COMMENT | With the allegations of torture by five of the suspects caught up in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) farce, what we are witness to is another step by Pakatan Harapan in destroying whatever remains of their New Malaysia. For years, aggrieved Islamists and far-right Malay political operatives wanted a bogeyman to distract from the reality of Islamic-inspired terrorism that has wrecked not only the Middle East but also contributed to the culture war in the West.

This narrative also conveniently targets the DAP because now, the far-right and the Islamic deep state have a shorthand - legitimised by the state security apparatus - to justify further narratives that the Malay community and Islam are under threat from hostile forces cultivated by homegrown extremists connected politically and thus able to influence policy in this country.

Keep this in mind, sympathy for the Sri Lankan cause is not mutually exclusive from support of the LTTE, which in no way is a different form of sympathy from the Palestinian cause and support for Hamas or the PLO or the numerous other armed groups which have been designated by the political power structures in numerous countries as terrorist organisations.

The reality is that the LTTE is defunct. There is no LTTE “ideology” unlike the various Islamisms that radical extremist groups perpetuate in the name of Islam and their delusional dreams of a global caliphate.

Not to mention homegrown extremist ideologies which claim that non-Muslims should be "pak turuts" and the call by some religious operatives that a genocidal strongman like Saddam Hussein is needed to unify the Malay community.

The arrival of Zakir Naik on our shores, a religious extremist who not only disparages other religions in his sermons but asks the Malay community to vote for corrupt Muslim leaders over honest non-Muslim leaders, galvanised the deep Islamic state and emboldened nativist narratives made more complicated by the political fracturing of the Malay community.

Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng (below) wonders if the deep state is somehow involved in the persecution of DAP. What he gets wrong is that there is no “deep state” but rather a deep Islamic state. I have defined what I mean by this in another article but what Guan Eng should acknowledge, and everyone for that matter, is the enemy is within.

The Perlis mufti and his ilk started this whole “LTTE” nonsense because Indian DAP political operatives dared openly question the state’s coddling of Zakir Naik. While the state, realising the danger this preacher poses to the public, has banned him from speaking in public events, the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) is still waiting for “instructions” from the Attorney-General’s Chambers regarding its investigation into Zakir Naik.

I hope Zakir Naik and his acolytes are happy. I hope they understand what they have done to this country. I hope Malay/Muslim powerbrokers understand what this farce is doing to this country. No doubt the allegations of torture against the PDRM may excite some bigots, but what this has done is further degrade the image of the state security apparatus in the eyes of non-Malays.

The LTTE dragnet was meant to intimidate the public from speaking up on issues which do present a threat to national security but which are part of the dogma and narratives of religious extremists in this country. The PDRM has not offered one shred of evidence which justifies this level of concern for a security threat beyond opening up themselves to accusations of torture and malfeasance.

What the state security apparatus is doing is enabling narratives which demonises a political party (the DAP) and at the same time, offers a distraction of the real Islamic extremists' threat that this region faces. A threat made all the more dangerous because Malaysia is accepting back Islamic State (IS) fighters who have learnt tactics of urban and guerrilla warfare from religious extremists linked to foreign powers engaged in a proxy war to shape a new political order.

But forget about all of that for a moment. Look at the charges against these so-called LTTE terrorists suspects and then read the news coverage of what a real aborted act of terrorism looks like - Malaysian police said on May 16 that they have detained the three remaining suspects of an IS “wolf pack” believed to be planning big-scale attacks and assassinations in the Klang Valley.

Of course, the PDRM, who have never been opaque about the threats facing this country, are now extremely reserved about the kind of threat posed by these so-called terrorists. Why is that? The only people talking about how these terrorists could plant bombs are the racists and bigoted dullards who are furthering a narrative that Malaysia is under siege by a “pendatang” threat.

You remember when I got huffy because the DAP made overtures to a religious operative like the Perlis mufti? Remember how I was lectured about how this new Malaysia is about building bridges? I wonder if the DAP political elite still want to engage with personalities who are furthering narratives that the DAP has been infiltrated by Hindu extremists and communists?

You do realise that this means that Malay members of the DAP are then characterised as religious and race traitors, right? I mean what do you think PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang (above, right) meant when he went on his rant about how some Muslims were being used to further “pendatang” agenda?

On social media, bigots who for years were stewing in their juices about the bad press “Islamic terrorists” receive have now a convenient target with these LTTE suspects. They blabber on about how the state security apparatus should get into the enhanced interrogation mode in case these “terrorists” plant bombs in Malaysia. I have never been a religious man, but this Deepavali in a temple I sometimes frequent, a temple of my youth, I said a prayer for the victims and their families of this dragnet.