By Clara Chooi | May 17, 2011
The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, May 17 — The DAP today invited all “non-Umno” members in Barisan Nasional (BN) to cast aside their political beliefs and unite with their opposition foes to fight one common enemy together — Datuk Ibrahim Ali.
DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, in lambasting the government’s failure to reprimand the Perkasa president for waging a crusade against the Christians, said it was time for all Malaysians to unite against extremism, regardless of their political beliefs.
“Only if we cleanse hatred from our heart and fill our soul with love can we find peace, balance and harmony with our lives and with each other. For this reason, DAP calls on all Malaysians to stand up for peace and harmony by uniting against extremists and harmony that wants to see Malaysia burn with hatred and violence.
“DAP is willing to work with all Malaysians, including non-Umno component members in BN, to oppose this crusade and demand action against Utusan Malaysia and Ibrahim Ali’s reckless opportunism and irresponsible adventurism,” he said in his Wesak Day message today.
Lim claimed Malaysians were outraged at the Home Ministry’s inaction against both Ibrahim for his threat and the daily for recently publishing allegations of a plot between DAP and Christian leaders to usurp Islam.
He said Utusan Malaysia and Ibrahim should be punished for attempting to cause a strain to the ties between the Malays and the non-Malays.
“Are the non-Malays and non-Muslims an easy target to be blamed and kicked around based on lies just to distract attention from the real problems affecting 27 million Malaysians?
“Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin signalled the inevitability of price hikes when he announced yesterday that the country could no longer maintain the current subsidies which has doubled this year from RM10.32 billion to RM20.58 billion, with RM18 billion for petroleum-related sectors,” he pointed out.
Lim said that instead of addressing the “real issues” faced by Malaysians, the government was allowing Ibrahim and his Perkasa to act as distractions by talking about a crusade against Christians.
“The price hikes and difficult economic livelihood of the people are real issues that must be addressed.
“Whether in Cabinet or outside Cabinet, the time has come for all Malaysians, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, to stand together to reject hatred unequivocally, abhor extremists and universally condemn violence,” he said.
Ibrahim had threatened Christians nationwide during a ceramah in Gombak on Saturday that he would wage a crusade or holy war should they proceed with their agenda to usurp Islam.
The pint-sized Malay rights leader thundered to a ceramah audience of some 200 at Kampung Changkat here that he was willing to take the fall for his statement for the sake of defending the dignity of Islam.
Although he complained of fatigue from his nine ceramah stops from Kelantan to Gombak since Friday night, the Pasir Mas MP also said his blood was boiling with rage and “hairs standing on end” following recent reports of an alleged Christian conspiracy between religious leaders and opposition party politicians.
“In Kelantan, I told the security forces present that if they want to inform Bukit Aman (police) of my declarations to please go ahead.
“Please mark my words — if any party in Penang, especially the Christian priests who are being backed by the Penang DAP, continues with their agenda which we are already aware of, I would like to offer that if they want to hold a crusade, we can too,” he charged.
Ibrahim was referring to the recent row over a controversial newspaper report in Utusan Malaysia entitled “Kristian Agam Rasmi?” (Christianity the official religion?) where it was alleged that DAP leaders and Christian priests are conspiring to take over Putrajaya, abolish Islam as the religion of the federation and install a Christian prime minister.
Christian leaders and DAP members have denied the reports and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was even forced to host a meeting with leading religious figures to solve the issue but Ibrahim insisted on Saturday that the report is true.
Utusan Malaysia’s Christian conspiracy report is presently under police investigation.
#1 by negarawan on Tuesday, 17 May 2011 - 1:45 pm
Ibrahim Ali may say that he wants to jihad but I doubt he has the balls when anyone confronts him physically. Typical jaguh kampung and coward. In any case, he misses his luxury lifestyle and millions in the bank (courtesy of UMNO) too much to spill his blood.
#2 by Dipoh Bous on Tuesday, 17 May 2011 - 2:53 pm
…getting rid of (destroying?) a bee that constantly causes trouble / fear in ones home will never solve the problem until one finds the courage to destroy the hive.
…likewise, getting rid of one ” i bra him early” will never solve the problem we are facing until we collectively have the wisdom / courage to change the tenants of putra jaya.
#3 by DAP man on Tuesday, 17 May 2011 - 2:54 pm
No, wrong strategy.
This is an admission that Ibrahim is a force to be reckoned with. That all is so strong that we have to unite to fight him.
Ibrahim is an idiot not worthy of any attention. Ignore him and he will disappear from the lime light he is craving for.
#4 by ENDANGERED HORNBILL on Tuesday, 17 May 2011 - 3:03 pm
Men with sense ought to unite against men without sense who seek to impose their will on the general population.
Simply put: Abraham, stop your nonsense!
#5 by limkamput on Tuesday, 17 May 2011 - 3:06 pm
IA is nothing, but IA with constant support, either openly or covertly by UMNO, Utusan and Kutty is something. Now we know fighting an establishment is so overwhelming. Just look at the action/inaction of Home Affairs, and we know for sure their intention and objective. The indoctrination and the climate of fear that this toad generate is something. Fight them we must, but it would depend very much how the majority of Malays think and act in the coming months and years.
#6 by ENDANGERED HORNBILL on Tuesday, 17 May 2011 - 3:10 pm
…”seek to impose their will ….”
No, that is giving Ibrahim too much weight.
It should read: “seek to impose their influence..”
Of course, amongst men of reason and integrity, Ibraham is little more than an eyesore, a pussed-acne, maybe even a constipated cow.
#7 by cemerlang on Tuesday, 17 May 2011 - 3:33 pm
Power is one thing. The next thing is the core of power. Like this planet called Earth. On the outside is land and sea. The core is solid iron and surrounding the iron is magma, liquified fire that surfaces once in a while in the form of an exploding volcano, earthquake, tsunami and much destruction. Which part of Earth humans fear ? It is the ever energising magma. So what is that, that this fellow has in his grasp that make even the so called most powerful P.M. afraid of him ? Or what does his own sub group in the UMNO has which keep UMNO at its’ knees ? Therefore now you know what is the real meaning of you help me, I help you.
#8 by wanderer on Tuesday, 17 May 2011 - 4:31 pm
Why just take on AL the racist swine alone. Cull all the infected pigs in Najib’s animal farm!…before the deadly decease spreads uncontrollably.
#9 by Jeffrey on Tuesday, 17 May 2011 - 4:52 pm
Two points: (1) “Common enemy” is not just IA but all extremist forces including those backing extremist rhetoric & course of action (in line with NTR’s Oxford drawing of the line – calling on all moderates to counter extremists); (2) invitation to moderates should be inclusive of all. To call on “non-Umno” members in BN is to assume that there are no moderates within UMNO like (say) Ku Li or even KJ up to now quiet.
The above assume one can differentiate by labeling an extremist from moderate – Home Minister seems to think its open to interpretations depending on points oif view as to what is extremist. The latter is the party that is provocative in racial/religious based rhetoric and confrontational & radical in approach. Also extremism arises precisely because of infighting within UMNO where the faction vying to displace the other adopts extremist approach to galvanise support within & without the party, and that means if there were an extremist faction within UMNO, there will invariably also be a relatively moderate faction whose support or moderate stand should not be excluded from this call by the DAP.
#10 by robtang on Tuesday, 17 May 2011 - 9:47 pm
I agree with Jeffrey. An effective way to keep in check any form of extremism that stems from UMNO is to have moderates within the party voice making their stand against it.
#11 by cemerlang on Wednesday, 18 May 2011 - 9:42 am
Moderates have to be strong enough to tear down the stronghold.