COMMENT What did Dr Annuar Rapaee, the BN-PBB incumbent candidate, say on April 21 to about 400 people who attended the forum titled ‘Islamic Family and Leadership’ at the Sibu Islamic Complex?

A Malaysiakini reporter is now under police investigation for reporting Annuar’s speech, first under the heading “Vote BN to keep Muslim CM, S'wak Muslims told”, which was subsequently changed to “Don't squander opportunity to lead Sarawak, minority Muslims told”. She is investigated for “conducing public mischief” under Section 505(c) of the Penal Code.

While Malaysiakini has “amended the article and headline to reflect the exact quotes of Annuar”, it is also standing by the original report. Some have come to the conclusion that Malaysiakini has acted dishonestly by first deliberately sensationalising the story and then refusing to apologise.

Malaysiakini posted the audio recording of Annuar but one wonders how many people listen to it before making their conclusion.

The audio runs for seven minutes and 23 seconds, and here is the transcript for the first two minutes:

“Masyarakat Islam di Sarawak walaupun bukan merupakan masyarakat majoriti tetap memainkan peranan penting di dalam kepimpinan di Sarawak. Sebab itulah sebagai masyarakat kita harus mempunyai tanggungjawab yang tinggi bagaimana kita hendak memilih ataupun tentukan halatuju kepimpinan di negeri Sarawak ini.

"Kita juga sedar bahawa nikmat di mana masyarakat Islam di Sarawak ini dapat menerajui kepimpinan di Sarawak disebabkan kita dilihat sebagai masyarakat yang bersikap adil bukan sahaja kepada masyarakat Islam, tetapi jugak kepada seluruh masyarakat majmuk di negeri Sarawak ini.

"Maka, tuan-tuan dan puan-puan sekalian, kita harus pertahankan nikmat ini, kita harus pertahankan kepimpinan yang ada sekarang ini supaya terus memimpin di Sarawak ini ke peringkat yang lebih cemerlang. Janganlah kita sia-siakan peluang ini semata-mata disebabkan kita tidak setuju dengan perkara-perkara yang negatif (?), tetapi kita harus melihat masa depan yang lebih cerah dan mengekalkan kepimpinan yang ada sekarang ini yang telah menunjukkan kecemerlangan sejak kita mencapai kemerdekaan.

"Saya menyeru masyarakat Islam khusus di Sibu ini supaya kita harus sedar bahawa walaupun kita merupakan golongan tidak majoriti, kita diberi peluang untuk menerajui negeri Sarawak dan janganlah kita lepaskan peluang ini dengan sia-sia sebegitu sahaja. Itu harapan saya pada pagi ini kepada seluruh masyarakat Islam yang hadir pagi ini."

This transcript was done by me and I bear the responsibility for it. I listened to it six times but there is no guarantee that I may not miss or mistake anything. I stand corrected for any human error.

For me, whether the speech above should be reported textually or contextually is not the issue here.

Textually, you report the speech without mentioning the word CM because it was not mentioned in the speech.

Contextually, one can’t help asking: What leadership of the state you are talking about if it is not the CM? What defending of Muslim leadership you are talking about if it is not defending the Muslim CM?

At the end of the day, is it not clear that Annuar did make his plea to Muslims for voting BN so that Muslims can keep the chance to helm the state of Sarawak, despite being a minority?

Politics is a zero-sum game

It is the political language that Malaysians are so familiar with – communal unity is strength.

And why does a religious community need to unite politically? Clearly because politics is a zero-sum game. If we don’t stay united, someone else will grab the ‘ nikmat ’ (enjoyment, blessing) from us.

Annuar even provided a justification for the Muslims helming the state – the community is seen as fair to not only Muslims, but also to the entire plural society of Sarawak.

Now, it is another question whether one could agree with Annuar that the Muslim leadership is an opportunity given by other communities, instead of something effectively imposed by Umno from Kuala Lumpur after the high-handed removal of Sarawak’s first chief minister, Stephen Kalong Ningkan.

Or, it is based on fairness that the PBB-contested, 632 square-km tiny, coastal constituency of N26 Gedung can have as few as 6,712 voters while the SPDP-contested, 3,538 square-km wide, land-locked constituency of N76 Marudi should have 14,085 voters?

After all, such malapportionment of constituencies is a key reason for PBB’s dominance, which is in turn the basis of the Muslim chief ministership.

Now, one must recognise that Annuar put his point clear in a nice and humble way, certainly at least by the West Malaysian standard.

He acknowledged that Muslims are a minority, hence, the Muslim leadership is a blessing and opportunity, and he further justified it with the claim of fairness.

He said nothing close to Ketuanan Islam, Ketuanan Muslim or Ketuanan Melayu.

Hence, he responded in a soundingly annoyed tone, "No, this is not me being racist. I said just now that we have been seen to play justice to everybody. There's nothing racist about it; please don't play with racial issues".

So, what is the big fuss here?

The questions are really simple: Will Annuar say the same thing to the Muslims in a religiously-mixed crowd? If he knew his message to the Muslim audience would be picked up by Malaysiakini , would he still say it?

Ethnicity, religion not important in S'wak politics

In West Malaysia, Umno leaders will not be shy to ask Malays to vote Umno to keep Malay-Muslim leadership in the presence of a mixed crowd. They may even go ugly when speaking to their own gallery.

And many non-Malay Muslims in West Malaysia have come to accept such behaviour as a fact of life.

In contrast, many Sarawakians pride themselves as non-communalists. They like to believe ethnicity and religion are found only in the politics of Malaya and, perhaps, Sabah, but not at all important in Sarawak politics.

Annuar's community-targeting message is perhaps a wake-up call to the reality.

For all their talk of rejecting "Malayan" parties, Sarawak BN is using the playbook of Malayan communalism already - “we need to stay united so that our own people will be in power”.

Perhaps the Malaysiakini reporter is rightly investigated for "conducing public mischief”. After all, waking people up from their sweet dream is indeed mischievous, right?

The ultimate question is therefore: Can Sarawakians swallow a mild version of Malayan politics from their so-called local parties?

I hope Sarawakian voters will just listen to Annuar’s speech (at least for the first two minutes) and make their own informed judgment as to whether the Malaysiakini reporter has misrepresented him and should be investigated by the police.

Yes, media freedom is annoying. It allows the truth to be conveyed when it is most inconvenient.

In fact, Lord Northcliffe reportedly said this, “News is what somebody somewhere wants to suppress; all the rest is advertising.”

So, please kindly share the audio, best with the transcript.

Since Annuar recognised that his speech was not racist, he surely won’t mind more people getting his message, which is perhaps just a bit too Malayan.

WONG CHIN HUAT is a Research Fellow with Penang Institute, the state government think-tank on public policy.