Victims have also said that they were forced to participate in Islamic practices, including offering namaz, observing Ramadan fasts, and wearing a burqa. The male complainant described that he was repeatedly humiliated for his Hindu faith and pressured to abandon his religious identity. Victims were reportedly also forced to consume beef. Force-feeding beef to Hindus is one of the favorite tactics of jihadists across India, as it breaks the Hindus psychologically and emotionally, because consuming beef is against the Hindu religious ideology.

The investigation gained momentum after a covert operation conducted by Nashik Police, in which seven female officers entered TCS’s premises disguised as employees. During an internal meeting, they reportedly witnessed inappropriate conduct firsthand, leading to one of the accused being caught in the act. This operation provided critical corroboration of the victims’ testimonies, and resulted in multiple arrests. Authorities are now analyzing over 40 CCTV footage clips from inside the office to strengthen the case.

Police have invoked stringent provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA), pointing to the seriousness and organized nature of the offenses. Leading the probe is a Special Investigation Team under ACP (Crime) Sandeep Mitke, following directives from Police Commissioner Sandeep Karnik, who supervised the operation based on intelligence information.

A particularly alarming dimension of the case is the alleged failure and possible complicity of the company’s HR department. According to police officials, when one victim reported sexual harassment, HR reportedly advised her to “stay cool,” with her concerns dismissed as routine behavior in multinational workplaces. Such responses may have emboldened the accused and allowed the misconduct to continue unchecked. There are also allegations that a female HR Manager, Nida Khan, may have actively assisted the accused. She has since been arrested.

Maharashtra minister Nitesh Rane publicly termed the incident “corporate jihad,” arguing that if coercive religious conversion and harassment had entered corporate spaces, it would be dealt with strictly under the law. He also questioned the company’s internal response and called for accountability, especially given the fact that multiple women had reportedly complained without timely action.

So far, nine First Information Reports have been registered at Mumbai Naka Police Station, encompassing charges of sexual exploitation, mental harassment, and hurting religious sentiments. Authorities have also circulated a WhatsApp helpline encouraging additional victims to come forward, and officials have indicated that more complaints are likely while the investigation progresses. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has condemned the incidents and assured strict action against those found guilty.

The revelations have triggered protests outside the TCS Nashik office, with demonstrators demanding swift justice and accountability. While TCS has been named openly and investigations are underway, it is not the only organization in the Indian corporate landscape facing serious questions. The work culture in India’s private sector is often sinfully toxic. Call center agents, for instance, struggle to get even a two-minute washroom break. Sick leave and casual leave are difficult to secure, even in pressing situations. Employees are routinely pushed to work 10 to 12 hours a day, even though the standard shift is 9 hours. But the stringencies apply only to regular staff.

Muslim employees, on the other hand, are often given leeway to perform multiple prayers during office hours. In fact, several workers allege that meetings are frequently rescheduled to allow for these prayer breaks. Business priorities and urgency can easily take a backseat. Many large corporations have even set up designated prayer areas. During Ramadan, many large multinationals organize free iftar meals for Muslim employees, while no comparable arrangements are made during festivals of non-Muslim communities.

Malaysiakini : More issues to tackle

Flashback to the pre-launch of the Selangor Intelligent Parking (SIP) system in June last year: Selangor executive councillor Ng Suee Lim outlined the terms - the concession company was expected to invest RM200 million to develop the system’s infrastructure, including the installation of about 1,800 CCTV cameras at parking lots.

Ratepayers in Selayang, Shah Alam, Subang Jaya City Council (MBSJ), and Shah Alam who were dragged into the state vs local council imbroglio nine months ago have even more issues that have to be addressed now.

Is the RM200 million “investment” for real or just a sweetener to appease the protests and objections from the people and the lawmakers?

Ng said the move is part of the state government’s efforts to boost parking revenue, which currently amounts to only about 30 percent collection from 1,000 designated bays.

“We target a collection rate of over 60 percent and hope to reduce double parking in busy areas,” Ng said.

“The concessionaire will handle both fee collection and enforcement, under close supervision from the councils and state government.

For good measure, Ng threw in this: “It is important to note that the local councils will not bear any operational costs and are expected to collect more revenue than before due to system efficiency improvements, digitalisation, and centralised monitoring.”

But the concessionaire does not have enforcement power nor legal authority, and any document related to public parking must be in the name of the councils.

Cameras nowhere to be seen

In a previous article, I wrote: “Does MBI Selangor, a state-owned company, have the power to appoint contractors or concessionaires? Does the private company have the power to enforce parking regulations, even if it is under the supervision of council staff? Can they legally issue a summons for non-payment of parking fees?

“It is akin to saying that the power to stop, search, and arrest can be delegated to security guards under the supervision of the police!”

Motorists in these four areas continue to use the Selangor Smart Parking app, developed earlier by the state, while summonses, parking tickets, and related enforcement documents are still issued directly by council staff.

How do I know this? Over the past two weeks, I visited these four areas and uncovered even more - the much-touted CCTVs are nowhere to be seen, not even the pillars or posts where the cameras were supposed to stand.

To put in colloquial Malay, it’s “habuk pun tak ada!” (absolutely nothing, zero, not a single thing.)

Bleeding revenue

Nine months after the four councils had hurriedly (more reluctantly) signed the contracts, there seems to be disappointment, but those affected, including some councillors, have sealed their lips, fearing not being re-appointed.

So, where is the value-added service, which comes at a huge cost or, in the case of the councils, a huge loss of revenue?

This is not a parking policy - it is a masterclass in political accounting. The RM200 million “investment” is waved like a magic wand, yet the arithmetic shows councils bleeding revenue while concessionaires fatten their margins.

The promised infrastructure remains invisible, enforcement powers remain muddled, and the public is left wondering whether “smart” parking is just another euphemism for dumb governance.

The deeper rot lies in the governance model itself. Councils are stripped of autonomy, ratepayers are treated as captive wallets, and the state government positions itself as visionary while outsourcing accountability.

What was sold as efficiency is in fact denseness - a financial model where losses are trivialised, and profits privatised.

It is the bureaucratic sleight of hand that turns public accountability into private gain, dressing up opacity as innovation.

The councils are told they will “collect more revenue,” but the arithmetic shows otherwise: they are reduced to junior partners in their own jurisdictions, while concessionaires enjoy guaranteed returns.

This is not efficiency. It is a distortion. Losses to councils are brushed aside as inconsequential, borne silently by ratepayers, while profits are ring-fenced for private actors under the banner of “smart governance.”

Dense, opaque model

In reality, the model is neither smart nor efficient - it is dense, opaque, and structurally tilted against public interest.

Until Selangor can demonstrate tangible infrastructure, transparent accounts, and genuine accountability, the SIP scheme remains a cautionary tale: a system where efficiency is weaponised as rhetoric, denseness is institutionalised as policy, and the public is left subsidising illusions.

This experiment risks becoming a parable of modern Malaysian governance - where slogans of digitalisation and innovation mask the same old patronage politics.

The question is not whether more revenue will be collected, but whether the people will ever see it, or whether it will vanish into the black box of concessionaire contracts.

Until the state can show tangible results - cameras installed, enforcement clarified, transparent accounts published - this remains less a “smart” system than a costly illusion.

And illusions, unlike parking bays, cannot be monetised forever.

Malaysiakini : Propping up Anwar

Also, keep in mind that Rafizi has done his fair share of propping up Anwar and PKR.

