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Credit | The Malaysian Insider

Saturday August 23 2008

Zulkifli Kulim Tegas Islam | Sekongkol Anwar m’Gelisah

By Wan Hamidi Hamid

Political Editor

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 22 – For now, Zulkifli Noordin is safe. But he is using up his credits within Pakatan Rakyat fast, hampering Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s efforts to portray himself as the leader of all Malaysians, and putting the Opposition on the defensive in the debate of race and religion.

This was not how it was supposed to be. Before and after the general elections on March 8, Anwar fashioned the Parti Keadilan Rakyat as a multiracial political party interested in ushering an era of justice and equality for Malaysians.

Instead of the New Economic Policy, he has been talking about the Malaysian Economic Agenda.

But this multiracial and multi-religious platform has been creaking under the weight of one man’s antics.

Early this month, Zulkifli, the Bandar Baru Kulim MP, stormed a Bar Council forum on conversion to Islam.  He charged that the organizers of the forum were ridiculing Islam. “I am a Muslim first, lawyer second. I am Muslim first, MP second. For me, Islam comes first, a party member second. If you attack Islam I will be there.”

The problem with such a strong statement is that no one was attacking Islam at that forum. Bar Council secretary Lim Chee Wee said that no one at the forum criticised Islam or challenged the position of Islam in the Federal Constitution.

He said: “Nobody was critical of any religion. What people spoke about was the effect of a spouse or parent who converted and then they were left abandoned.”

During the protest which led to the cancellation of the forum, Zulkifli was also quoted as telling the protesters that it was time for Bar Council to be led by a Muslim.

Former president Datuk Kuthubul Zaman Bukhari said that the council was never been anti-Islam.

“I can consider myself a staunch Muslim as well. The Bar Council has never taken any stand that is anti-Islam. The Bar Council has never taken any position against any racial, religious, ideology and so on. The Bar Council is free from all this.

“I totally disagree with the stand taken by Zulkifli. Everybody knows what the Bar Council is about.”

PKR official were considering sending a show cause letter to Zulkifli but it is learnt that he was spared any disciplinary action because Anwar did not want any distractions before the Permatang Pauh by-election, where the support of the Malay electorate is crucial.

But their patience is once again being tested by Zulkifli. On Wednesday, he attacked DAP’s Chong Eng in Parliament, calling her a racist and anti-Islam during a debate which touched on the issue of religion.

When he was chastised for his comments, he shot back: “Any Muslim worth his salt should defend Islam”.

His decision to attack a colleague from the Pakatan Rakyat coalition did not go down well with DAP’s Lim Guan Eng. The Penang Chief Minister said: “It’s completely unjustified. She is not racist at all. His statement is no different from Umno. I would have expected such an outburst from an Umno member but not a PKR member.”

His outburst also embarrassed PKR vice-president R.Sivarasa who thought that Zulkifili’s choice of words against Chong Eng were unparliamentary.

For now, it appears that Zulkilfi is surviving mainly on the goodwill and support of Anwar.

His actions have not gone down well with Parti Islam SeMalaysia.

While Pas did not agree with Bar Council going ahead with the forum, it distanced itself from the roughhouse tactics used by the protestors. Also, there is some baggage.

Zulkilfi contested the 2004 election ticket under the Pas ticket but soon wore out his welcome in the party after his frequent clashes with several personalities.

In fact, just before the elections in 2004, he was put on the black list by respected ulama Haron Din.

This prohibited him from speaking at Pas-sponsored ceramahs. Party leaders found him too explosive and divisive even for their liking.