Zahid and Hadi have respectively made the worst and second worst political statement of the year

The UMNO President, Zahid Hamidi and the PAS President, Hadi Awang have respectively made the worst and the second worst political statement of the year.

Zahid said that the Barisan Nasional is prepared to wade through floods if the 15th General Election is held during the monsoon season.

This shows how irresponsible UMNO and BN have become – they are not interested in the welfare of the people during floods and heavy rains but only in the holding of the 15th General Election to get the “court cluster” in UMNO leadership to escape jail sentences for corruption offences.

Past were the times when monsoon season was the taboo period for the holding of a general election – but that was the time when the people’s welfare still mattered as compared to the welfare of political leaders.

The PAS President’s statements that many of the Pakatan Harapan leaders are “non-believers and immoral” ; that when Harapan contested the 14th general election in 2018, it openly took in bribe givers and bribe takers and that the non-Muslims and non-Bumiputras are the “root of corruption” remove him from the pale of acceptable leaders of plural Malaysia.

It is particularly galling that Islamic leaders in a plural nation like Malaysia should be making such irrational, extremist and bigoted statement\s when there is growing tolerance, freedom and liberalisation in the Middle East and key Islamic nations.

No wonder Hadi is banned from Saudi Arabia and other OIC nations although he is the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy to the Middle East with Ministerial rank!

Is this the reason why instead of topping the list of Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) in the Transparency International Corruption Perception list, we have lost out to five OIC countries and likely to lose out of more OIC countries unless we show more seriousness in the fight against corruption?

The country is facing a harsh political climate when political leaders are openly obsessed about their personal interests or are prepared to resort to provocative lies and falsehoods to protect their political interests.