MP SPEAKS | I must thank the Umno president, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, for the latest proof of the meaning of 'klepto-theocracy' – which he has explained as 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” for negotiation and cooperation with any party that has a relationship with DAP.

The question Zahid should ask is, who will cooperate with a party that 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 cooperate with a political coalition whose adviser is the person who had brought infamy, ignominy and iniquity to Malaysia because of the international 1MDB scandal – which was 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 simple and straightforward – only the advocates of kleptocracy and klepto-theocracy.

It is only these advocates who will swoon at the popularity of a global kleptocrat’s “Malu Apa Bossku” 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 in the script of klepto-theocracy, even resorting to the stupidest of lies and falsehoods.

This was Zahid’s rejoinder to Bersatu chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s claim that Umno practises a culture of becoming “dumb and dumber." 

Zahid made the most ludicrous insinuation that Mahathir was obeying a DAP directive when the prime minister advised Bersatu 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 Umno.

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

Dare they identify 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. 

In these meeting, 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 becoming “dumb and dumber.”

I had also asked why Zahid must drag DAP into the picture, because whether Umno branch chiefs were getting “dumb and dumber” was no business of DAP and not within my ken.

He did this again 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.

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

Would a leadership that is not becoming “dumb and dumber” show no sense of remorse or contrition for the global kleptocracy of the 1MDB scandal, especially after the United States Department of Justice filed the largest-ever 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 (photo) said declaring assets is a communist, socialist concept that may have been dreamt up by DAP. 

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 Najib Abdul Razak to declare his assets!

The misuse of Islam to support kleptocracy was best illustrated over the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (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 Icerd, despite the covenant having been ratified by countries representing 99 percent of the 1.9 billion Muslims in the world, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Oman, Qatar, UAB, Algeria, Pakistan, Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco, Indonesia and Bangladesh.

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

Was there a suggestion that somehow the 99 percent of 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 the ratification of Icerd means condemnation of Muslims to a life of injustice and oppression, why did 48 of 50 countries, where Muslims make up a majority of the population, ratify 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 Bossku' 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

Block the reset of nation-building policies

Sow distrust and hatred among Malaysians

Pit race against race, religion against religion.

Malaysians must save Malaysia a second time, in the 15the general election.

LIM KIT SIANG is the MP for Iskandar Puteri.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.