PAS President Says Majority Of Nation’s ‘Roots Of Corruption’ Are Non-Muslims & Non-Bumiputera

By Lara Kramer  •  22 Aug 2022 in News

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In the midst of the recent littoral combat ship (LCS) debacle and Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s SRC International Sdn Bhd law suit, a Facebook post published on Saturday (August 20) by Abdul Hadi Awang, the PAS president, highlighted the issue of bribery within the country; calling for holistic measures to be taken in attempt to exterminate corruption.

In the post, he also equated the act to an illness and asserted that perpetrators were sinners.

“Electing people who are not worthy to be leaders is a form of treachery that will destroy the world,” he explained.

From a religious stance, he explained that according to Islamic scriptures, the faith educates its worshippers on the fact that illegal property is not only sinful to all who use it,  but goes so far as to become a form bait enticing people to end up in Hell. In addition to that, illicit wealth does not bring any berkat (blessing) to its owner.

While the Marang MP’s act of raising awareness was initially commended by netizens, the post also contains a section where Abdul Hadi alleged that non-Muslims and non-Bumiputera constituted the majority of the “roots of corruption” – those who seek unlawful profits resulting in the hindrance of the nation’s political system and economy gained the opposite reaction.

Roughly translated, the president’s statement read, “If we intend to come to terms with corrupt practices, we must start at the bottom. Otherwise, this will develop into a disease. These communities that pursue fraudulent benefits garner the economic power.

“They then harm our politics because they are the source of corruption, and the vast majority of them are non-Muslims and non-Bumiputeras.”

He added that these days any individual may dabble in corruptive practices no matter their level of education, and only faithful Muslims are capable of performing duties with integrity.

 

This, inevitably, earned a negative response from several netizens who left disapproving comments below the post.

Many pointed out the alleged racist elements behind the post, essentially endorsing the discrimination of the non-Bumiputera society in the country, who are already commonly ostracised.

Others noted that the statement was hypocritical and harmful to the image of Islam in Malaysia, as some devotees themselves disagreed with the “stereotypical and undeserved” statement, adding that bribery and corruption have also been practiced by local Muslims; proving that the remark is in fact inaccurate and unnecessary.