The three Umno personalities who led the charge against the Rulers were Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Deputy Prime Minister Tun Abdul Ghafar Baba and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Ghafar even said that criticising the Rulers is allowed and is not considered sedition. It only becomes sedition if you ask to abolish the Monarchy and turn Malaysia into a Republic. Other than that it is allowed and is not sedition.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

NGOs lodge reports against trio over insult

(THE STAR) - Some 50 members from two non-governmental organisations here have lodged police reports against three people alleged to have insulted the Johor Ruler recently.

The members from the Islamic Welfare and Sermon Organisation of Malaysia (Pekida) and Bukit Naning Youth Association also staged a peaceful protest at three locations in Bukit Naning yesterday.

The protests, which began at about 2pm, were held at Dataran Air Hitam in Bukit Naning, in Air Hitam and along the Air Hitam-Yong Peng road.

The members then marched to the Bakri police station where three of their members lodged reports against blogger Syed Abdullah Syed Hussein Al-Attas, Ahmad Shukri Kamaruddin and Haziq Abdul Aziz.

A representative of the groups, Abdul Aziz Sharip, said Johoreans could not accept what the three had written in their blogs, Facebook and Twitter about Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar.

He said the authorities should impose deterrent penalties on them to prevent others from insulting and disrespecting the Malay Rulers.

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I feel bloody sick in the stomach when these Melayu haprak start foaming at the mouth and make police reports, organise demonstrations and ‘pledges of loyalty’ sessions, etc., in defense of the Monarchy.

It is not that I am anti-Monarchy. On the contrary, I am pro-Monarchy -- although I believe that the Rulers should be subjected to criticism when they do wrong. It is just that I am anti-munafiq (hypocrites). And do we have so many munafiq amongst these Malays who are allegedly upholding Islam.

If they are really upholding Islam then they will know that the Rulers can be tegur. Tegur is the Malay culture of pointing out the mistakes that you make, which comes under the doctrine of amar makruf nahi munkar, a very important principle of Islam -- in fact, mandatory for all Muslims.

I suggest these Malays go study the kitab of Imam Ghazali. Sheesh, they got the cheek to tell me not to talk about Islam because I am not learned enough about Islam to talk about it. It is they who are jahil (ignorant) about Islam, not me.

Of course, tegur does not mean you can insult the Rulers. Not only should you not insult the Rulers, you should not insult anyone for the matter, the Rulers included. Insulting is not tegur, which many Malaysians do not seem to understand, Malaysia Today readers not exempted.

Around 30 years or so ago, it is these same Malays from Umno who launched a campaign to run down the Rulers. The non-Malays knew better than to join the Ruler-bashing frenzy, though. The non-Malays knew that bashing the Rulers would invite a backlash. So the non-Malays very wisely stayed neutral, although the Gerakan President, Lim Keng Yaik, joined in the Ruler-bashing frenzy, complete with saliva spraying from his mouth as he lambasted the Sultan of Pahang.

The issue is: the Umno Malays were not trying to tegur the Rulers to point out the mistakes they were making. They were spinning lies about the Rulers. That is the issue I was opposed to. If it were a genuine tegur then I would not have minded. But they were spinning downright lies about the Rulers.

The three Umno personalities who led the charge against the Rulers were Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Deputy Prime Minister Tun Abdul Ghafar Baba and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Ghafar even said that criticising the Rulers is allowed and is not considered sedition. It only becomes sedition if you ask to abolish the Monarchy and turn Malaysia into a Republic. Other than that it is allowed and is not sedition.

That was what happened in the 1980s. It was a Ruler-bashing fiesta. And Umno said this is not a crime. It is not wrong to criticise the Rulers when they do wrong. This is what Umno said. But they did not criticise the Rulers. They spun lies about the Rulers. And they said that this is allowed, nothing wrong in that.

Munafiq, munafiq, munafiq!

The TV stations showed footages of a Chinese towkay’s house in Batu Feringgi in Penang and said that this was His Highness the Sultan of Selangor’s lavish bungalow (His Highness was the Raja Muda then), paid for with the taxpayers’ money.

Lies!

The TV stations showed footages of Rumah Kedah in Northam Road (now called Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah) in Penang and said that this was His Highness the Sultan of Kedah’s lavish bungalow, paid for with the taxpayers’ money.

Lies!

Actually Rumah Kedah was an old run-down pre-war house (not at all lavish), which belonged to the (Umno-led) Kedah State Government for the use of the Kedah State Government officers who visit Penang.

