KUCHING, April 17: PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang’s challenge to the Christian priests is utterly disgraceful and absurd, says Democratic Action Party Socialist Youth (DAPSY) Sarawak publicity secretary Abdul Aziz Isa.
Abdul Aziz said Hadi, who had reportedly challenged Christian priests to join any political party to contest in the general election (GE14), is “a myopic, misogynist, narcissist and parochial politician”.
Accusing churches of being fronts for DAP, Hadi had said that his party’s clergymen did not use their religion as an excuse not to be involved in politics.
“If PAS ulama can enter the political fray in their robes and ‘serban’ to contest in elections, then I challenge them (Christian priests) to also dive into the political arena with the parties of their choice, without defrocking themselves,” he said in a statement on Harakahdaily.
“As a seasoned politician, Hadi should not play the religion and race cards for his political gain because it does not bode well in a multiracial, multilingual and multi-religious country like Malaysia,” Abdul Aziz said in a press statement today.
Urging Hadi to withdraw his challenge immediately, Abdul Aziz said Hadi should never mix religion and politics and he should not try to mislead the people by trying to poison their minds with religious outreach.
“This so-called ‘religious politician’ is teaching the future generation to become hypocrites. His views on politics and religion are too extreme and radical which could risk the country’s political stability,” said the special assistant to DAP Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen.
Abdul Aziz, a Muslim, doubted that Hadi would wear his religious turban to go to mosques or surau to preach to his fellow Muslim congregation about justice, religious jurisprudence, humanity, and social welfare in Islam as stated in the Quran and Hadith.
However, when it comes to politics, Hadi will change his turban and wear a ‘politician hat’ to spread propaganda and hate politics to divide the nation for his political mileage, said Abdul Aziz.
He stressed that religion and the state should be separated, just like separating the Prime Minister from holding the portfolio of Finance Minister to avoid conflict of interest and centralisation of power as stated in Pakatan Harapan’s latest manifesto.
“If religion is mixed up with politics, it will undermine the sanctity of the religion itself. This is because religious leaders who are involved in politics tend to manipulate the religion to induce the voters. And this is not a good practice in our political scenario,” he added. — DayakDaily
