Zaid: M'sian leaders fear Muslims becoming clever

 

Traveling back more than 2,000 years, former minister Zaid Ibrahim has likened the current situation in Malaysia to Athens, where its rulers condemned Socrates to death for promoting dangerous ideas amongst the youth.

Socrates, he said, was only asking the Athenians to pose questions.

Similarly, he argued that Muslims in Malaysia are not allowed to listen to contrarian views because they might learn to ask questions.

"What pathetic and selfish leaders we have," he said in a blog posting today.

Zaid also questioned how the Malays and Muslims were going to fulfill their obligations if their minds are stilted.

"How can they do so without the ability to think critically and ask questions?

"All they know how to do now is accept blindly all the rituals that have been approved by Jakim (Malaysian Islamic Development Department), but this will not trigger the active mind that is needed to make Muslims clever and creative.

"We cannot be importing clever people from overseas all the time. There is a limit to how far we can rely on McKinsey and other expensive consultants," he added.

The former minister was commenting on the government's decision to bar Indonesian scholar Ulil Abshar Abdalla, who was scheduled to speak at a forum on the threat of religious fundamentalism, from entering the country.

The Islamic authorities in Malaysia deemed the scholar's liberal views on the religion as dangerous.

'Shameful and pathetic'

However, Zaid described the decision as "shameful", adding that it revealed the "low and pathetic" quality of the mentality of Malaysian leaders.

"What could this visitor's liberal ideas have done to Muslims in the country? He would have probably spoken in English anyway, which would have ruled out half of the Malays from understanding what he wanted to say.

"The other half would have been Umno-linked groups and bloggers who would have rebutted his arguments with the help of abusive words in every other sentence. So what was there to fear?" he asked.

He said while Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was just trying to display his power, in a primitive sort of way, for there was no real good reason to ban this Indonesian speaker, the prime minister was too busy giving away golf prizes to take notice of this travesty.

According to Zaid, the signs of an autocratic fundamentalist country bent on extremism of the worst kind are clearly on display in Malaysia.

"Books are banned, liberal and democratic forces are seen as the enemy of the state and criminal actions are taken with regularity on those who dissent and disagree," he added.

Therefore, Zaid called on Commonwealth leaders to cease being too polite on Malaysia.

"Platitudes and false praises are harmful at this stage. Please start seeking answers from the Malaysian leaders about the state of freedom and democracy in the country.

"It will be too late when the country becomes a full-fledged member of the Islamic state .

"Then these western leaders have to use bombs and tanks to fight the fundamentalists like they are doing in Iraq and Syria. It will be too late," he added.