Back in the rancid days of the PKR elections, which he lost, Rafizi had to remind his opponent, Nurul Izzah Anwar, not to revise history when she denied or downplayed his involvement in the 2018 electoral seat negotiations with the old maverick, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, with Rafizi voluntarily taking on the role as “bad guy”.

Anwar is a special case. We have all carried water for Anwar, including this writer, and his failure to reform the system has splashed back on us in a big way.

Rafizi has made it clear that he really doesn’t need all the aggravation that comes with politics, unlike his one-time comrade.

I mean, four years ago, when PKR was out in the cold, Rafizi was warning folks not to be bootlickers when it came to Anwar.

Fast forward a few years, and nobody really paid attention to Rafizi, and when he said those words, he was Anwar’s right hand.

Rafizi said that he wants PKR to sack him because under the party’s constitution, a sacked member retains his seat, while a member who resigns would have their seat vacated.

Pointing out the emperor has no clothes

Here is the thing, though. I have no idea what purpose it serves for Rafizi to remain an MP since Madani has the support it needs from the so-called “progressive wing” - DAP - of the coalition.

Truth be told, I was shocked when people who support progressive politics emailed me with long diatribes of how Rafizi is rocking the boat.

As someone who has no problem rocking the boat, I assumed that folks would be happy when Rafizi points out that the emperor has no clothes.

It says a lot about the progressive forces in this country that Rafizi does not get the support he needs from the progressive wing of Madani.

In fact, the narrative that he is a political operative peddling his sour grapes overrides whatever he says about reform and the failures of the audacity-of-hope type of politics.

When Rafizi was on the campaign stump for the PKR elections, he exposed all sorts of chicanery, which put PKR in the light it deserved.

From claiming the fix is in when it comes to this election for the second-highest post, from the various snubbings of party pow-wows to claiming bots are used, much like Umno does to amplify messaging on social media.

Where does Rafizi stand?

Rafizi was all over the place in painting why the rakyat should not vote for PKR.

He was right to draw attention to personality politics, but his big ideas depend on the political support from his party and comrades, which has changed with the ascension of Madani.

You need a strong personality to do that, especially since you have a generation of young leaders who want to “inherit” from their elders instead of taking over and establishing a political agenda of their own.

Rafizi’s supporters have told me that by sticking with his MP gig, he can continue to build on the momentum he created, and this would be a tactical advantage when defending his seat. He needs to be the rakyat’s eyes and ears, they tell me.

In his posting about his return to active political life, Rafizi made it clear he wants to stake out the multiethnic middle ground.

What this means remains to be seen, especially since the various parties in Madani adhere to the old Umno/BN formula, which Harapan (especially the DAP) always downplays with the Bangsa Malaysia kool-aid.

The fact is that what Rafizi offers obviously does not resonate with PKR’s grassroots, and this says more about what the party has become rather than his ideas, which, for the most part, are utilitarian in nature and would benefit the bumiputera community.

Rafizi talks about a culture of luxury seeping into PKR. He talks about how new members are only there for the positions and perks.

The way Rafizi paints it, who needs Umno when there is PKR? 

Folks these days are struggling with issues, and they have very little time for the internal politics of PKR. Anwar knows this, and he is correct in focusing on the economic storm coming our way.

All this makes the drama that Rafizi is creating seem self-serving, which is what the narratives of Madani and their cyber warriors are peddling.

Rafizi claims that moves are being made in his Pandan seat to oust him from the halls of Putrajaya.

As he said, “We can’t really be surprised if they go ahead and do it anyway, even though there shouldn’t be a by-election - I mean, this is the Madani era.”

This is why he should roll the dice and quit PKR instead of being forced out in some underhanded manner, which would go unnoticed because Malaysians mudah lupa.

The only reckoning or repudiation Madani will understand is if Rafizi wins as an independent.

Malaysiakini : Not deliberately. I no longer drive. When my wife drives up to fill the tank, I go to the counter, hand over my identification card and cash - prepaid, as required - and we pump.

For convenience and depending on who is carrying the MyKad, I sometimes use my wife’s. The kiosk operator, where I have been a customer for over 30 years, has never objected.

Why would he? To him, and to me, it’s a simple family transaction. One spouse helping another. That’s not fraud. That is called marriage.

No IC, no subsidised fuel

Then on Monday, I was told I am an offender. The National Registration Department (NRD) says using another person’s MyKad - even a family member’s - to buy subsidised fuel is prohibited.

NRD director-general Badrul Hisham Alias cited Regulation 25 of the National Registration Regulations 1990 - using or possessing another person’s identity card is an offence.

Come again? Can’t I use my IC to buy petrol for my wife’s car? Can’t I use her IC to buy petrol for her car?

“All counter transactions, including the purchase of fuel, must be conducted personally by the actual MyKad owner,” Badrul said. (This one-line addition makes a lot of difference!)

Let that sink in. Under this interpretation, if your wife is sick, or tired, or waiting in the car with a sleeping child, you cannot simply walk into a petrol station and use your wife’s IC to fill up the family car.

You must drag her to the counter. Every single time. The law, apparently, does not recognise the concept of “helping your spouse”.

This is not about subsidy leakage. This is not about syndicates smuggling or surreptitiously buying subsidised fuel. This is about a bureaucrat applying a regulation so literally that it becomes absurd.

So, I must conclude: the law is an ass.

Before anyone accuses me of name-calling, let me explain. In Charles Dickens’ “Oliver Twist”, Mr Bumble is told that “the law supposes that your wife acts under your direction.”

He replies: “If the law supposes that, the law is an ass - an idiot.”

I am not calling the Lord Master of our births, deaths, and citizenship an idiot. That would be rude. This is a figure of speech. But I am saying that any law which criminalises a husband buying petrol for his wife’s car has lost sight of its purpose.

The purpose of the subsidy rule is to prevent abuse by non-eligible foreigners or commercial misusers. Not to police family kindness.

The enforcement problem

And this brings me to a deeper point. When a law is so widely ignored that most people do not even know it exists, the problem is not the people. The problem is the law. Or the way it is being enforced. Or, in this case, the person doing the enforcing.

Let’s talk about Badrul. Isn’t this the same man who signed a false statutory declaration attesting that he had issued birth certificates based on “secondary evidence” to seven foreigners born a century ago?

Wasn’t his bluff called by the International Federation of Association Football (Fifa), which produced original birth documents contradicting Malaysia’s allegedly doctored submissions?

Didn’t he issue MyKads and citizenship certificates to seven foreign footballers who couldn’t even speak Bahasa Malaysia - a prerequisite for citizenship?

Let me repeat that. A prerequisite for citizenship.

And yet, somehow, these players passed. Somehow, the NRD verified their Malaysian heritage. And when questioned, Badrul promised to answer after a conclusive report.

That report has been out for two months. Where is his answer? Silence.

So here is the irony. The same man who cannot explain how seven foreign footballers obtained Malaysian identity documents is now lecturing ordinary Malaysians about the proper use of a MyKad.

The same man who signed a questionable statutory declaration wants to quote Regulation 25 as if it were holy scripture.

You cannot have it both ways. Either the law is a precise instrument, in which case, explain the footballers. Or the law has some flexibility - in which case, show some compassion to a husband buying petrol for his wife.

Most Malaysians understand the difference between real abuse and everyday life. We know syndicates are using foreign nationals to drain subsidised fuel. We support action against them.

