Religious outrage but TLC on corruption. Tales by an unknown blogger. No 81

1. I think Machiavelli was right. It's important to appear religious. You embellish the form, hoping people would infer the substance to be the same .

2. The dichotomy will be apparel soon. You can for instance, divide Muslims into good and bad Muslims. Real or fake.

3. But for the moment,let's assume that the form actually represents the substance. You are a true and good Muslim

4. Religion, in this case, Islam is an integral part of a Muslim . To defend it is to defend life itself.

5. To defend it against any perceived threats, challenges, defiance or even to take it lightly, is meritorious. ( Earning pahala).

6. If you can out- Islam the other fellow, the better. You are regarded a defender of the faith and a dependable fellow

7. So ,as Machiavelli says, it's imperative that you appear to be religious. More vociferous, boisterous, maniacally overzealous, all the more better. It's an obligation for the whole Malay community. Defend life at all costs.

8. In contrast,to be excessively angry at an unimportant and a nickel and dime issue like corruption is not an obligation for the whole community.

9. Sufficient for it to be vociferously articulated by a few souls. That frees the community from an otherwise universal obligation.

10. That, grasshopper, is why i think any threats, challenge and defiance against religion invites a general outrage, while protests against a nickel and dime issue like corruption are only specific and particular .

11. The corollary is similar to Islams fardhu ain and kifayah. Fardhu ain is obligatory to everyone,while fardhu kifayah needs to be done by some. When the latter is done,the obligation for all ceases .

12. But there's one aspect about corruption which I want to address. It's the phenomenon called, worship of crooks

13. It used to be a metaphor..undeserved admiration and reverance for corrupt people. In Malaysia,worship of crooks has become literal. Najib who has been converted continues to be adulated. Wak 47 is glorified. Ismail sabri is starting to be salvaged.

14. Crooks are individuals, men or women who cheated, lied or got exceedingly wealthy using unethical means. When caught, these people will do a Nixon speake, I am not a crook .

15. Najib, despite being convicted by the court and now strenuously trying to extricate himself from 1MDB will deny everything. Perhaps if asked in court, is your name Najib, he will do a Baldric and say, NO. My name is ajib gor.

16. Wak Zahid despite being saddled with 47 charges say he is truthful gentle and compassionate. The people of Bagan latok say he is a pleasant fellow and never assaulted anybody.

17. UMNO people and their social media operatives are saying abang wi mail is a nice person.

18. Worship is blind admiration and reverance for corrupt people, even to the extent of believing they do what they did because they are divinely inspired. Hellilujah!

19. Here is a religious problem for me . In the Muslim religion isn't worshiping something other than God idolatry and blasphemous?it's like stealing from God and cindering them on humans. Isn't that conceited?

20. Those giving prominence to crooks are blasphemous and even apostates. It can lead to the breakdown of society where ethical principles are sidelined.

21. This ties in to the dichotomy I mentioned earlier. We can now actually divide the Muslims into good and bad .

22. Those who support crooks like Najib, Zahid and Ismail are bad Muslims, idolatry blasphemous and even apostates.

23.You are ignoring ethical question and worshipping those with power and wealth acquired by unethical ways.

24. This is something similar to the concept of worshipping Mammon in Christianity.

25. This is misguided admiration where crooks are admired even though they got success through unethical and corrupt means.

26. Those who are corrupt are morally and spirituality flawed, those who support them are also vicariously flawed.

27. Especially if you are a man of religion but you manipulate religious principles to support corruption, then you are spiritually flawed. You are an ulamak ussu'.

28. So if you


think by expressing ferocious outrage over the temple building, I will regard you as Uber Muslim, I will just show you my middle finger. Prove that you are in other ways .

29. The seemingly religious voices are playing the zero sum game much favored by parties like UMNO, pas and bersatu. Which is, you get something only by depriving other groups getting something similar .

30. The Muslims get to build a place of worship only by assertively depriving Hindus from getting their place of worship.

31. Perhaps both sides haven't heard of the concept of a win-win situation.

32. The religious outrage but TLC on corruption reveal some hypocrisy on the part of these people. It's the other side of pompous religionism.

33. They show the erosion and corrosion of moral and spiritual standards. Worse , they lead to the normalisation of corruption. That's why corruption, abuse of power and the like are rampant among those who profess they are religious. Also some other perversions such as sexual trysts, sex abuse etc .

34. Like Samuel Johnson ( the Englishman who conceived the dictionary) who said that nationalism is the refuge of scoundrels, religion is often the cover for many perversions. That is why, it's important to appear Uber religious .

35. When religious people say that what people like Najib, Ismail sabri and others did are meritorious, something deserving admiration and reverance, they must be off their rockers!

36. Doesn't the dichotomy reflects disregard for justice? Crooks and corrupt people are elevated socially instead of being asked to be accountable.

37. Ask the people who spin stories that crooks like Najib and abang long Wi are framed whether they are God fearing, most likely they will say they are

38 . This last bit is an irony. Let me try to explain it as clearly as I can. There is distrust (not trusting as a result of past record) and mistrust ( not trusting future actions) of government and institutions in dealing on corruption issues .

39. Not only society is treating corruption as a side issue, the government and its relevant institutions are treating corruption likewise. That is, just a side issue.

40. The government is not serious in tackling corruption by its slowness, lagardness and its niggardliness in dealing with corruption.

41. Cases involving high profile corruption take a rip van winkle pace to complete , forgetting the fact said by Maynard Keynes ( the economist) that in the long run we are all dead. For example Najib gor is making fun of our judiciary by his filibustering ways.

41(b). As for niggardliness, its a special conduct by the court. The court is stingy for refusing to apply the full force of law by issuing the controversial DNA.

42. A few crooks got DNAA. Najib, Zahid and God forbids, abang long Wi. DNAA rescues the court from refusing to apply the full force of law or probably covers it's stupidity.

43. So society is guilty for treating corruption issues like it does; but government exacerbates the wrong further by its slowness, lagardness and its niggardliness.

44. Grasshopper, that concludes our reasoning as to why corruption issues are treated with TLC.