It is now more than 58 hours since US President Trump, at 4.42 pm Friday Washington time, with a stroke of a pen signed the cruel and inhumane Executive Order against refugees and immigrants, creating world-wide turmoil and reverberations, with chaos and confusion in US airports and capital cities all over the world.
What is disturbing is that the Malaysian Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his government are not part of this global outrage at the inhumanity and insensitivity of Trump’s executive order.
It cannot be that Najib and the Malaysian Foreign Ministry had been overtaken by complete surprise by such an executive order, as Trump had in fact been talking about such an inhumane measure since the GOP primary campaign last year, and Trump’s executive order against refugees and immigrants had in fact been leaked to the media several days before Trump signed the executive order.
Najib cannot blame anyone for asking why he acted with such alacrity when he lashed out at Myanmar and Aung San Suu Kyi on the Rohingya issue but is so tame and tardy when the Muslim world is revolted and outraged by Trump’s executive order against refugees and the 130 million people from seven Muslim-majority countries, viz: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Yemen.
As a sign of growing political intimacy and collaboration between Najib and the PAS President, Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, there is also conspicuous silence from the PAS leadership on Trump’s cruel and inhumane executive, completely out of character of PAS leadership which would have been the first to denounce Trump’s executive order.
Is this a sign of growing maturity and responsibility of the Hadi PAS leadership or just of closer political collaboration with Najib’s UMNO leadership?
Najib has said that UMNO will work with Hadi’s PAS on matters concerning Islam, including the lauch of Rohingya aid flotilla on Friday, Feb. 3. It will be a great idea if the Friday programme be expanded to include a protest against Trump’s cruel and inhumane executive order signed by Trump against refugees and immigrants.
Or is Najib staying clear of global outrage over Trump’s executive order against refugees and immigrants because of US Department of Justice (DOJ)’s largest kleptocratic lawsuit relating to the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB kleptocratic money-laundering scandal?
While Malaysians await clarification from Najib, the Prime Minister should be aware that he is consigning his initiative of a Global Movement of Moderates to the grave if he is not prepared to be part of the global outrage at US President Trump’s cruel and inhumane executive order against refugees and immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries.