AMANAH president Mohamad Sabu railed against Malaysian Muslims obsessed with trivial matters such as Chin Peng’s ashes when the rest of the world is busy fighting global warming, which threatens everyone.

Mohamad, who leads an Islamist party, said such misplaced priorities among Muslims in general, was one of the main reasons why they were backward and missing from the mainstream of global development.

Mohamad’s criticism of how the issue was played up comes as Amanah’s rivals in Barisan Nasional and PAS continue to mine the controversy to score political points with conservative Malays.

On December 3, Umno lawmaker Tajuddin Abdul Rahman was suspended from parliament after over his remarks about the ex-Communist leader’s ashes, which had been smuggled into Malaysia two months ago.

Anger, especially among army and police veterans, erupted when it was revealed the ashes had been brought in by Chin Peng’s friends, who wanted to fulfil the guerrilla leader’s last request, and scattered in his home state of Perak.

Today, Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi defended Tajuddin, saying he “sympathised” with the latter.

“In Europe, in England, teenagers are protesting in the streets trying to get people to pay attention to climate change, to melting ice-caps and the rise of sea levels that threaten the future,” Mohamad said in his opening speech at the Amanah annual convention.

“Yet, in Malaysia, Muslims are fighting over Chin Peng’s ashes,” said Mohamad, who is also Defence Minister.

Mohamad has been a staunch critic of the racist polemics used by opposition parties Umno and PAS to attract Malay votes, while deflecting attention from the corruption and abuse of power rife under the former BN government.

He also criticised Muslim jurists and scholars who stood silent when billions were stolen from state firm 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MBD) during the BN era.

“Many of the ulama in Malaysia do not care about corruption and were in cahoots with ‘bossku’,” Mohamad said, referring to the nickname of former prime minister Najib Razak, who is currently on trial for fraud and abuse of power in the 1MBD scandal.

“Even the animals of the field are laughing at us. This happens all over the world with Muslims and it is why are always left behind,” he said. – December 6, 2019.