But going after a senior citizen using his wife’s IC at the neighbourhood station? That is not enforcement. That is harassment dressed up as diligence.

What the NRD chief is doing here is selective outrage. He picks an obscure clause, ignores decades of common practice, and threatens legal action against people who have never intended any harm.

Meanwhile, questions about his own department’s integrity go unanswered.

If the law supposes that a husband cannot help his wife buy petrol, Mr Bumble was right the first time.

And if the law supposes that the man who signed off on dubious citizenships gets to lecture the rest of us on proper documentation, then the law is not just an ass. It is a hypocrite.

Malaysiakini : Here are a few “confusing” incidents that have accumulated over the years:

• A cross outside a church was removed because it might “confuse Malay youths”.

• Malay-language Bibles, used by indigenous Christians in Sabah and Sarawak for generations, have been seized or restricted.

• The word “Allah”, a centuries-old term in Malay Christian worship, has been banned in publications.

• Greetings, like “Merry Christmas” or acknowledging Valentine’s Day, have been flagged as potentially confusing.

• Food and dress are not exempt: hot dogs, or root beer, gymnastic leotards or one-piece swimsuits have been treated as potential dangers.

• I also learned from a friend that a school Parent-Teacher Association dinner at a halal Chinese restaurant was criticised because some Malay parents feared that the waiters’ hands might have touched pork at home.

Why are the names of some foods, words, symbols, and even a simple dinner, treated as dangerous? In every instance, there has been no evidence of mass confusion, conversion, or social collapse.

The Malay population is being infantilised, treated as if incapable of understanding nuance, reasoning responsibly, or distinguishing harmless cultural gestures from religious threats.

Control mechanisms

Let us be blunt: this is not about faith or protection. This is about control.

Control over language. Control over religious symbols. Control over what Malays can see, say, or do in public spaces. Control over interaction with other communities. Ultimately, control over political power.

The majority Malay-Muslim population forms the political bedrock of the ruling elite. Any loosening of boundaries, however benign, is perceived as a threat to this structure.

By repeatedly framing Malays as fragile or easily misled, authorities justify constant oversight. They cast themselves as guardians of morality, while treating ordinary citizens like children who cannot be trusted. This is systematic patronisation disguised as care.

The long-term consequences of these control mechanisms are profound. Children risk growing up in a world where every word, gesture, and meal is scrutinised. This will internalise fear and rigidity.

They will become adults who see difference as dangerous, who distrust those outside their immediate community, and who accept extreme restrictions as normal. Today’s “protection from confusion” is tomorrow’s ultra-conservative, intolerant society.

Islam, like most major faiths, emphasises reason, personal responsibility, and trust in human capacity. However, this system treats Malays as incapable of discernment or judgment. It replaces trust with control and faith with fear, and this cannot be right.

The real problem

The irony is clear. Authorities encourage Bahasa Malaysia as the national language, yet when Malay-speaking Christians, like the Ibans, use it in worship, they are “confusing”.

They insist on strict halal observance and monitoring of meals, yet a simple gesture of hospitality is treated as a potential threat.

They claim to protect faith, but the real aim is to keep people in line, maintain social predictability, and protect political dominance.

True unity, tolerance, and understanding cannot be achieved through fear, restriction, or moral policing. They are nurtured when people are trusted to engage, reason, and coexist. If a shared meal, a word, a cross, or a greeting can “confuse” Malays, the problem is not the interaction itself.

The real problem lies in the persistent, patronising mindset of control that refuses to treat citizens as capable, informed adults.

As a child, my experience was that inter-ethnic life in schools was more organic. At break time, Malay, Chinese, Indian, and Eurasian students often shared food. There was a simple understanding of boundaries; pork was not offered to Muslim classmates, and beef was not shared with Hindu friends. Interaction was open and natural.

That environment required little regulation, and as children, we learned through everyday experience how to balance differences with respect. The resulting generation grew up broadly tolerant, adaptable, and comfortable with diversity.

Social cohesion

Today, those interactions that were once handled naturally through social understanding are increasingly subject to scrutiny and official control. What was once built through trust is now often conditioned by rules and oversight.

The issue is not whether sensitivities should be respected, because they always were, but whether replacing everyday trust with increasing control strengthens cohesion or slowly erodes it.

Malaysia cannot hope for genuine social cohesion while its leaders treat its majority population like children to be supervised at every step. The real danger is not cultural interaction, but a religious nanny state that masks power and control as concern and protection.

Until we confront this truth, walls will continue to rise, suspicion will deepen, and the very unity that authorities claim to protect will remain elusive.

Downtown Dubai – Dubai – United Arab Emirates by Xiaotong Gao, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

When the United States and Israel launched their coordinated assault on Iran in the early hours of February 28, 2026, an operation Washington has named “Operation Epic Fury”, the Gulf states did not cheer. They watched with dread.

That is not quite true. We know that behind the scenes, the Saudi crown prince had for months been urging President Trump to attack Iran. He must have watched not with dread as American and Israel launched their initial attack, but with quiet satisfaction.

For years, they had invested enormous diplomatic capital in preventing precisely this moment. They had engaged Tehran, maintained embassies, and offered repeated assurances that their territories would not serve as launchpads against the Islamic Republic.

That Iran’s response has been to turn its missiles on these same neighbours is not only a strategic miscalculation of historic proportions, but is also a profound moral and legal failure that risks poisoning relations for generations to come.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states did not arrive at this crisis as Iran’s enemies. They arrived as reluctant bystanders, having spent years threading a needle between Washington and Tehran with deliberate, often thankless, care….

I disagree with the writer, Sultan Al-Khulaifi. For years the Gulf Arabs have been alarmed as they watched Iran create a “Shi’a crescent” extending from Iran to include Shia militias in Iraq, Shia Houthis in Yemen, Shia Hezbollah in Lebanon, and even Hamas, though its membership was Sunni, was provided aid by Iran, that treated Hamas as an “honorary Shia” member because it was hellbent, like Iran, on destroying the Jewish state.

Every missile fired at Dubai or Doha or Riyadh shifts the narrative, pulls the Gulf states deeper into a conflict they sought to avoid, and weakens the very actors most capable of mediating a way out. This is a strategic miscalculation of the first order. The interest of the wider region lies in preventing Israel from emerging as the unchallenged hegemon of the Middle East, a scenario that becomes more likely, not less, the more Iran pushes its Arab neighbours out of their potential role as honest brokers and into the arms of a deeper security alignment with Washington. Iran, in targeting the Gulf, is not resisting the new regional order; it is inadvertently constructing it.

What Sultan Al-Khulaifi chooses not to say is that these Gulf Arab states are not just moving closer to Washington, but also closer to Jerusalem. The UAE and Bahrain were already linked to Israel in the Abrahamic Accords, and their support for the Jewish state has only deepened as it becomes obvious that Israel is the single most effective military power, even more than the United States, against Iran. 

Saudi Arabia, which for months before the war broke out had behind the scenes been urging Trump to attack Iran, has clearly been appreciative of the IDF’s destruction of so many ballistic missiles and drones that Iran will no longer be able to launch on Saudi oil production facilities. The UAE too, having endured more Iranian ballistic missile attacks even than Israel, is grateful to the Jewish state for doing such damage to Iran’s store of ballistic missiles, its ballistic missile plants, and its missile launchers. 

