We are past the midpoint of the Ramadan month and it is most regrettable that this holy month for Muslims in Malaysians to be better Muslims – just as we want non-Muslim Malaysians to be better Buddhists, better Christians, better Hindus, better Sikhs and better Taoists so as to become better Malaysians – had been marred by various incidents contrary to the values of peace, tolerance, mutual respect, goodwill and solidarity we want to inculcate among the diverse races and religions in the country.

There was firstly the voice of intolerance, distrust and even hate demanding that non-Muslims should be excluded from all buka puasa events.

Then there was the disgraceful episode at the Bazaar Ramadan Kluang where DAP MP for Kluang Liew Chin Tong was roughed up on a visit of goodwill and solidarity.

In the holy month of Ramadan, gutter politics and the politics of lies, falsehood and incitement of hatred reached new depths when Selangor DAP leader and municipal councillor Young Syefura Othman, or better known as Rara, was demonised on the social media for her visits to Ramadan bazaar in Cheras while DAP National Vice Chairman and MP for Seputeh, Teresa Kok, had to lodge a police report over a false press statement released under her name in connection with a “Jerusalem’s Jubilee” event in Melaka, when she had no idea what the event was all about!

But what is more disconcerting is that UMNO leaders are themselves ignoring the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s wasatiyyah principles of moderation, justice, balance and excellence in the month of Ramadan, as illustrated by the following two instances:

– the support of the thuggish roughing up of DAP MP for Kluang Liew Chin Tong at the Bazaar Ramadan by the Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Razali Ibrahim, based on a lie that Kluang DAP had requested relocation of the bazaar ten years ago when it was Kluang MCA which had wanted the bazaar relocated; and

– the statement today by the Penang UMNO chief Datuk Zainal Abidin Osman, accusing Penang DAP of hosting numerous dinners for the past ten years in the state “which pretty much happens almost every night in Penang”!

Zainal is a bad and lousy liar. He should at least try to be a good liar, who is not caught immediately for lying, for his lie is so obvious and patently untrue!

Who would believe that Penang DAP had been holding fund-raising dinners “almost every night” in the past 10 years?

I stand corrected, but as far as I know, there was not more than half a dozen DAP Penang dinners in the two years of 2016 and 2017 – let alone Zainal’s wild allegation of dinners “almost every night” in the past 10 years!

Was Zainal on planet Earth in the past ten years for him to believe, and worse to utter, such rubbish?

But more serious than the Penang UMNO chief’s attempt to be a bad and lousy liar in the month of Ramadan is why he ignored the UMNO President and Prime Minister’s wasatiyyah principles of moderation, justice, balance and excellence?

What is the use Najib preaching the Wasatiyyah principles through this Global Movement of Moderates (GMM) to the world when UMNO leaders treat such wasatiyyah principles with contempt even in the holy month of Ramadan?

I can still remember Najib’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly promoting his wasatiyyah principles of moderation and Global Movement of Moderates initiative.

The time has come for Najib state whether his call to “moderates of all countries, of all religions to take back the centre, to reclaim the agenda for peace and pragmatism, and to marginalize the extremists” is meant for an international audience only but not applicable at home, and if not, why UMNO leaders are so ignorant or contemptible about the wasatiyyah principles?

(Speech at the Majlis berbuka puasa Pakatan Harapan in Yong Peng on Wednesday 14th June 2017 at 6 pm)