By: JOE FERNANDEZ
NO one can blame UMNO legal advisor, Mohd Hafarizam Harun for thinking that he has some sound advice for Prime Minister, Mohd Najib Abdul Razak. Obviously, the idea is to make Najib even more popular than he already is, in the wake of Batu Sapi and Galas.
Hafarizam has openly urged that Parti Keadilan Rakyat Rakyat (PKR) President, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail be incarcerated under the draconian Internal Security Act (ISA) for sedition. It had to come sooner or later.
But first, Hafarizam wants any number of police reports to be lodged against her to facilitate a thorough probe. She stands accused of not heeding the recent advice from Najib that Malay rights not be questioned.
De facto PKR Chief, Anwar Ibrahim is as guilty as his wife on the Ketuanan Melayu Malay supremacy and dominance issue.
However, Hafarizam is not baying for his blood. This comes across suspiciously as selective persecution and selective prosecution.
Anwar, in his take last Saturday, even cynically castigated the Malays who are willing to mencuci longkang (clean the drains) as long as they are called tuan (master).
Newly-elected PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar - the apple doesn't fall far from the tree - was the first in the family to question the notion of ketuanan Melayu.
Apparently, she committed this act of sedition and treason not so long ago when she ‘ran down the country’ before some foreigners.
She had pointed out that Article 153 had a shelf life of 15 years but so far, nothing has come out of all the police reports lodged against her.
Other lesser mortals are not that lucky. The ISA treatment, according to Hafarizam, should also be meted out to DAP and PAS leaders, ‘comrades in crime’ with PKR leaders for stoking hatred towards the Malays.
The truth seems to be stranger than the fiction that Malays would stoke hatred towards Malays.
In addition, Hafarizam wants PKR to be deregistered presumably as a ‘warning’ to others who, like Wan Azizah, belittle the position, status and rights of the Malays and Malay rulers.
Hafarizam has convinced himself that Wan Azizah forfeited her right to free speech when she questioned the sacred cows in the Federal Constitution i.e. Article 153 on the special position of the Malays and natives and the legitimate aspirations of the non-Malays; Article 152 on Malay as the national language and Article 181 on the position of the Malay rulers.
If Wan Azizah really did all that she has been accused of doing last Saturday at the PKR Convention, then she should brace herself for the 3am knock on the door by the Special Branch.
In any case, Wan Azizah should consider the initial 30-day ISA detention period as a blessing in disguise. She will have ample opportunity to explain her stand on the notion of Ketuanan Melayu.
Obviously, she will have to swear that she did not question Article 152 and Article 181 of the Federal Constitution. If she really did, and there's no evidence that she did, then she will have a tough time wangling her way out of a sticky situation.
Article 153 cannot be questioned, according to Hafarizam, an expert on the matter. But that doesn't mean the deviation and distortion in the implementation of Article 153 cannot be pointed out.
In fact, one would think that any deviation or distortion of Article 153 itself is a blatant disregard for the Federal Constitution and must be dealt with severely. The use of the ISA, in this case, should not be ruled out.
Huge favour
Wan Azizah will be doing all Malaysians a huge favour if she points out to her interrogators that the misguided notion of ketuanan Melayu is a misreading of the Unwritten Social Contract.
The Unwritten Social Contract was put together by Tunku Abdul Rahman (right), the country's first prime minister, on the basis that since the Chinese (in 1957) dominated the corporate economy, the Malays would lead the politics.
By 1969, it was discovered that the Chinese in fact had only 29 percent of the corporate economy, the British 69 percent and others two percent.
The Unwritten Social Contract is sometimes mistakenly referred to as the Social Contract. The only Social Contract is the Federal Constitution.
What Wan Azizah, like all Malaysians, must find troubling is that Article 153 was extended to every aspect of life in Malaysia in defiance of the Federal Constitution which confines it to four areas i.e. intake into the civil service; intake into institutions of higher learning owned by the government and training privileges; government scholarships; and opportunities from the government to do business.
The unilateral extension of Article 153 was carried out by Umno after usurping the power of the king.
Again, the unilateral extension of Article 153 outside the four areas was based on the notion of ketuanan Melayu. The same notion facilitated the federal government's proxy control of Sabah and Sarawak at the expense of the non-Muslim native majority.
Article 153, according to the Federal Constitution or the Social Contract, is not a sapu bersih (clean sweep) approach but only reserves a reasonable proportion for the Malays and natives. This is called the special position.
Sometime after 1957, the mainstream media and the government-owned media started churning out the propaganda of Malay special privileges by merging the terms 'Special Position' and ‘Training Privileges’. Never mind the fact that the Federal Constitution itself makes no mention of the term 'Malay Special Privileges'.
The propaganda machinery also ignored the second prong of Article 153 which pledges that the legitimate aspirations of the non-Malays would be safeguarded by the King.
There's much for Wan Azizah to tell her interrogators lest she be hauled before the court and charged with sedition and treason.
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