presiding over a "Malaysiakini unmentionable" will remain an offensive reminder of his shenanigans in as much as 1MDB and Altantuya have branded the felon we know.