COMMENTARY BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER
13 December 2014

Perhaps the sedentary life of a civil servant or seeing too many ballot boxes finally got to retired Election Commission (EC) chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman.

Yesterday, as the Perkasa vice-president, he warned that the Malay rights group would defend Islam against anyone that attacks the religion.

Today. he described Malays who criticised Perkasa as either idiotic or blind, and to the extent of taking potshots at Umno Youth leader Khairy Jamaluddin – who is no fan of the rights group.

Now why does a man like Rashid, who rose from the ranks to be the EC chief, believe there are Malaysians who are enemies of Islam. Or that critics are just idiots or blind?

In short, why does he behave like the famous literary character Don Quixote, who believed windmills were giants that he had to fight to death?

Why do we have people who believe the world is out to get them or that anyone who is critical of them is an idiot or is blind to the reality? Was he like this when helming the EC?

More importantly, can Rashid get off his high horse to think that he is in the right about his view of the world. There are no enemies of Islam in Malaysia and making such a preposterous declaration is basically baiting for a response.

Also, Malays who do criticise Perkasa are not idiotic or blind. They just have a different view of the world, and that includes the Umno Youth leader.

Rashid is entitled to his opinion about what ails Umno or the Malays but he should also respect the views of other people and not believe in the delusion that only Perkasa is defending Islam and the Malays.

The facts show that Malaysia has been ruled by the Umno-dominated Alliance and its successor Barisan Nasional (BN) since Malaya got its independence in 1957 and that coalition has been in charge of the country’s policies and fortunes from then.

And in all those years, there have been no threats to Islam as the country’s official religion and in fact, its position has been strengthened in most states that other faiths are now not allowed to use some Arabic words in their worship.

And the Malays continue to benefit from BN’s policies despite its historic losses in the past two general elections.

So what is Rashid hallucinating about threats to Islam and critics who are idiots or blind? Is this just Perkasa’s way of being relevant by bringing up imaginary threats and promising retribution?

Their pronouncements and threats have just made them the butt of jokes and a parody of any supremacist or rights group. And in fact, they make Umno look so moderate despite the fact a majority of their members are from that party.

Perhaps that’s the idea – get clowns to play the extremists so that Malaysia can be grateful that there are saner politicians out there.

But all said and done, people like Rashid are fast becoming a joke that has gone too far, as far as Don Quixote did in fighting imaginary giants. – December 13, 2014.