I must thank the UMNO President, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi for the latest proof of the meaning of “klepto-theocracy” – the political alliance based on misuse of Islam to support thievery, corruption, intolerance, bigotry, lies and falsehoods.

After the UMNO Supreme Council meeting yesterday, Zahid said that UMNO will not “open the door” of negotiation and co-operation with any party that has a relationship with DAP.

He said: “There will be no negotiation any party in the Pakatan Harapan coalition as long as they share the power with DAP.”

The question Zahid should ask is who will co-operate with a party which is headed by a President who is making history in having a total of 87 criminal charges related to corruption?

Or the further question, who will co-operate with a political coalition whose advisor was the person who had brought infamy, ignominy and iniquity to Malaysia because of the international 1MDB scandal, condemned in an international conference by the US Attorney-General as “kleptocracy at its worst” and who is on trial for 42 criminal charges relating to corruption, abuse of power and money-laundering?

The answer is a simple and straightforward – only the advocates of kleptocracy and klepto-theocracy!

It is only the advocates of kleptocracy and klepto-theocracy who will swoon at the popularity of a global kleptocrat’s “Malu Apa BOSS-ku” campaign and believe that this is the recipe for victory in the 15th General Election.

It was only early this week that Zahid had provided the latest proof of the toxic politics of lies, falsehoods, race and religion to incite fear, suspicion, distrust and hatred among Malaysians in the script of klepto-theocracy, even resorting to the most stupidest of lies and falsehoods.

This was Zahid’s rejoinder to Bersatu Chairman Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad’s claim that UMNO practised a culture of becoming “dumb and dumber”, with Zahid making the most ludicrous insinuation that Mahathir was obeying a DAP directive when the Prime Minister advised Bersatu extraordinary general meeting to avoid being caught in a cycle of self-serving leaders who will prevent others with more capability to rise and succeed them as happened to UMNOI?

I will like to know how many in UMNO, PAS, MCA and MIC believe in such garbage?

Dare they identity themselves?

Instead of countering Mahathir’s statement that UMNO leaders were becoming “dumb and dumber”, Zahid’s reply only confirmed Mahathir’s analysis.

It is significant that Zahid had not answered my question on Monday.

I had referred to Zahid’s reasons when he announced taking garden leave as UMNO President seven months ago, when he had referred to “punishing” conditions imposed on UMNO and the humiliation it suffered in a number of meetings he attended, where he not only faced rejection and insults, but even “humiliation, as if Umno was as unclean as the faeces of animals deemed haram”.

I had asked Zahid whether these UMNO indignities and humiliations were a vindication of what Mahathir said about UMNO branch leaders become “dumb and dumber”?

I had also asked why Zahid must drag DAP into the picture, as whether UMNO Branch chiefs are getting “dumb and dumber” was no business of DAP and not within my ken – as he is again doing yesterday when announcing the klepto-theocracy political alliance in Malaysia.

I had contended that the best evidence that UMNO leaders were getting “dumb and dumber” over the years is their continued silence – even now – on the 1MDB scandal – when the whole world had been condemning Malaysia for becoming a global kleptocracy as a result of the 1MDB scandal!

Will Zahid now take a stand to denounce the 1MDB scandal or he is prepared to sink or swim with the 1MDB scandal?

Would a leadership that is not becoming “dumb and dumber” showed no sense of remorse or contrition for the global kleptocracy of the 1MDB scandal, especially after the United States Department of Justice had filed a 250-page largest kleptocratic forfeiture litigation for US$1.7 billion of over US$4.5 billion of 1MDB-linked assets?

There are examples galore about the political hypocrisy of klepto-theocracy, which has arisen after the 14th General Election to win the hearts and minds of Malaysians.

A most recent example of this new political hypocrisy is about the declaration of assets, with the PAS, UMNO, MCA and MIC MPs in both Houses of Parliament opposing the motion requiring MPs to publicly declare their assets.

The PAS President said declaring assets is a communist, socialist concept that may have been dreamt up by DAP while the PAS Deputy President said it was unIslamic to declare assets, until it was pointed out that the latter had in 2015 dared the then Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to declare his assets!

The misuse of Islam to support kleptocracy was best illustrated over the ICERD issue.

The PAS President had never answered my question as to what he really meant when he said that all Muslims must oppose the ratification of the International Covenant on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) when the Covenant had been ratified by countries representing 99% of the 1.9 billion Muslims in the world, including countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Oman, Qatar, UAB, Algeria, Pakistan, Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco, Indonesia and Bangladesh.

Out of the 57 countries of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) States, 55 have ratified ICERD, except for Malaysia and Brunei.

Was there a suggestion that somehow the 99% the world’s 1.9 billion Muslims, who live in 55 of the 57 OIC countries, had been misled and are not true Muslims?

If ratification of ICERD means condemnation of the Muslims to a life of injustice and oppression, why had 48 of 50 countries where Muslims make up a majority of the population ratified ICERD?

The PAS President is the Vice President of the International Union of Muslim
Scholars. Had he ever called on 55 of the 57 OIC countries to repudiate their ratification of ICERD, which condemned Muslims in these countries to a life of injustices and oppression, and if not, why not?

But the most reprehensible instance of the misuse of Islam for the cause of klepto-theocracy is the support given to Najib for his 1MDB kleptocracy and his “Malu Apa BOSS-ku” campaign.

This is why in the poem, “An Evil Stalking the Land”, I had said:

“But klepto-theocracy has come as a new evil stalking the land

“Pit race against race, religion against religion.”

Malaysians must Save Malaysia a second time in the 15th General Election.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Gelang Patah on Thursday, 25th July 2019)