Imagine the protest and demos all over the country if a DAP MP had proposed a Bill which is alleged to show contempt for the Malay Rulers!

Mohamed Tawfik Ismail, the son of the second Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, yesterday filed a lawsuit asking the courts to declare that PAS President, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang’s private member’s bill to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act (Act 355) is unconstitutional, and seeking an order from the High Court in Kuala Lumpur to prohibit the Dewan Rakyat from allowing Hadi's motion to be tabled and debated in Parliament.

The grounds advanced by Mohamed Tawfik was that Hadi’s private member’s bill was unconstitutional, flouts Parliamentary procedures and in contempt of the Rulers’ Conference as prior consent was not obtained.

Imagine what would have happened if there is a court application against the DAP on the ground that a DAP MP had submitted a private member’s bill which was in contempt of the Rulers’ Conference as prior consent was not obtained.

The Office of the UMNO Directorate of Strategic Communications/Lies would have swung into action and hordes of protestors and demonstrators would have demonstrated outside DAP offices in the country for being anti-Malay Rulers, making all sorts of demands, while on the cyberspace, the UMNO cybertroopers would be working overtime to demonise DAP leaders as having committed treason in showing disrespect and contempt for the Malay Rulers.

Nobody is suggesting a campaign of protests and demonstrators outside PAS offices or a campaign on the social social media against Hadi for his private member’s bill, but the time has come for Malaysians to realise that Malaysian nation-building and politics should have reached a more mature level after 60 years of nationhood where epithets and labels of “anti-Malay”, “anti-Islam” or “anti-Rulers” should not be freely thrown about without any evidence being given.

The recent farce where the UMNO Information chief out-sources hate speech to the general public, asking for evidence that I am ‘anti-Malay” and “anti-Islam”, should never be repeated again – if we are serious in wanting to build a united Malaysian nation out of our diverse races, religions, languages and cultures in the country.

Whether Hadi’s bill is in contempt of the Rulers’ Conference as prior consent had not been obtained is a question which should be decided by the proper authorities.