Lim Keng Yaik, the Gerakan President, then went on TV to relate how ‘Tengku’ Wong and His Highness the Sultan of Pahang scammed hundreds of millions of Ringgit worth of timberland in the State of Pahang.

Lies!

‘Tengku’ Wong was actually the business partner of the Menteri Besar, Tun Mohd Khalil Yaakob, currently the Governor of Melaka.

What happened was that Khalil gave loads of timberland to ‘Tengku’ Wong and he told the Pahang State EXCO that ‘Tengku’ Wong was the Sultan’s business partner and that the Sultan had instructed the land to be given to him. Of course, no one in the EXCO dared oppose it or dared question the Sultan about it. Hundreds of millions was scammed in this manner and the slime-ball is now the Governor of Melaka as ‘punishment’ for what he did.

Ghafar then revealed that more than RM116 million worth of various 'negotiated' contracts meant for Bumiputeras were given to ‘Tengku’ Yong of Terengganu, the business partner of His Highness the late Sultan of Terengganu. RM116 million was about 30 years ago so imagine how much that is worth today.

The Menteri Besar of Terengganu, Dato' Seri Amar Di Raja Tan Sri Haji Wan Mokhtar Ahmad (S.S.M.T., P.S.M., S.P.M.T., D.A., D.P.M.J., K.M.N., J.P., P.J.K.), then revealed that he had received a ‘Surat Kuning’ (‘Yellow Letter’) from the Palace instructing him to give these contracts to ‘Tengku’ Yong’s company and that ‘Tengku’ Yong was His Highness the Sultan’s business partner.

Lies!

‘Tengku’ Yong was actually Wan Mokhtar’s business partner. Then, when this matter ‘exploded’ and we from the Terengganu Malay Chambers of Commerce confronted Wan Mokhtar, he denied he had said he had received a ‘Surat Kuning’ from the Palace. He then accused us of spreading lies and that this was an opposition conspiracy to defame him. After that, those who confronted him were targeted for ‘assassination’ and Umno told me to get out of Terengganu and go back to Selangor. (Yes, 30 years ago back in the 1980s I was already on Umno’s ‘death list’).

Then Anwar Ibrahim accused His Highness the Sultan of Kelantan of stealing a Lamborghini from the Customs warehouse in Subang and of importing cars without paying tax.

Lies!

Actually, Rulers have a quota of seven tax-free cars, while Raja Mudas have three, and His Highness the Sultan of Kelantan was still within his quota. Anwar then said that the Conference of Rulers had not approved his Highness the Sultan’s quota. Another lie. The quotas have nothing to do with the Conference of Rulers. The State Government approves these quotas and the State of Kelantan was then under Umno. Hence Umno had approved His Highness the Sultan of Kelantan’s quota.

See how they spun all these lies 30 years ago back in the 1980s? And the few cases I mentioned above are just the tip of the iceberg. There were many more cases. And they were all lies meant to make the Rulers look bad.

And do you know what? Because of these lies they spun about the Sultan of Kelantan, the voters of Kelantan took the side of the Sultan and in 1990 the Kelantanese voted for PAS-Semangat 46 and kicked Umno out. Until today Umno can’t take back Kelantan, and I hope they never will. I hope the people of Kelantan will remember what Umno did to their Sultan.

Hidup PAS!

And that is why most of the Rulers do not support Pakatan Rakyat, in particular PKR. The Rulers have never forgotten or forgiven Anwar and those ex-Umno people in PKR who went on a Ruler-bashing orgy 30 years ago. The Rulers do not trust Anwar and those Melayu from PKR who were once in Umno and who dragged the Rulers through the mud.

The Rulers have no issue with PAS, though. DAP did not whack the Rulers, no doubt. But they stood aside and enjoyed seeing Umno whack the Rulers. Hence, although DAP can claim to have stayed ‘neutral’, they did not protest the lies being spun about the Rulers. But PAS stood by the Rulers. Thus the Sultan told the voters to kick out Umno and give Kelantan to PAS.

So can we stop all this nonsense? Today, these Melayu are pretending to be defending the Rulers. Actually they were the ones who introduced the culture of lying about the Rulers. As I said, tegur is okay. That is the Islamic thing to do. But lying is certainly not on, not only for Islam but also for any religion for that matter. And these are all a bunch of lying hypocrites who should be shot.

Hidup Raja!