Among the Gulf Arab states, Qatar was the closest to Iran, which is why the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members — especially the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain — blockaded Qatar between 2017 and 2022, accusing it of supporting Iran-backed groups and fostering closer ties with Iran, which they viewed as a threat to regional security.

Even if the war with Iran were to be halted tomorrow, and no more missiles or drones were launched by Tehran at the Gulf Arab states, it would take many years for the bad blood between the Gulf Arabs and Iran to subside. Iran — the Shi’a and non-Arab outlier in a Sunni Arab sea — will be shunned by its neighbors unless it agrees to pay for all the damage it has inflicted on the Gulf Arab states, which as of now exceeds $100 billion. I don’t think Iran will ever agree to that.

Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, Facebook

“Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter are now in the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” the State Department said in a statement after Rubio revoked their green cards.

The State Department noted that while the pair were living in the US, Afshar “promoted Iranian regime propaganda, celebrated attacks against American soldiers and military facilities in the Middle East, praised the new Iranian Supreme Leader, denounced America as the ‘Great Satan,’ and voiced her unflinching support for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a designated terror organization.”

So Hamideh Soleimani Afshar felt so secure with her green card that, far from keeping quiet so as not to attract unwelcome attention, she spouted Iranian Islamic regime propaganda, celebrated attacks against American soldiers and military facilities, declared her undying support for the IRGC that the American government has designated as a terror organization, and called America, where she wanted to live, the “Great Satan.”

The statement noted that Afshar did all of this while living a life of luxury in Los Angeles, as evidenced by posts on her Instagram account, which has since been deleted.

She supports the IRGC wholeheartedly, that group of cutthroats her uncle headed before his timely demise, a sinister armed force well known for its torture and murder of Iranian protesters. But she has been doing her cheerleading from Los Angeles, far from the police state she wants to survive, as long as she herself need not endure it. 

And as a pampered child of the corrupt Iranian nomenklatura, she has plenty of money from her doting uncle, but it can’t be as easily spent in Iran, where her lavish living would raise eyebrows among ordinary Iranians. 

So she somehow managed under the Biden administration to be admitted to the United States, where she is able to buy and enjoy, far from the prying eyes of her fellow Iranians, her Hermès foulards and Chanel perfumes and Elie Saab gowns and Birkin bags, and suchlike luxe found in high-end shops along Rodeo Drive.

How was it that she was admitted to the United States in the first place? Surely the name “Soleimani” on an Iranian passport should have set off alarm bells. What was the reason they were both given green cards? Did they claim they were being persecuted in Iran? It shouldn’t have been hard for well-trained immigration officers to ferret out the truth. Wasn’t a Persian-speaking officer available to interrogate her? Or were those immigration officers — let’s get their names, please — simply asleep at the wheel?

And how long have they been in this country, the niece and grand-niece of Qasem Soleimani who are freely spouting Iranian regime propaganda and declaring their undying support for the Islamic Republic? There are 140,000 Iranian-Americans in Los Angeles County, and at least 500,000 in Southern California. Did none of those people, able to read her online posts in Persian, think that she should be reported to the authorities? Of course, in the Biden administration, no one would have paid much attention. They were not interested in “punishing innocent relatives” of Iranian officials.

The State Department under Marco Rubio has been going aggressively after relatives of Islamic Republic leaders now living in this country, determined to strip them of their green cards and to promptly deport them.

These relatives of Islamic Republic big shots know, despite their claims of admiration and support for the Islamic Republic, that they can only be happy in the Great Satan, whose freedoms they enjoy even while they try to undermine the country, our country, that in a fit of absentmindedness let them in. And of course, it’s far better to spend the money their corrupt relatives gave them out of sight of starving Iranians. These hideous people should never have been admitted in the first place, but now justice will be done. 

They will be located, arrested, and quickly deported. The daughter of the slain Iranian leader Ali Larijani and her husband are already home, and Soleimani’s niece and grand-niece will within days be sent packing to Tehran. The criminals who run Iran should learn that not only they, but all of their relatives will be kept out of the United States, the “Great Satan” they are so eager to live in. Sorry, says Marco Rubio, our splendid Secretary of State. No can do.

USAF F-16A F-15C F-15E Desert Storm, US Air Force, Public domain

US officials had earlier confirmed the mission to FOX News, explaining that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had conducted an extensive deception campaign as part of the rescue effort.

The Airman, who hasn’t yet been publicly named, was one of two aircrew flying the F-15 when it was shot down. A US military team rescued the aircraft’s pilot later that day, but the second airman was stranded for 36 hours in mountainous terrain before being rescued by US forces.

The CIA campaign involved spreading word inside Iran that US forces had already found him and were moving him overland for exfiltration, confusing Iranian forces and leadership in their own search for the missing airman.

While Iranian forces grappled with misinformation, US intelligence was able to aid in locating the airman in Iran and assist in a US special forces extraction mission.

It was the ultimate “needle in a haystack” scenario, a US official told Fox News. “A courageous American hidden within a mountain crevice, undetectable by conventional means but revealed through CIA intelligence,” he said….

Foreign reports have claimed that Israeli commandos participated in the operation. However, an IDF source stated to the Post that these reports are completely false.

Note that the IDF denies that Israeli commandos took part in the actual rescue and extraction of the downed American, but did not say that Israelis played no part. In fact, an IDF source confirmed that Israel provided intelligence to the Americans. 

Isn’t it likely that Mossad helped supply information to the Americans about the situation on the ground near where the airman was located, such as what Iranian forces were in the area and whether Iranians collaborating with Mossad were also close by? Surely Mossad would also have helped spread inside Iran the false story about the Americans having already found the airman and were taking him overland out of the country. 

This led the Iranians to look for him in the wrong places, and to ignore the possibility of an extraction by air. I haven’t heard anyone in the IDF claim that Israel played “no part whatsoever in the rescue.” In fact, an IDF source confirmed that Israel did supply the Americans with useful intelligence, and also bombed certain Iranian sites as a diversionary tactic, but did not take part in the rescue itself.

During the operation, US forces reportedly established a temporary air base for their search mission, during which two MC-130J planes became stuck, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

MC-130Js are specially equipped aircraft used for covert infiltration and the extraction of troops from behind enemy lines.

Due to the planes being immobilized, three additional planes were reportedly sent in for final extraction, NYT reported, and US forces made the decision to blow up the downed planes before evacuating the area.

After the successful extraction mission, Iranian forces discovered the remains of the MC-130J planes and falsely claimed that their military had shot them down.

“According to the IRGC Public Relations Department, through divine favor, the hostile American drone that had been tracking a downed fighter pilot in the southern Isfahan was shot down.” IRNA news tweeted regarding the MC-130J aircraft.

The Iranians did not shoot down the two MC-130J aircraft, as they claimed. “Divine favor” of Allah had nothing to do with it. These very heavy planes had landed, got stuck on the inhospitable ground (mud? sand? rocks?), and could not take off. The decision was made to blow them up, to prevent them from falling intact into enemy hands. But Iranians are being told that Iran’s anti-aircraft fire brought them down. Very few people in Iran are still willing to believe the nonsense and lies their rulers disseminate.

What effect will this rescue have on Iranians? First, they will be mightily impressed with the ability of the American military to find this human needle in a haystack, somewhere in the mountainous wastes of western Iran. Second, they will again see that the Americans have beaten their blustering rulers to the punch — with aid in part from their indispensable ally, Israel — who got to the airman and extracted him by air, while Iranian forces had been tricked into going on a wild goose chase in western Iran, convinced by rumors that Mossad spread that the Americans had found the airman and were supposedly already taking him overland out of Iran.

