The longer the keris, the more nationalist the party, jibes Dr M

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has chided PAS for trying to be more nationalist than Umno.

He said PAS used to criticise Umno for being nationalist, but now the Islamist party is brandishing a longer keris than the Malay nationalist party.

The recently concluded 62nd PAS muktamar in Kota Baru saw the party president Abdul Hadi Awang wielding a giant replica of a keris to cut a cake made up to look like the party flag.

“Before this, they condemned Umno for being nationalist. Now they are more nationalist, because their keris is longer than Umno’s keris.

“See, you measure nationalism according to the length of the keris. If this is longer, then it is more nationalist.

“So they have come back. They have suddenly realised that they are Malays,” Mahathir told reporters at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur this evening.

PAS vice-president Idris Ahmad had defended the use of the giant mock keris, saying that it makes the event more colourful.

Meanwhile, to a question, Mahathir said PAS and Umno are now in a marriage of convenience.

“PAS has lost its own supporters, and Umno is looking for supporters. So they work together,” he said.

Just prior to the press conference, Mahathir was launching the Malay edition for Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali’s autobiography ‘Perjuangan Tanpa Noktah’, while the former premier’s wife Dr Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali launched the English edition ‘The Misunderstood Man’.

When the Perkasa chief was asked about the party’s stance on PAS’ ‘Hudud Bill’ at the press conference, Ibrahim said Perkasa would normally support anything related to Islam.

“But we want to make sure that our support must go according to the true teachings of Islam, and the hudud must be fair for everybody - not only the Muslims but also for the non-Muslims,” Ibrahim said.

At this point, Mahathir interjected to explain that in the Quran, there are 43 verses that stress on the importance of being fair in meting out justice.

“If two people - one Malay, one Chinese - goes to steal things, you chop off the hands of the Malay and the Chinese gets two months’ jail.

“You can’t get your hand back any more, but two months’ jail? He’d come out happy.

“Is that justice? If that is not justice, it is not Islam,” he said.