By Paul Bellow
Many would find it difficult to believe that God sent foul-mouthed Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor to Kedah to lead the people out of the arid land of Umno into the fertile plain of Pas.
But Pas spiritual leader Hashim Jasin seems convinced it was part of a divine plan to give Kedah this crude leader. He believes Sanusi has an aura powerful enough to make the public accept his arguments.
It almost seems as if Sanusi has a halo that makes him look like a saint!
But the truth is, Sanusi is a mere mortal who entered politics and was transformed from an ordinary private person into a public figure of instant notoriety.
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With feet made of clay, he has displayed all the characteristics of a typical politician who has no qualms about stirring up the masses.
Sanusi is no herald of peace and goodwill among men. Nor did he come to sacrifice himself so that his people could be saved from the contamination of outsiders.
The moment he took the stage, the corporeal Pas leader had no edifying words for Malaysia’s multi-racial society. Many of his remarks about the ethnic minorities provoked anger and resentment.
When Sanusi turned ‘warlike’ in making the case for the ‘annexing’ of Penang, he suppressed the better angel of his nature to pursue a diabolical path that could only lead to turmoil.
Yet Hashim painted this mischief-maker as the person anointed to lead his impoverished state. Hashim may wear the robe of a spiritual leader, but he certainly is not privy to celestial plans.
God gives people a free will to determine the course of their own behaviour. Based on free will, leaders can choose to take either the straight path or the crooked one.
Sanusi has vilified people for no reason other than that they come from different racial and religious backgrounds.
It is Pas – not God – that picked Sanusi to be the standard bearer of the party in the state. He became chief minister purely through the workings of politics – not through divine influence or intervention.
If Hashim wants to use religion to burnish the image of Sanusi, he has got his polishing act all wrong. The discerning public can see through the type of person Sanusi is.
Hashim must not be too presumptuous in invoking God’s name just because of his status as a spiritual leader. He went too far with his divine narrative about Sanusi. That is a grievous mistake because you do not take God’s name in vain.
Even if God wanted to play a role in human affairs, would he want to put in public office someone with a less-than-exemplary character?
Hashim’s flawed narrative only exposes the stark truth about the Kedah leader: he is not a godsend as a bearer of good tidings; neither is he a godsend for the people of Malaysia.
Paul Bellow is the pseudonym of a reader of Aliran
AGENDA RAKYAT - Lima perkara utama
- Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
- Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
- Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
- Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
- Lawan rasuah dan kronisme
All these religious people using religion for their own benefit, as if they have direct access to God. Why don’t they think that it is God that wants to punish Sanusi?