COMMENT | What really angers me about the statements made by Nurul Hidayah, the eldest daughter of Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, for breaking the movement control order (MCO) is that she will not receive any sanctions from this Malay uber alles government. Unlike the rest of us who are fined or imprisoned, she will get off scot-free proving that “negative vibes” means absolutely squat when you belong to the Malay political elite of this country.

In 2017, when Nurul's father took aim at Dr Mahathir Mohamad by pointing out that his Indian ancestry made him less “Malay”, it was just another example from Mahathir’s playbook of using race and religion to gin up the base. He said: “This was his blue IC. His name was Mahathir a/l Iskandar Kutty. His blue IC number is […]. This was sent by the director-general of the National Registration Department (NRD).

“So he (Mahathir) was right when he said Malays are forgetful because he is the son of Iskandar Kutty. This is the person who fought for the Malay agenda in order to use Malays. “When the honey has run out, the honeycomb is thrown aside. Umno is like the honey, and we are the honeycomb that had been thrown away,” Not to worry, with the formation of Perikatan Nasional (PN), the honey is flowing again and folks like Nurul are taking a big gulp. If you do not like it, what exactly are you going to do, call the police? Replace “police” with any other investigatory body, like the MACC for example, and the results would be the same.

Of her meeting with the PN religious czar, Religious Affairs Minister Zulkifli Mohamed, she said: “This is all for you, for our religion Islam that must be protected, so we will not be hit by any disasters.” This basically means using religion as a defence against violations of legal and social norms of the moment. This kind of arrogance is nurtured, not chastised, in a fascist state.

Nurul is so worried that Islam needs to be defended, yet her father and his foundation which are under investigation does not crop up on her radar. She has the audacity to claim that she is defending Islam and is worried about alleged apostasy when frontliners are complaining that people are disobeying the MCO and scrambling for personal protection equipment.

This is exactly the kind of thinking that someone like Zakir Naik propagates. Just as Pakatan Harapan shielded him from the sanctions of the state, so will PN shelter him from the sanctions of the state. The investigation into him has been completed, what is the hold-up? Exactly. What Nurul says and does fall into the dogma that Zakir Naik pushes and that the state – PN and Harapan – want to sustain. A feudalistic state where the elites run roughshod over the majority but use race and religion to sublimate class issues that could galvanise a multiracial coalition.

Would it surprise you that many of my friends consider Zakir Naik an icon? It is true. When Zakir Naik tells people that it is better to be ruled by corrupt Muslim leaders than by honest kaffirs, you understand the class politics at play here, right? Keep in mind that Nurul comes from a family with a fleet of luxury cars and a father who is facing – what he claims are politically motivated charges – of corruption and money laundering.

Forget about the charges for a moment. It was reported that his fleet of luxury cars co-owned with his wife was around 20 vehicles, including a Lexus LX570, two Toyota Vellfire, Mercedes Benz CLS 350, Audi Q7 4.2 (A), Chrysler Jeep Wrangler, Honda Odyssey, Mini Cooper S, and a BMW 320i (A). They also owned two Harley Davidson bikes, a Ducati Diavel Carbon, BMW C600 Sport, BMW R1200 GS, BMW R1200 RT and a Honda C100.

As I mentioned elsewhere I live amongst daily wage earners. I live with poor Malays, Chinese, Indians and foreign workers who are scrambling to earn money so they can buy food. Most of them sometimes share vehicles if they are lucky. While most of the Malay folks I know are religious, nearly none of them can even fathom the kind of opulence people like Nurul Hidayah come from.

I know a number of people who have been fined or awaiting jail time for breaking the MCO. I can tell you that all these people were in desperate circumstances, and the meagre help that I and a few others extended to them could not alleviate their problems. In breaking the MCO, they were attempting to get some cash to weather the MCO.

The wife of one of these people asked what was the difference between her husband who was fined for attempting to meet his mother on the other side of town and Nurul? In Malay peppered with Bahasa Indonesia slangs, she was disgusted that there was no “investigation” for her husband. They just arrested him and for a couple of days, she did not know where he was.

At the beginning of this MCO when the PN government was announcing plans to curb the activities of social activists in delivering aid to the disenfranchised, women rights activist Irene Xavier and a co-worker were rushing to deliver aid to marginalised communities. Irene informed Malaysians of the plight of a woman who had given birth without the amenities that most of us take for granted.