Third, and perhaps most important, the Iranians can compare how the Americans will move heaven and earth to rescue one of their own, just as the IDF tried to rescue, at great cost, hostages kidnapped by Hamas, while the rulers in Tehran don’t give a damn about the safety of their people, and are willing to use their own civilians as cannon fodder in order to ensure that the regime itself remains in power. The latest example of this is the regime’s new policy, announced on March 26, to recruit children as young as twelve for “Homeland Defending Combatants” roles. 

They are assigned to help out in the war effort, manning urban checkpoints and handling security patrols in Tehran, amid severe manpower shortages. Recruiting children under 15 into armed forces or using them in hostilities is classified as a war crime under international law, as noted by the UN Treaty of the Rights of the Child.

After I wrote the above, more about Israel’s role in the rescue was made public, which included diversionary airstrikes by the IDF. More on what Israel did to help in the rescue can be found here: “IDF intelligence, strikes helped US rescue downed pilot, sources tell ‘Post,'” by Amichai Stein, Jerusalem Post, April 5, 2026:

The 48-hour mission, which a senior US official described as “the boldest and most courageous rescue operation in history,” relied also on Israeli intelligence and tactical support to ensure the pilots were extracted before they could be captured by Iranian forces.

According to sources who spoke with The Jerusalem Post, the IDF, acting in cooperation with US forces, launched a series of strikes against Iranian targets. These strikes were strategically designed to act as a diversion, drawing Iranian security forces away from the crash site and toward other areas.

In addition to the diversionary tactics, the IDF targeted specific Iranian assets with the intent to sabotage and disrupt Tehran’s race toward the pilots, blinding the Iranian military partially to the pilots’ location while the extraction team moved in.

Thank God Israel is on our side and we, thank God, are on Israel’s.

Malaysiakini : The driver was first accused of being “mabuk” (drunk), intoxicated by liquor. That was enough to ignite the frenzy. When he later admitted to self-administering benzodiazepine and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the narrative should have shifted. It didn’t.

The widow wept, calling for an eye for an eye. The public raged. From the woodwork crawled the "religious experts," consultants, rabble-rousers, and agent provocateurs - quick on the draw, selling hatred wrapped in race and religion.

Religious leaders and government officials stood in line to partake in the tragedy, introducing religious jurisprudence instead of the statute books.

Then came the law: the attorney-general himself, justifying the murder charge on the driver.

Speaking to Malaysiakini, Dusuki Mokhtar stressed that the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) gave due consideration before deciding to charge 28-year-old R Saktygaanapathy under Section 302 of the Penal Code for causing the death of Amirul Hafiz Omar, a warehouse worker and delivery rider.

Dusuki explained that the accused’s action, purportedly deliberately entering the opposite lane at high speed, created a situation that was “so imminently dangerous” to the deceased, as provided for under Section 300(d) of the Penal Code.

The said law applies where a person commits an act knowing it to be so imminently dangerous that it will, in all probability, cause death.

Thus began another round where race and religion took centre stage. What about other crashes where there were multiple losses of lives? Citizens went back to the archives.

Underage driver

Two months ago, a mother who allowed her underage son to drive her car, which later got into an accident claiming three lives, was fined RM1,500 by the Seremban Magistrate's Court.

“After considering the guilty plea by the accused, mitigating factors and submissions by parties and the aggravating factors, the court hereby fines the accused RM1,500 in default three months jail,” ruled magistrate Nurul Azuin Talhah, according to the South China Morning Post.

So, going by the same AGC logic, didn’t the mother anticipate that her son, who was not qualified or competent to drive, would cause the crash by driving on public roads?

Last Thursday, three individuals were killed while two others sustained minor injuries in a road accident involving three vehicles on the Johor Bahru-Seremban road.

Johor police chief Ab Rahaman Arsad said the incident, which occurred at around 3.45pm, is believed to have happened when a trailer driven by a man crashed into the rear of a van carrying the victims.

According to him, the trailer driver has been detained to assist in the investigation, and initial urine tests found that the man tested positive for methamphetamine.

So now, the public is waiting with bated breath to see if the lorry driver will be charged with murder.

Gerik bus crash

In another case, a special task force under the Transport Ministry found that the Gerik bus crash, which killed 15 Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris students in June last year, was caused by a combination of brake system failure and the driver’s actions while descending a slope.

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READ MORE: 15 lives lost: Probe exposes systemic failures - who will be held accountable?

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The report, among others, concluded:

• The bus’s braking system was compromised because of deformation and wear on the left rear brake drum, grease and oil contamination on the linings, and inconsistencies in the brake lining material. The combination of brake issues and excessive speed caused the bus to lose stability, skid, and overturn.

• The vehicle struck a W-beam guardrail, which penetrated the cabin, resulting in multiple injuries and fatalities.

It said the pattern of applications indicated a high likelihood of abuse of the exemption mechanism, including licence leasing or system manipulation by unlicensed operators.

The report identified several interrelated contributing factors, including weaknesses in road design, vehicle specifications, poor operator governance, insufficient industry compliance, and gaps in regulatory oversight.

Now, here is the interesting part. It was not just the reckless driver. The report pointed to government agencies contributing partly to the deaths.

Highways have guardrails to prevent vehicles from plunging into ravines. But at the accident site, they acted not to save the bus, but became a giant spear, piercing through the left side of the vehicle.

How did this happen? The task force found several things wrong with the guardrail, including improper installation and assembly errors.

The spacing between guardrail posts was 3.8m, far over the 2m limit. The guardrail panels were installed against the flow of traffic, and multiple bolts were missing.

This resulted in it snapping upon impact, instead of cushioning the bus, noted the report. The end of the guardrail was not folded back, but became a sharp, piercing point.

Now, here’s the million-ringgit question: What about the contributory negligence?

After the crash, Works Minister Alexander Nanta Linggi said that since 2023, various initiatives have been undertaken to enhance the Gerik-Jeli route, particularly along the FT04 federal road.

He said all upgrading works on FT04 were completed in phases between July and August 2023, with a total cost of RM55.73 million, based on road damage assessments conducted through the pavement condition assessment.

Targeting alcoholic beverages

Going back to the recent case, the debate continued, a do-gooder, a newly minted doctor-turned-celebrity, doubled down. Not content with banning beer at convenience stores, she now wants coffee shops and restaurants to follow suit.

Because nothing says “road safety” like forcing Uncle Bala to empty his stout into the sink.

Never mind that the driver was on drugs. Beer has a brand and a villain we can see. Beer has a label. Beer can be banned. Drugs are unbranded, sold discreetly by unknown hands with a bigger profit margin.

Then came the second wave: a proposal to end all alcohol sales by 9pm because drunk drivers, as we all know, only crash after 9pm. Before that, they are model citizens. The logic is so flawless it hurts.

Then came another: Take the car, sell it, and give money to the widow, but it is not as easy as it sounds.

If the car had been purchased on hire purchase, as most Malaysians do, legally, the bank that offers the loan is the owner. The driver is the hirer. Period.

And oh, the penalties - bizarre, outlandish, and perhaps, loony.

The death penalty, life imprisonment, caning, fines up to RM1 million, and permanent driving bans. One politician even suggested mandatory compensation to the victim's family - which actually makes sense.

