The Madani administration claims to protect the environment, but under the guise of “development”, they cut down swathes of prime forest, build mega dams, flood land, villages and ancient burial sites, and destroy precious flora and fauna.

It hurts the Orang Asli and indigenous east Malaysians to be denied their ancestral rights and their basic rights to water, electricity, housing and education; but converting to Islam opens many doors.

Telling us to eat cassava, instead of finding solutions to resolve the rice crisis, is lazy politics. It hurts to know we have clueless politicians.

Then, with Mahathir, what did Yeoh expect?

We were naïve or perhaps, desperate in 2018, to imagine that Mahathir would correct the many wrongs he started during his tenure, like institutionalised racism, cronyism and draconian laws. We were wrong.

Mahathir is good at political self-preservation. He knows that it is time-consuming and difficult to convince one man by logic and reason alone, but far simpler and quicker to convince a thousand men to believe in him, by appealing to their prejudices.

In January, he projected himself as the quintessential Malay when denouncing the loyalty of Indian Malaysians. He said, “No, I’m not an Indian. I don’t speak the Indian language… I’m now 100 percent a Malay, I speak Malay and practise Malay customs and traditions.”

‘Remember the Green Wave’

The United Kingdom is led by Rishi Sunak, a Hindu of Indian origin. The first minister of Wales is a black man. He is also the first black leader of any European country. Scotland is led by a Muslim of Pakistani origin, as is the mayor of London, a Muslim of Pakistani extraction.

In sharp contrast, Indian Malaysians are short-changed and given short shrift. Non-Malays are defined by quotas, from sports to scholarships and despite their citizenship are treated as second-class citizens. These hurt.

When we voice our concerns, we are shouted down with, “Remember the Green Wave!”

The same people forget that Anwar and his coalition government are undertaking the country’s Islamisation process on Abdul Hadi Awang and Muhyiddin Yassin’s behalf.

That hurts even more!

And this does not mean what Harapan supporters think it means. Do you know why Sock-gate was so damaging to Harapan? It is not because the non-Malay base was clutching its pearls the way how unity government provocateurs were clutching their pearls.

Winning over fence-sitters

Sock-gate demonstrated the difference in religious moderation between Harapan and PN.

PN was remarkably quiet about Sock-gate and was willing to give enough rope for Umno/Harapan to hang itself with. They remained quiet and disciplined, and even offered a few moderate words to the subject.

While non-Malay voters are sceptical of PAS/PN, the average fence-sitter would see how “moderate” PAS is and would even think this is how a moderate Malay/Muslim political coalition should behave.

Indeed, for these moderate fence-sitters, Umno/Harapan looked so detrimental to unity and harmony that even the Agong had to step in. So, for the fence-sitters, why not go with PN which does not create issues like this?

Harapan supporters think PN supporters are dumb for some reason. However, when DAP operative Hannah Yeoh claims the opposition plays up religious issues - when Umno did so, enabled by DAP, which stirred up religious issues and resulted in domestic terrorist acts - what do you think these fence-sitters will think?

This is the problem with the “don’t spook the Malays” mantra. PKR is always trying to champion bumiputera rights as if those rights are in jeopardy. Two years ago, Terengganu PKR wanted the party’s central command to address the “imbalance“ of awarding digital bank licences.

Terengganu PKR chief Azan Ismail, hoping the issue will gain traction, said: “We urge the finance minister and prime minister to state their stand on this matter and what will guarantee bumiputera equity ownership.”

This basically means PKR is attempting to accuse the government of not being Malay uber alles (over all) enough.

Playing the class card

The Malay vote is all-important, which is why PKR, as a supposedly multi-racial party, is struggling. Former prime minister (twice) Dr Mahathir Mohamad has demonised PKR as being unacceptable to the Malay community because of its multi-racial component.

While PKR may never play the race card well, they can and should play the class card. There is a reason why PN/PAS are deathly afraid of the class card.

