YOURSAY | ‘PAS, don’t forget other pressing social ills too’

YOURSAY | ‘Perhaps you’d want to focus on drugs, incest, and the national celebration called corruption.’

PAS MP hopes no more alcohol industry in M'sia in the future

Newday: Pasir Mas MP Ahmad Fadhli Shaari, we have many things and issues in Malaysia that many wish would eventually be no more.

Issues such as child marriage, restrictions on people who are not married being together, restrictions on music and dance, people flaunting their positions by driving the most expensive cars possible, politicians who act and think they are above the law (no quarantine or bike helmets), the acceptance of endemic corruption as well as the continuing and questionable bashing of DAP, non-Malays and liberal Muslims, type two diabetes (due to high sugar consumption), and the abuse of migrant labour.

This is not a complete list. Yet out of all these problems, you focused on an individual’s right to have an alcoholic beverage. You have yet again marginalised the 30 percent of Malaysians who are legally allowed to drink.

Apaknakdikato: Ahmad Fadhli and Pasir Puteh MP Nik Muhammad Zawawi Salleh, today you try to ban alcohol, and next you try to ban pork, then ultimately you ban other religions.

Don't try to impose your beliefs on others. Stop being self-righteous because there are many non-Muslims who consume alcohol in a responsible manner, and who have high moral values. In fact, they contribute more to the country than you.

To falsely insult other people's faith as "terpesong" (deviation) in Parliament shows your high level of disrespect for non-Muslims.

I can assure you that the Christian community in Malaysia will not break into riots following your insult because they know their faith remains unshakeable.

If a similar insult on Islam was thrown by an irresponsible non-Muslim in Parliament, can you guarantee there will not be violent demonstrations and riots by your fellow Muslims?

Your insult on the Christian community is serious and I am shocked that the House speaker allowed this, probably indicating he has a similar bigoted mindset as yours.

You have no right whatsoever to dictate how non-Muslims should run their lives. It is far better that you correct yourself first before trying to correct others. Isn't that what your religion taught?

Vijay47: Ahmad Fadhli, being a member of PAS, especially like your party president Abdul Hadi Awang, it must be unavoidable that you must embark on frequent holier-than-thou displays of hypocrisy and selective piety.

Your demand that alcoholic drinks be banned may blend well, neat or on the rocks, with those crowds at the corner gerai kopi (coffee stall) as they sagely sip their air sirap or take a puff or two or three of ketum.

But I will vehemently protest your latest outrage, from two perspectives.

Do not impose your Islamic values on me. I am a Christian and my religion does not prohibit my drinking alcohol; nevertheless, it does urge caution, restraint, and responsibility.

As to my sins or virtues, where I hope the latter exceeds the former, I am quite prepared, thank you, to account for them when I finally seek entry through the pearly gates.

If religious adherence is what worries you, why pick on drinking, a pastime that Muslims are supposedly not prone to indulge in?

Perhaps you would want to focus on drugs including, yes, ketum, incest, and the national celebration called corruption.

That should at least reduce the housing pressures Hell would otherwise suffer and in the meantime, make Kelantan a virtual heaven, the deluge of Mercedes Benz vehicles notwithstanding.

However, if your anxiety is road safety, you might want to address your misplaced concern to the police. Yes, the one eternally facing problems in locating a criminal on the run with his unfortunate daughter.

The police would agree that since drunk-driving constitutes less than two percent of traffic accidents, wiser minds would prefer to pay heed to greater causes like speeding and irresponsible driving. Alas, that would call for wisdom.

Mafeeah: To solve drink driving, you ban alcohol. To solve drug addiction, you ban drugs. To solve corruption, you ban money. To solve khalwat and zina, do you ban men or women?

GreenTurtle6724: @Mafeeah, for all of these, if you ban what is mentioned with what is indicated, the problems are still there, only that they are unable to manifest themselves.

You do not heal by getting rid of an illness’ symptoms - there is the need to get to the root cause.

If you make something illegal, it will go underground, and in the case of alcohol, the government loses revenue in the form of excise duties.

Consumption of alcoholic drinks has long been a part of people's lives before the advent of Islam.

The only problem is its abuse, but you do not hope for no car industry just because cars kill or ban knives because people can use a knife to kill.

BusinessFirst: I think it is more pressing to educate the public about the dangers of smoking. Even parents who smoke dissuade their children from doing so.

It is a waste of money and the cause of many terrible diseases, most commonly lung cancer. It destroys families' physical and financial health.

If you are really concerned about public health, this is something that you should fight for. Yet you focus only on alcohol which is a lesser social ill and actually wine drunk in moderation has health benefits. There are zero benefits in smoking, except perhaps ganja as a pain killer.

Hence, this is nothing more than you carrying out an agenda based entirely on your religious belief. Live your life as you see fit, but please stop forcing your religious beliefs down the throats of others.

Your objection is hardly health-related though you disguise it that way. It is purely carrying out your religious agenda since you are totally silent on smoking, which is a greater social harm.

Ipohcrite: PAS has again failed to acknowledge the elephant in the room. The more serious problem is not alcohol but drugs, and PAS-governed states are not free from this scourge.

On the contrary, they are among the leading statistics in drug addiction.

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