Why was Zamihan really arrested?

“The spectacle of what is called religion, or at any rate organised religion, in India and elsewhere, has filled me with horror and I have frequently condemned it and wished to make a clean sweep of it. Almost always it seemed to stand for blind belief and reaction, dogma and bigotry, superstition, exploitation and the preservation of vested interests.”

― Jawaharlal Nehru

COMMENT | So this government-employed preacher spews the usual hate speech against the Chinese community but more importantly, took a swipe at the Johor royalty and he is arrested for incitement. Incitement against a royal family or incitement against the Chinese community? Why do I get the feeling that if it were solely for the latter, there would be no action taken against Zamihan Mat Zin?

Yes, that is right because no action has been taken against other government-aligned (including employees) personalities who have made racists or bigoted comments against non-Muslim Malaysians.

Anyone reading my articles would know that I am all for free speech but free speech isn’t really the issue here and it will never be. The real issue is the biased manner in which the state monitors free speech.

University lecturer Ridhuan Tee Abdullah (photo) who apparently comes to the defence of his community in this instance has said worse about the Chinese community. This country gives shelter to an extremist like Zakir Naik who has spread lies about non-Muslims and their religions. There are numerous examples of establishment politicians who have demonised entire communities and they have been exempted from incitement charges.

So when this preacher who thought he was riding a wave of toxicity and attempted to deliver his own blows against the Chinese community made his religious pronouncements, the only miscalculation he made was taking a shot at the royal institution, which is one of the pillars of Malay/Muslim political ideology.

With all the manure thrown at non-Malay/Muslim communities through a variety of establishment mouthpieces, this idea that the remand of this preacher is anything other than window dressing is the only rational conclusion anyone not infected by Kool-Aid can come to.

Therefore, you take away the royal component from the equation and what are we left with? Just another Muslim preacher talking manure about non-Muslim Malaysians. I mean look, we have PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang (photo), a religious preacher, claiming that “Islam has to be the leader and ruler, those who are not of Islam must be followers (pak turut).”

I wonder how this jives with what the Malay rulers said when they made this pronouncement - "As a religion that encourages its followers to be respectful, moderate and inclusive, the reputation of Islam, must not ever be tainted by the divisive actions of certain groups or individuals, which may lead to rifts among the rakyat."

A rejoinder was also made “to continue following the core principles of the Federal Constitution and Rukunegara”, but can this even be done when it comes to how non-Muslims are treated in this country...