A moderate Idris Jusoh? – Zaid Ibrahim

Jakarta has come under attack by militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis) who are once again using suicide bombers to kill innocent civilians. This type of violence is spreading in countries with sizeable Muslim populations. Malaysia will probably be next because some of us condone and in fact encourages violence.

The atmosphere of violence is thick in the air here. Just read the Facebook comments that Umno members have been making about the Indira Gandhi case.

They are irrational and mad. They ask if I was drunk when writing about Indira. Why am I pro-Hindu? Am I suggesting that the mother should have more rights than the father? Some say I was deliberately inciting hatred against Islam and that if Indira has two children who are Hindus, then it’s only fair that the youngest remains a Muslim. These Malays all have university certificates.

It’s clear that they do not understand the real issue, which is whether a husband can convert the religion of the young child without the mother’s agreement. It’s a human issue. It’s a legal issue. It’s also an issue of the people since the same situation could happen to any one of us.

But because these Malays are not able to think clearly, they see the issue differently. They see it as Muslims versus Hindus. That’s when they become irrational. Why are these Malays irrational? Because they go to universities that produce non-thinking or rather dangerous-thinking Malays.

How do you make these Malays think more clearly? You do not start by forming the fanciful Global Movement of Moderates to please US President Barack Obama, but by understanding what the concept of being “moderate” really means.

You start by making Umno moderate. You start by telling your ministers to be moderate. But for this we need a prime minister who understands the danger of irrational thinking. He must understand that the situation is grave enough that we must transform our education system. Our rabid Malay ot ”Islamic” thinking is the reason for the rapid rise of extremism in Malay behaviour.

If the PM sees how serious the problem is, he first must change the higher education minister, Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh. There are only two Malays in the present Cabinet line-up who can probably temper the rabid education policy we have now and create one that is more moderate and useful for the 21st century: International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed and Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin. But because the PM does not even understand that only a good education policy will produce intelligent and moderate Malays, he will not make any changes.

What’s wrong with Idris? For now I will confine my criticism to a programme of providing motivational talks and neuro-linguistic training to university professors, vice-chancellors and teachers. The man tasked to train these educationists is a consultant named Md Taib Mat. If you peruse his Facebook account, you’ll understand why our universities have become factories that produce mindless people.

When I suggested that a documentary should be filmed to explain the Indira Gandhi issue, and that it can be funded by raising money from the public, he said I should “collect the money from DAP pigs and those NGOs who are anti-Malay and anti-Islam”. When G25 suggested that khalwat laws be reviewed, he commented that Muslims who are against Islam should have their heads chopped off.

Check out his Facebook account and you’ll see what I mean.

This is the quality of Malays who roam our universities. This is the type of Malay who is brainwashing younger Malays into having a dangerously skewed view of the world. Such people would not have been able to do business selling such sick ideas unless the Minister condoned such practices.

Idris needs to answer for his relationship with Taib Mat. He needs to explain what he expects from the motivational courses that people like Taib Mat give and how our educationists will benefit from them. He needs to reveal how much the contract that Taib Mat has with the Higher Education Ministry is worth.

If Idris cannot explain these issues satisfactorily, then he too is dangerous, and at best he should be just made minister in charge of Malaysian soccer. – zaid.my, January 19, 2016.

* Datuk Zaid Ibrahim is a lawyer turned politician and a former minister in the prime minister's department in charge of legal affairs and judicial reform.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer, organisation or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.