2,000 years old - Bible 3:28  : There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave^[a] nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (All men are created equal) 

Malaysiakini : "Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right. Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.”  -  Stealers Wheel ('Stuck in the middle with you')

COMMENT | People often caricature Abdul Hadi Awang when it comes to politics in this country. Partisans are dismissive of him as if whatever he claims is not mainstream politics. Hadi and PAS are relegated to the fringes of the political discourse. 

All of which is complete horse manure, of course.

The PAS president says what the politically correct Malay establishment does not want to say out loud, but in practice engages in exactly the kind of behaviour, which makes all this talk of democratic norms and rule of law meaningless when it comes to the ketuanan ideology.

Hadi’s latest attempt at some sort of restatement of mainstream Malay political discourse envisions a political landscape where undesirable Malay (Muslims) and non-Muslims are rejected:

“Maka, hendaklah disingkirkan langkah negatif yang diambil oleh kalangan penganut Islam yang lemah serta tidak yakin kepada agama sendiri dan rupa bangsa yang menjadi ketetapan Allah SWT. Kemudian diikuti dengan kumpulan bukan Islam yang ekstrem sehingga boleh merosakkan kaum mereka sendiri, bukan sahaja hubungan antara kaum dan agama.” 

All this comes at a time when the Malay political establishment is at war with itself. With some in Umno attempting to topple the Muhyiddin regime, the role of non-Malay political operatives - establishment and opposition – have come under the spotlight.

Umno has made it very clear that it does not want to have anything to do with the DAP, and the MCA – in the words of Nazri Abdul Aziz – are attempting to weasel their way to equilibrium between two disparate Malay power structures.