Anwar is at his best when he is rabble-rousing with the class card and pursues populist narratives like this: “I want to tell the leaders with the titles of ‘Tun’ and ‘Tan Sri’ who are rich - if you really want to save Malays, give them half of your billions in profits tomorrow”.

It is talk like this which frightens the more intelligent members of the religious extremist coalition going up against this coalition government. For instance, former Bersatu information chief Wan Saiful Wan Jan wanted to know if Anwar was attempting to instigate class warfare.

Wan Saiful, as part of the Malay political elite, really does not want any raising of class consciousness among the disenfranchised Malay classes but has no problem providing them with crumbs from the table through racial and religious entitlement programmes to keep them dependent and with a sense of racial and religious superiority.

Yes, going after the big fish when it comes to corruption is good optics, especially for middle-class or urban voters.

However, tackling corruption in entitlement programmes at the state and federal levels is more important to the voters that Harapan wants to gain traction.

This is because going after bureaucratic malfeasance like this actually improves their lives because the delivery system is made more efficient.

However, the government is afraid to seriously address corruption within the ranks of the civil service because they are afraid they may lose this vote bank - which they are already losing.

This again is part of the class conflict which would suit Harapan better than toxic religiosity that Harapan thinks will gain favour with fence-sitters.

In the end, I believe it would be better if Harapan fails as a reformist government than succeeds as a theocratic state.

Your mileage may vary.

Was it incompetency, an indifferent attitude or simply making things easy for themselves to tap the forward button for someone else to handle?

Nevertheless, I sent an email the following day, and on Monday, I received a call from a friendly officer who said a reply had been sent, via email of course.

It was a lengthy reply that included the following: “The Commission collaborates closely with the police which is the leading law enforcement agency on sensitive matters involving race, religion, and royal institutions.

“We provide technical expertise, including intelligence and forensics analysis, for the police to expedite investigations and ensure appropriate action can be taken under relevant legislation like the Sedition Act 1948 (Act 15) and Penal Code (Act 574).

“The collaboration is also expanded through the establishment of the ‘Police–MCMC Investigation Task Force of 3R Cases’ in combating online content that threatens national harmony.

“In addition to requests from other leading law enforcement agencies and public complaints, MCMC also proactively monitors, takes down, investigates, and enforces the law against any content violating Section 233 of Act 588, regardless of background, ideology, or political affiliation.”

No action on complaint

Satisfied that there had been corroboration with the police, I decided to wait for a further response before I put pen to paper.

Imagine the surprise when on April 3 - a good 10 days later - Inspector-General of Police Razarudin Husain said no reports had been lodged against Akmal over his Facebook post that showed him wielding the sword.

This means that the MCMC had sat on my complaint and did not refer my complaint to the police or the Police–MCMC Investigation Task Force for appropriate action, as claimed.

Do I have reason to believe the complaint was classified as “no further action” and filed in a steel cupboard to gather dust?

Certainly. Why else would the IGP say that no report was made? And it leads me to believe that MCMC is selective in the application of laws and their enforcement.

The drama continued. On April 4, Akmal confirmed on his Facebook page that he was arrested in Kota Kinabalu, saying he was held despite being scheduled to record his statement at the Dang Wangi police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur the following day.

But who came to the fore to comment after weeks of silence?

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim stepped on the plate to say Akmal was not arrested but called up to facilitate an investigation.

Akmal himself confirmed he was arrested but did Anwar know better?

Different strokes

On March 22, Ricky Shane Cagampang, 33, pleaded guilty in the Kota Kinabalu Sessions Court to making a Facebook post deemed insulting to Islam concerning the sale of socks bearing the word Allah.

He was charged under Section 233(1)(a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 with misusing network facilities on March 17 and sentenced to six months jail and an RM15,000 fine.

The case was investigated, the offender was arrested, got the nod from the Attorney-General’s Chambers, produced in court, convicted and sent to prison - all in five days.

