MP SPEAKS | Hadi’s false narrative about Muslim voter turnout

MP SPEAKS | PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang has once again propelled Perikatan Nasional’s racist, extremist and false narrative by complaining about the alleged poor turnout by Muslim voters.

In contrast, Hadi (above) claimed that non-Muslims turned out in droves from near and far to “support DAP”, with a turnout by non-Muslims of 98 percent compared to a mere 60 percent turnout of Muslims.

Data scientist Thevesh Theva repudiated Hadi’s figures of the voter turnout based on religion as false and baseless.

How can more non-Muslims have voted than Muslims, when Hadi’s home state Terengganu - a 95 percent Malay/Muslim-majority state - had a turnout of 80.2 percent - the highest for a state in the country.

The lowest turnout was in the non-Muslim majority state of Sarawak at only 59.1 percent.

Turnout in Hadi’s seat Marang was also at 82.8 percent, which Thevesh said was the seventh-highest in the country. The parliamentary seat with highest turnout was in the 95 percent Muslim majority seat of Putrajaya at 85.5 percent whilst the lowest turnout was in the non-Muslim majority seat of Limbang at 47.1 percent.

In fact, the top 20 voter turnouts were all Muslim majority parliamentary seats whilst the bottom 20 voter turnout were all non-Muslim majority seats.

Clearly, facts and figures, as well as granular data, prove beyond reasonable doubt that Hadi was simply lying when he said the Muslim voter turnout was only 60 percent as compared to 98 percent for non-Muslims.

Baseless slur

Hadi even said Muslims who did not vote had committed a huge sin by disobeying Prophet Muhammad’s command to not retreat when the “enemies of Islam” were on attack.

This is a racial and extremist slur not only against non-Muslims but also a baseless slur against Muslims. As proven above, Muslim voter turnout was the highest in the 15th general election.

Non-Muslims are not enemies of Islam. Non-Muslims are opposed to PAS for continuing to threaten to diminish and erode the fundamental rights enshrined in the Federal Constitution and interfere in the lifestyle of non-Muslims.

PAS is a political party whilst Islam is a universal religion. PAS' discriminatory and racist attitude towards non-Muslims is not sanctioned in Islam.

PAS may see non-Muslims as their enemy and non-Muslims are justifiably threatened by the extremism and racism of PAS. However, non-Muslims have never seen Islam as their enemy and Hadi is playing a dangerous game to paint non-Muslims as the enemies of Islam.

For Hadi, to equate non-Muslims opposed to PAS with those also opposed to Islam is irrational, divisive and a clear and present danger to a harmonious society.

Hadi argued that it was obligatory for Muslims to vote in order to put Muslims in power. Hadi again ignores the fact and truth that our prime minister is a Muslim and there are only nine non-Muslims out of 28 cabinet ministers, with the remainder being Muslims.

The failure of PAS to win the federal government despite PN’s desperate attempt to rile up extremist and racist tensions with false Christianisation and Jewish conspiracy theories has shown their irresponsible nature to win at all costs.

Malaysians who are moderate and focused on improving our economy must stick together against this naked pursuit of power by racists and extremists that would undermine not only our Federal Constitution but threaten the national fabric of Malaysia as one nation.

LIM GUAN ENG is Bagan MP and DAP chairperson.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.