Lessons in Politics from Islam. Part 1

Note: I have changed the title of this article from its original. I don't want some people to think this is a writing on Quranic exegesis. That is an area beyond my expertise and experience.There will be Bahasa Melayu versions of the articles.

This and a few other articles carrying the same theme will be posted before I take a self-enforced sabbatical. From October, I will stop posting for an indefinite period.

The time off will be spent on catching up with reading, doing research and stepping back to see things in perspective.

I see UMNO leaders starting to use the vocabulary of religion to herd the pliant masses. I thought it fitting to rebut all these pretensions and posturing by writing a series of articles drawing lessons in politics from Islam.

Political lessons from Islam.

A responsible citizen has a duty to expose wrongdoings. He is instructed not to conceal truth with falsehoods. Especially when he knows the truth. See Quran 2:42.

This duty is applicable to everyone. Including UMNO members and leaders. They know whether Najib is speaking the truth when he said he has never bought loyalty and allegiance from other UMNO leaders.
Just as the RM2.6 billion is regarded as cleansed using the term donation, buying loyalty is thought sanitised with the term support.  
But some UMNO people want nothing of that. UMNO members are willing to make police reports on their president. Some are taking legal actions. 
Najib's esteem has  taken a nosedive.  

UMNO members know of Najib’s involvement with 1MDB and of the manipulations he carried out to conceal his participation. He is the man ultimately responsible for its financial machinations.

He committed breach of trust when he approved and authorised the transfer of more than USD1 billion from 1MDB into Jho Low’s account at Goodstar Ltd.

UMNO members know that Najib prevented the truth from being exposed when he sacked Muhyidin Yassin and Ghani Patail. UMNO members know exactly why Najib interfered in the investigations on 1MDB by transferring MACC officers and caused a furore among the civil service. He is obstructing truth and justice.

UMNO members and the whole world know of the hypocrisy of Najib practising the opposite of what he preaches. See Quran 2: 44.

All right thinking people must reject a hypocritical leader. It is a universal responsibility not confined to Muslims only.  We must reject the hollow leader who preaches  to do good deeds when he himself eschews what he preaches.

The leader must conduct himself with the highest of integrity because he has to be the example to others. He is the gold standard of political correctness.  

That is the true import of the meaning of wasathiyah that Najib has unashamedly promoted. I say unashamedly promoted because in order to validate his and UMNO’s acceptance of wasathiyah, they have to first of all show they are committed to the elements of practising wasatho.

If you say you are committed to moderation, you must prove it. If Najib exhorts citizens to spend wisely, he must stop being profligate. If he says citizens must be moderate, he must first stop extremism within UMNO first. If he says we must not be racists, he must crush racism in his party. He must stop throwing stones and hiding his hands behind his back. He scoots off overseas knowing he and his wife left instructions to UMNO to manage a show of force by Malays.

If you want Muslims to be the beacon and the standard of measure of moderation and being a justly balanced community, Najib and UMNO have first to qualify themselves for claiming to be adherents to wasathiyah. 
Understand the concept and then practise it. 

See Quran 2:143. To be an example to mankind, the Muslims must be fair and just. He brings fairness, justice and reason to bear on parties in disputes. He eschews all forms of extremism.

Otherwise Najib is just a charlatan. Malaysia knows this. His personal rating is now around 30% while that of UMNO is below his. UMNO is a discredited brand name made that way because of the hypocrisy of its supreme leader and other leaders.

The Quran warns mankind of this type of person.

See Quran 2: 204-205. There is a man, says the Quran whose narrative of this world enthralls you; but in his heart, he harbours ill thoughts even as he says things in the name of Allah. Indeed the name of Allah is used liberally as in telling one does not know Altantuya or that Jho low has nothing to do with 1MDB.

As he turns his back on you, he wreaks destruction on this earth, destroying plants and animals. Allah likes not this kind of person.

So people get entranced when Najib vows he will fight to the end. He will not run away from his responsibilities. He carries the mandate of people on his shoulders. No one can make him abandon these responsibilities. He recounts fond memories when he was asked to contest the parliamentary seat of Pekan when his father, Tun Razak died.

We won’t steal his thunder especially when told in a melodramatic and romanticised fashion. Malaysians deserve a romantic story.

It does not mean we accept unquestioningly. The wreckage and destruction have taken place. The NFC scandal fits into the category of animals and livestock destroyed.

Millions of money were siphoned off to finance a bogus project. Thousands of acres of land were given to the project owners. Cows that were supposed to be bought and bred to be distributed to cattle readers were never bought and nothing distributed Money was paid into non existing transactions. Invoices were falsified and prices inflated on non-existent purchases.

The FGV business model took away assets belonging to settlers to be handed to a business entity that never had a good track record. If the new business agenda is to expand the existing business, it was not necessary to reinvent the wheel. Felda itself is already doing the plantation business. It has more expertise and experience than FGV.

FGV had no experience in plantation. Now all the assets including more than 360,000 hectares of felda plantations were handed over to FGV. Under FGV, the price of its share plummeted from the first day IPO price of RM5.30 to the current RM1.60 or something.

It exposes settlers to the possibility of losing all the assets under FGV should an industry player with deep pockets decide to raid FGV.