When your sins can be cleansed

Raja Petra Kamarudin

On 24th June 2006, Malaysia Today organised a dialogue session with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad at the Kelab Century Paradise. Many of the PAS and DAP leaders attended this dialogue, which was the platform that Dr Mahathir used to launch his attack on Umno and Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Basically, it was Dr Mahathir’s version of the ABU or ‘anything but Umno’ campaign.

Only a few of the PKR leaders attended, though, and later that year, during the PKR convention in Penang, Azmin Ali attacked me while Anwar Ibrahim looked on with a smirk on his face. Azmin called me a collaborator and in not so many words told me to go to hell. They were pissed big-time because I was now ‘working’ for Dr Mahathir. Well, I continued to ‘work’ for Dr Mahathir right up to November 2007 when we launched the now historical Bersih rally, which, incidentally, was also supported by Umno people, in particular those aligned to Dr Mahathir. They donated loads of T-shirts and caps as well.

During the tea session after the dialogue, one of the PAS leaders (I will not mention his name) told Dr Mahathir that his party was going to organise ceramahs (talks/rallies) all over Malaysia in the run-up to the 12th General Election. The PAS leader wanted to know whether Dr Mahathir would be prepared to give talks at theseceramahs.

Dr Mahathir declined the invitation and said that if the ceramahs were being organised by a political party then he would not agree to attend. The PAS leader then asked Dr Mahathir who should organise it and Dr Mahathir pointed at me and replied that if Malaysia Today organised it then he would attend, but not if PAS organised it.

The PAS leader then asked me whether we could meet to discuss this matter further. They wanted to explore the possibility of Malaysia Today organising events all over Malaysia as a platform for Dr Mahathir to give ‘anti-Umno’ speeches. They felt that Dr Mahathir’s ‘anything but Umno’ stand would be a great benefit to the opposition cause.

Now, the point of this story is to show how the opposition leaders were prepared to forgive and forget Dr Mahathir’s 22 years of sins, committed when he was the Prime Minister of Malaysia. Dr Mahathir may have done a lot of wrong things, but if he now works with the opposition to oppose Umno and attack the Prime Minister then what happened in the past can be forgiven and forgotten.

This is not only the way that politicians think but religionists think the same way as well. Muslims believe that you may have been the greatest sinner on earth but if you convert to Islam then all your sins would be forgiven and you can have a clean slate again. My Christian friends tell me the same thing. If you confess your sins and accept Jesus Christ then all your sins can be forgiven and you can be cleansed and purified.

In politics it is the same. You may have been the most evil person in Malaysia. But if you resign from Barisan Nasional and join Pakatan Rakyat then whatever you may have done when you were in power can be forgiven and forgotten, especially if you had won the election and then cross over to help the opposition grab power.

Hence, if you had been a most corrupt cabinet minister or chief minister/menteri besar in the past, all you need to do is to cross over to the opposition and help the opposition form the government and whatever you may have done will be wiped clean. That is how it works in politics, as it does with religion.

Of course, no one called Dr Mahathir a turncoat, Judas, traitor, frog, or whatnot in June 2006, although he attacked Barisan Nasional, Umno, the Prime Minister, etc. In fact, not long after that, Dr Mahathir (and Tan Sri Sanusi Junid) resigned from Umno. Yet he was still not called a turncoat, Judas, traitor, frog, or whatever. The opposition ‘embraced’ Dr Mahathir and even discussed the possibility of enticing him to ‘officially’ join the opposition as a member. After all, he was already ‘unofficially’ supporting the opposition cause. Since he had already resigned from Umno, he only needed to take that last step by signing up as a member of, say, PAS.

What if Dr Mahathir had done that? What if, after resigning from Umno, he signed up officially as a member of PAS? Don’t forget, back in 1969, Dr Mahathir had been sacked from Umno and for three years until 1972 he campaigned for PAS although he did not sign up as a PAS member. Hence Dr Mahathir already had a ‘history’ with PAS. PAS, therefore, had no problem with accepting Dr Mahathir as a member.

Well, if Dr Mahathir had become a PAS member in 2006, then everything he had done during his 22 years as Prime Minister would no longer be an issue. No one would ungkit (resurrect) what he had done. His past sins would be forgiven and forgotten and today he would be considered a patriot (at least as far as the opposition people are concerned).

The government, however, would probably raise all the ‘old issues’ and start charging Dr Mahathir for all the crimes he had committed during his tenure as Prime Minister. But if Pakatan Rakyat wins the election and forms the new government, Dr Mahathir would receive immunity and would not suffer prosecution.

That is how it works. But Dr Mahathir did not join the opposition. After Abdullah Badawi was ousted and Najib Tun Razak took over as Prime Minister in 2009, Dr Mahathir rejoined Umno. Hence, if Pakatan Rakyat forms the next federal government, they would probably go for Dr Mahathir’s jugular.

That, I suppose, is what politics is all about. Many ex-government people -- politicians, civil servants, police officers, ACA officers, military officers, etc. -- have now joined the opposition. Some of them, when they were in government, committed all sorts of sins. But now that they are in the opposition we must no longer talk about these sins. Those sins were committed when they were in government. Now that they are no longer in government but are in the opposition, these issues are ‘old stories’ and are no longer relevant.

Adolf Hitler should have converted to Judaism instead of committing suicide when he knew that Germany was losing the war. Then he would have been forgiven for the tens of millions of deaths, six million Jews amongst them. But then Hitler was the leader of the Nazi party, not the leader of Barisan Nasional. So he did not know that by crossing over he could have been ‘rehabilitated’ and all his sins and crimes would have been wiped clean had he done that.