So, the chorus grows louder. The widow's grief – genuine and heartbreaking - is now a political prop. Her tears are livestreamed, shared, and weaponised. Every uncle on Facebook demands that the driver be hanged from a bridge.

Never mind that the same uncles would defend their own nephews, high on ketum juice, who knock down elderly people at pedestrian crossings. Or drive a passenger bus while high on drugs.

Hypocrisy galore

Hypocrisy is the national pastime; we just forgot the rules.

Somewhere, in a police lockup, the actual culprit sits quietly. Forgotten. Because the frenzy is not about him anymore. It's about us and our rage, righteousness and desperate need to feel something - anything - other than the quiet horror of 6,000 bodies a year.

So, go ahead, ban the beer, end alcohol sales at 9pm and hang the driver from a lamp post. Just don't expect it to bring back the motorcyclist, nor fix the carnage on our roads.

The killer is behind the wheel - not the beer.

“Therefore, in view of the circumstances at that particular time and in the interest of justice, peace, and harmony, I decided not to press any charges against them.”

Remember when the top cop in Terengganu said this: “In Terengganu, 97 percent of the population are Malays, and they still respect older people in their villages. They respect the village chief, imam and bilal. Such a way of life is an advantage that can prevent gangsterism-related crimes."

Or the narratives spun around the 2018 death of firefighter Adib Kassim, in which prime ministerial adviser A Kadir Jasin questioned why the police did not arrest any Indian Malaysians over the riots related to the Sri Maha Mariamman temple in Subang Jaya, Selangor:

“I am sorry to say, it is a bit difficult to understand how so many police personnel with state-of-the-art equipment... did not see even one among the many Indian people who were there not committing any wrongdoings. It couldn’t have been so dark (gelap) when so many vehicles were burned?

“So if it is true that police in the 21st century cannot see rioters because it was dark, I suggest the Home Ministry request an allocation from the Finance Ministry to purchase torchlights for police personnel.”

Fueling racial narratives

So when Attorney-General Dusuki Mokhtar on Friday defended charging 28-year-old R Saktygaanapathy with murder by saying “I must act as a guardian of the public interest and ensure justice for the victim’s family, who are seeking fair and equitable justice”, the question rational Malaysians, regardless of race or religion, have to ask is which part of the public is his office a guardian of?

Ever notice that whenever a tragedy like this happens, folks are always waiting to see the race of the perpetrator and victim?

Then there is a sigh of relief when you discover that the perpetrator was not from your community, and this time, collective blame would not be assigned to your community.

Of course, there are always people from your community who, for whatever reasons, will mimic racist narratives, which merely enables the prejudices endemic to the state, but that is a topic for another time.

Whenever any kind of violence is brought upon the majority community by minorities, everyone tenses up because even if it is an accident, we know that the issue will be portrayed as a racial issue.

And whenever violence is brought upon a minority community by the majority, false equivalencies are the talking points of the day.

I read all these think pieces pleading for some systemic reform whose impetus is the death of Amirul Hafiz Omar, thereby attempting to take race out of the equation.

Meanwhile, this is manna from heaven for race and religion political operatives to detract from their political failings and depraved indifference to the community they constantly tell us they are champions for.

Tragedies used to advance agendas

Transport Minister Anthony Loke is told to do something, and he dutifully does. Of course, nobody told him to do something for the hundreds of deaths that occur during festive periods. This is what president Zaly Shah of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport Malaysia reportedly said:

“An average of 18 people a day die in road accidents, but statistics I have seen show that accidents involving drunk drivers are small, isolated, and seasonal. When one happens, another may follow, but when it doesn’t occur, it doesn’t happen at all.

“Careless driving due to environmental factors, rain, and infrastructure issues such as potholes contributes more compared to drunken drivers.”

And PKR Youth was reported as insisting “that local governments introduce ‘dram shop liability’, which would hold operators legally accountable if they ‘over-serve’ customers, as a new clause in business licences for premises selling alcohol.”

Where was the outcry for bus drivers or boat drivers who caused deaths while under the influence or municipal malfeasances and corruption, which have led to deaths?

Look, all this is a matter of public record and yes, even the ethnicity of perpetrators and victims. Did we see the same outrage from the state or society when the victims were minorities?

The recent accident in Segamat, Johor, demonstrates the differing standards and attitudes of both political operatives and the hoi polloi.

Forget about the legalese for a moment. Forget about race for a moment. Every day, we witness Malaysians driving recklessly.

Do you think any of them wanted to murder anyone? Do you think when an accident happens, either through negligence or recklessness, that those folks thought today is a good day to murder someone?

Lawyer Eric Paulsen has the right of it when he says, “Swerving onto the opposite lane is ordinarily treated as recklessness or dangerous driving, not as an act so imminently dangerous that death must in all probability follow.

“To hold otherwise would mean that most, if not all, deaths caused by a vehicle crossing into oncoming traffic would now warrant a murder charge. That cannot be the state of the law.”

Why don’t we just throw away all legal provisions when it comes to negligence, or mistakes, or impaired judgment? Or better yet, why not add a constitutional amendment that says those laws do not apply when it comes to a specific demographic?

After all, privileging one community over others and weaponising tragedies are desiderata of supremacist ideologies.

Malaysiakini : These enhanced punishments were passed after several drunk driving incidents in October 2020, when Peikatan Nasional was in power.

Now, some are calling for the death penalty.

Machang MP Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal (formerly from Bersatu) said this will send a “clear message that human life cannot be taken lightly and any action endangering others will face the heaviest consequences.”

PAS Youth chief and Alor Setar MP Afnan Hamimi Taib Azamudden also demanded blood, or “a life for a life”. But why didn’t Bersatu and PAS push for heavier penalties, such as whipping or compensation for victims, when they were in power?

That most “Chinese” person, Ridhuan Tee Abdullah, poured oil on the fire, saying, “Yang tonggang arak si kapir, yang mati Melayu (Islam)... Noktahkan segera sebelum org Islam hilang sabar. (The kafirs ride on alcohol while the Malays die. End it before Muslims lose patience).”

His Facebook post got 43,000 likes and 5,500 shares.

With such fury, it’s not surprising that the driver has been charged with murder.

But let’s be consistent. What about other dangerous, negligent, and corrupt behaviour that causes deaths?

Some are “high” on reckless riding or driving, while others are “drunk” on bribes. All have deadly consequences.

1. Mat Rempit

Motorcyclists made up two-thirds of 6,537 road deaths in 2025, with those aged 16 to 30 at the highest risk, according to the transport minister. In contrast, there were only 69 cases of fatal drunk driving over 10 years (2011-2021), according to police statistics.

This is not to downplay the need to punish drunk drivers, but to ask: why isn’t there similar outrage against the notorious Mat Rempit?

So far, they have mostly killed or injured themselves (burdening the public health system), but if an innocent bystander is “murdered” by them, should the death penalty be imposed?

2. Logging and deadly landslides 

Five people were killed in December 2021 near Bentong, Pahang, after deadly landslides laden with mud and logs.

I hiked in the steep hills near Karak a year later and saw that the forests had been cleared and replaced with farms and even a service road. Whole slopes had been washed away.

It made me wonder who was responsible for this disastrous policy and what their punishment should be. Would PAS say “a life for a life”?

3. Dangerous lorry, bus drivers

We have become immune to news of bus and lorry accidents. A total of 203 bus-related accidents occurred in Malaysia from January 2023 to May this year, resulting in 39 deaths and 68 serious injuries.