Surely, it must be a record of sorts and the police force must be proud of itself. Will it be emulated in other cases involving the offence of misusing network facilities?

We wait with bated breath but something still lingers in my mind.

Chin has yet to be investigated for the post. He was not the maker or publisher of the video and yet MCMC wanted his post removed.

My complaint about a sword-wielding politician was ignored.

Are lesser mortals Chin and I treated differently from the loud-mouthed politicians who can do or say anything with total disregard for the law?

Different strokes for different folks or are we headed for a police state?

Take this powder keg Dr Muhamad Akmal Saleh issue for instance.

Loke claims to have spoken to Umno big cheese Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Malacca grand poobah Ab Rauf Yusoh and “expressed DAP’s position on the matter”.

Two questions - what is DAP’s position on this matter because the central command really has not put out any statements, while factotums of the DAP have been speaking up but have been told to put a sock in it by the dear leader’s party. And secondly, why are you speaking to Umno?

Now some would argue that DAP is speaking to Umno because Akmal is their problem child. However, that is nonsense.

The prime minister is supposed to be the most powerful or influential figure in this unity government, so why didn’t the DAP, who has the bigger voting bloc, just bypass Umno and tell the prime minister to control his rabid handmaidens to power?

Loke said, “I don’t know how MCA conducted themselves while in government but for us (DAP), there are matters that we will raise directly with the prime minister” which means shouldn’t the DAP be raising this issue with the prime minister himself?

But then again, seeing as how the prime minister was silent when the cars of a DAP political operative were firebombed, perhaps running to the prime minister about a Chinese businessperson being targeted for a mistake his company made and which he has profusely apologised for is not such a great idea. 

Loke reminisces of how as a young person he was firmly in the DAP camp and his rivalry with an MCA kid has some sort of totemic symbolism of the fight the party was waging for the soul of the Chinese community at the time.

The struggle between the towkay class and the average Joe. What he forgot to mention is that everyone from the working, middle, and plutocrat classes was voting for the MCA, and demonising the party now is merely indicative of the behaviour of DAP supporters who were steeped in the toxicity of identity politics that the DAP seems to encourage.

The reality is that DAP has bent over backwards to support pro-Islamic and pro-Malay policies, not to mention pro-Malay political operatives, all while being subject to the anti-Islam and anti-Malay propaganda that they should have tackled decades ago, instead of playing the victim card while engaging in the same behaviour they accuse the MCA of.

This is why, no matter what the DAP does, no matter how much they bend over for the Malay political establishment, it will never be enough. This is why we have these tensions within the DAP.

The identity politics in the DAP, like most forms of such politics, is reactionary. And do not for one minute think that the Malay uber alles establishment does not know this.

Akmal is the smug poster child for the Malay uber alles crowd. While political operatives from Umno have claimed they have told him to stop these provocations, while the Agong has told everyone to cease and desist and while he is under a sedition investigation, he understands that he has the power to give the middle finger to everyone.

Political operatives like him understand that it really does not matter what they do because the DAP support base will not punish the DAP, unlike the Malay majority polity who have demonstrated their willingness to shift their support to whatever reactionary Malay/Muslim party they think best serves their interests.

DAP supporters’ deflection game

The DAP, through its minions online, always harass and attempt to deflect from their failings. DAP asks if not unity government, who else? Would you rather see Perikatan Nasional take over?

Ok, hold it right there, you disingenuous cretins. The DAP has worked with every race-based party that has come into creation, so do not for one minute think this card plays with rational people.

Unfortunately, as Loke demonstrated with his “I don’t like the MCA” card, partisan politics is not rational. Rational people ask themselves why continuing supporting a party which is slowly eroding the secular and egalitarian foundations of this country.

I mean PN did rule the country and when the general election came, they had ruled so badly, that the vote albeit in a small way swung to Harapan and Umno was decimated. This is what should have been built on. However, it wasn’t and a rational person has to wonder why.

DAP supporters always ask what you expect the party to do. This is the problem right here.

You mean you do not know?