The causes, said police, included overworked drivers chasing tight schedules, speeding on wet roads, brake failure, worn-out tyres, and yes, drugs.

News reports also point to drivers being hired despite multiple past traffic violations. Biasa la (normal la). Somehow, these don’t raise the same level of indignation as alcohol.

In September 2024, Loke said many long-distance bus drivers had tested positive for drugs.

In May 2025, nine FRU men near Teluk Intan were killed by a lorry driver with six past criminal cases for drugs, rape, and theft.

The carnage continues. In March, a trailer lorry smashed into three cars in Penang, causing serious injuries. The driver tested positive for syabu or methamphetamine.

A study revealed that fatal road accidents involving heavy vehicles like lorries have claimed 1,457 lives from 2019 to 2024. That’s one life lost every 36 hours. Luckily, deaths declined in 2025.

This is a recurring problem in Malaysia. Is it because we live in a “boleh kautim” culture where some “coffee money” can induce some officials to “close one eye” to broken rules?

In April 2025, a Road Transport Department (RTD) official in Malacca was jailed for bribing his fellow officers to ignore overloaded lorries, which is obviously a safety issue.

In July 2024, another RTD official in Kedah was charged with taking RM42,100 in bribes to overlook rules broken by a lorry company.

It’s also been alleged that Puspakom is “riddled” with corruption, where “runners” routinely secure “roadworthy” certificates with perfunctory inspections.

So, if we’re calling for drunk drivers to be hanged, what about bus and lorry drivers on drugs? What about corrupt officers who enable this bloodbath on the roads? What about transport companies that hire drivers with multiple misdeeds?

Some will blame Loke for this, but I do wonder, did he have the power to bust corrupt traffic cops or RTD officers? That seems to be under the jurisdiction of the police and MACC.

4) Rotten system

Finally, let’s come to government responsibility. In June last year, a tragic accident on the East-West Highway killed 15 UPSI students. Six months later, a Transport Ministry special task force released its findings.

Highways have guardrails to prevent vehicles from plunging into ravines. However, at the accident site, they acted not to save the bus, but as a giant “spear” piercing through the left side of the vehicle, causing 11 of the 15 deaths, lamented the report.

How did this happen? The spacing between guardrail posts was 3.8m, far over the 2m limit. The guardrail panels were installed against the flow of traffic, and multiple bolts were missing.

Instead of cushioning the bus, the end of the guardrail snapped and failed to fold upon impact, becoming a sharp, piercing object.

Yet two days after the accident, Works Minister Alexander Nanta Linggi defended the Public Works Department, claiming that the guardrails met “international safety standards”!

To worsen matters, due to dirt and a lack of maintenance, the reflectors on the guardrails were obscured, while the road had no reflective markings. This made it difficult for drivers to see the road edges.

Brake failure was the main cause of the bus losing control and crashing. Yet just two months before, the bus had passed an inspection by Puspakom.

The task force report concluded that only the driver and travel companies were punished, but not government departments or regulatory agencies, despite their failings.

However, few people remember the task force’s findings because it’s a “boring” road safety issue, rather than a fiery racial issue.

And now, we have the Klang accident being racialised. If we want to punish an Indian drunk-druggie driver for murder, the same should apply to bus and lorry drivers who cause fatal accidents when “drunk” on drugs.

Would Ridhuan declare that we should stop all this “sebelum orang Islam hilang sabar”? Most importantly, is there something wrong with the system that enables carnage on our roads to continue? Is it corruption? Negligence? Cronyism?

Will Wan Fayhsal dare to point the finger at the authorities for failing in their duty to enforce road safety rules?

Will he declare that the death penalty is needed to send a “clear message that human life cannot be taken lightly and any action endangering others will face the heaviest consequences”?

Or is outrage limited only to alcohol?

Malaysiakini : Historical truths we must acknowledge

To begin with, let us acknowledge that the Orang Asli are the earliest inhabitants of Peninsular Malaysia who have lived on this land for tens of thousands of years. Their presence represents the foundational layer of our nation’s history. Our Orang Asli brothers and sisters are an integral part of our multi-tiered society.

As noted by Iskandar Carey in “Orang Asli: The Aboriginal Tribes of Peninsular Malaysia”, the Orang Asli occupy a “special position as the truly indigenous inhabitants” of the peninsula. He further emphasised that they lived in the region “before the arrival of the other races, that is, the Malays, the Chinese and the Indians”.

Centuries later, the Malays (early migrants) emerged as the definitive people of the peninsula, shaping its political institutions, cultural identity, and systems of governance through the establishment of enduring sultanates. The rise of powerful polities such as the Malacca sultanate in the fifteenth century marked a turning point in the consolidation of Malay political authority and cultural influence in our society.

In modern times, the Malays have constituted the core of our nation’s political leadership since independence. Our civil service has been largely drawn from the Malay community.

So too have been our army and police, who help to secure our borders and ensure that law and order prevail. Malaysia’s constitutional monarchy, which is rooted in the system of Malay rulers, serves as a bedrock of stability and harmony in our often-fractious society.

This dual recognition is not contradictory. Rather, it reflects the richness, depth, and complexity of Malaysia’s historical evolution and our uniquely layered multi-ethnic heritage.

Contributions of all communities

Malaysia, as it exists today, is the product of the contributions, sacrifices, and aspirations of diverse communities. Over time, people of different ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds have come together – through labour, enterprise, intellect, and service – to build and sustain the nation.

From early trade networks and colonial economic development to post-independence nation-building, the contributions of multiple communities are the defining hallmark of our national identity.

Non-Malay communities (later migrants) have played a vital role in Malaysia’s nation-building and economic development.

Chinese entrepreneurs and labourers were central to the growth of tin mining, commerce, and urban centres, laying the foundations of modern industry and trade. Indian communities contributed significantly to plantation agriculture, public works, railways, security, and the civil service.

Over time, both communities expanded into business, education, medicine, law, and the professions, strengthening the nation’s human capital.

Alongside other minority groups and together with the Malays, they enriched Malaysia’s cultural diversity, stimulated economic growth, and contributed to the emergence of a dynamic and resilient multi-ethnic society.

Equally, East Malaysians, including the Ibans, Kadazandusun, and many other indigenous communities of Sabah and Sarawak, have played a vital role in nation-building. Their rich cultural heritage, stewardship of the land, and contributions in public service, defence, and governance have strengthened the Malaysian federation.

Any meaningful call for unity must fully recognise and honour their rightful place as equal partners in the nation’s past, present, and future.

Any narrative that diminishes, ignores, or excludes these contributions does a disservice to truth and undermines the very foundations of our national unity.

Eschewing the label ‘pendatang’

It is therefore both unjust and historically unsound to label non-Malays as pendatang in a derogatory manner that questions their legitimacy, belonging, or citizenship. Such a label is not only divisive; it is deeply damaging to the project of nation-building that remains challenging.

A mature and confident society does not foster unity by devaluing others. It nurtures unity by recognising shared belonging, mutual dignity, and common purpose.

Many non-Malay families, particularly the Malacca Baba-Nyonya, Portuguese Eurasians, and the Malacca Chettis, have lived in this country for generations.

They have worked, sacrificed, paid taxes, defended the nation, developed institutions, and contributed to every sphere of national life. They are not outsiders to Malaysia’s story - they are an integral part of it.

Faithful to constitutional vision

Let us remain faithful to the vision of our founding fathers and the Malay rulers: a nation that is secular in character and allows freedom of worship, multi-ethnic in composition, and ultimately just and non-discriminatory.

The framework that binds this diverse society into a cohesive nation is the Federal Constitution. It remains the supreme law of the land, providing both the structure of governance and the moral compass of the nation. It recognises the special position of the Malays and the indigenous peoples under Article 153.

At the same time, it also guarantees equality before the law under Article 8 and citizenship rights irrespective of ethnicity. It is within this judiciously balanced constitutional framework that Malaysia’s identity as a multi-ethnic, inclusive, and just society must be understood and preserved.

A shared homeland, a shared vision

In light of these realities, we must affirm that Malaysia is a shared homeland. It does not belong exclusively to any single group, but to all who are bound by citizenship, loyalty, and a shared commitment to its future.

Unity, therefore, cannot be built on exclusionary narratives or bigoted and divisive rhetoric. It must be grounded in truth, mutual respect, and a genuine appreciation of diversity as a source of strength.

Malaysia urgently needs to rekindle its shared national vision, one that rises above ethnic suspicions and sectarian politics. Malaysia’s vision should be to become a just, inclusive, and progressive nation where every citizen, regardless of ethnicity or religion, feels a genuine sense of national belonging.

Such a vision must inspire all citizens to see themselves first and foremost as Malaysians, bound together by a common destiny. We must learn to work together, not as competing ethnic communities, but as partners in a common national enterprise.

No community can build Malaysia alone. And no community should be made to feel that it does not fully belong to the nation.

What Malaysians must do

To translate this vision into reality, Malaysians must embrace certain fundamental guiding principles. There must first be a commitment to a truthful and inclusive historical understanding, one that acknowledges the contributions of all communities fairly and accurately.

Respect for diversity must be practised consistently in everyday life, transcending differences of ethnicity, religion, and culture.

Citizens must consciously reject divisive narratives that promote prejudice, exclusion, or superiority, and instead uphold constitutional values that define rights and responsibilities within a shared legal framework.

Above all, Malaysians must actively build bridges across communities, fostering trust, empathy, cooperation, and a common national purpose.

The role of government

The government bears a profound responsibility in shaping a united nation. It must ensure that education, particularly the teaching of history, reflects a balanced, accurate, and inclusive national narrative.

History can unite a nation, but only if it is narrated truthfully and inclusively. Scholars such as Azmi Sharom have cautioned against narrow historical interpretations that undermine critical thinking and inclusiveness.

Equally important, the government must uphold justice and equality through the impartial application of laws, while honouring constitutional provisions. Public policies should promote national integration and social cohesion rather than deepen divisions.

National leaders, in particular, must demonstrate integrity, reject divisive politics, and articulate a unifying vision that inspires collective purpose and national confidence.

Truth, courage, and collective will

Ultimately, a united Malaysia will not emerge by accident. It must be consciously and consistently built through courage in confronting uncomfortable truths, discipline in upholding justice, and sincerity in fostering inclusiveness.

The responsibility lies not only with institutions of governance but also with every citizen who calls this nation home.

If Malaysia is to thrive in the years ahead, it must remain steadfast in its commitment to unity in diversity.

A national pledge

Let this be our pledge:

• To honour the truth of our shared past.

• To uphold the principles of justice and equality.

• To reject discord and embrace unity.

• To work together for the common good.

And to build a Malaysia that is not only prosperous and stable, but also just, inclusive, and truly united – for this generation and those to come.

Malaysiakini : And the opposition is not stupid and incompetent, but merely going to use as a blueprint what Madani is doing now if they ever gain political power. The opposition is not making much noise in these corruption issues because they understand that this is the way they are going to handle things when they assume power.

In fact, by remaining silent, they allow Madani to be the corrupt party in this, and what they say will not come back to bite their behinds when they assume power and do the same thing. Let us be honest here. We can talk about “big fishes” when it comes to corruption, but recall when Pakatan Harapan was in power for the first time.

Harapan, if you remember, talked a good game about cleaning up corruption but always found an excuse for not doing it when in power. Remember the investigation into former Sarawak governor Abdul Taib Mahmud - perhaps the white whale of oppositional talking points when it came to corruption - came to a standstill?

Then de facto law minister Liew Vui Keong said, “They were not new evidence that would allow MACC to open a new investigation paper.”

At the time, then-MACC chief commissioner Latheefa Koya said of the status of high-profile cases: “However, not all complaints ended up being investigated, especially those with evidence which were just printouts from the internet.”

Look, I think Latheefa is doing sterling work now, but when folks had the chance to correct the system, nobody took it. Corruption is not a recent phenomenon, but rather it is part of the DNA of the organism, fuelled by racial and religious imperatives and a compromised electoral system.

Umno/BN designed the system, and Madani is attempting to replicate it, or at least this is the way it seems to rational Malaysians.

Game recognises game

Furthermore, remember Perikatan Nasional was briefly in power, and how did that go? With all those really dumb “Langkah, langkahs”, professional charlatans figured out that they didn’t even need voting to get into power, and a small shift in voting got them ejected from the halls of power in Putrajaya.

With the way the system is gerrymandered, and the unequal weightage of votes, issues like corruption and competent governance are not exactly the greatest concerns of a majority of rakyat who sustain themselves on entitlement programmes and the delirium of social media.

The fact that Malaysians have to keep choosing the same recycled politicians is another reason why this country is screwed. Folks forget that all these people know each other. They understand that they are moving parts in a system designed not to encourage independence but co-dependency.

I mean, with these folks, there is no real ideological difference except game recognises game.

Take this snapshot from the past, for instance. From reportage: “(Lawyer N) Surendran, who is also a former PKR vice-president, said Khairy also organised a roadshow with lawyer Shafee Abdullah after Anwar (Ibrahim)'s sodomy II conviction.”

Corruption cases always start like this. All these rumours and dramas about who the always-present Mister X is then fizzles out when something else happens, and the system endures.

As always, the prime minister maintains his silence and attempts are made to use the state security apparatus to silence his critics. People forget, and those who don’t are vilified by those who want the system to remain but want to kvetch about the system needing reform.

Recent scandals

I am sure Khairy knows more about this most recent of PKR scandals than the average citizen. I am sure Rafizi Ramli knows more about this recent scandal than the average citizen and proves it by naming names.

Why all the drama? The fact that all the players in the corporate mafia scandal are interconnected and Rafizi keeps playing hide and seek with facts that he is privy to muddies the waters when it comes to cases like this.

Khairy and folks like him want to delude people into thinking that they offer change, but they are all imprinted with the imprimatur of old, corrupt men who want the system to endure. There is really no genuine reason to believe that either Khairy, Madani or PN wants to reform the system.

It has come to a point where nobody is even pretending anymore. This is all about who holds on to power, and the non-Malays are merely the vote bank of a coalition which knows it is imploding. There is very little that mainstream politics offers in this country, and the outliers are dodgy at the moment. With PSM getting PAS curious and Muda floundering, the system is content.

I have great sympathy for the agenda of cyber troopers who run around attempting to paint a picture that everything is kosher in Madaniville, because really thinking this through is heart-wrenching. This is how BN got away with their malfeasances for decades.

The difference now is that the world and technology have advanced to a point where masses of people are easily manipulated into surrendering their liberties to fascistic agendas whose oligarchs, clerics and elected officials have no problem colluding with each other.

The only thing that Khairy is evidence of is that Madani and BN's chickens are coming home to roost.