Isma, just thriving on rhetoric, not making real steps to Malaysian harmony

This is the real face and reason for Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma).

Unable to unite Malaysians to its insular and blinkered cause, Isma has decided to throw mud at the new civil movement Negara-Ku and accuse it of being "just a new face on the block but with the same agenda of going against Islam".

"Their agenda and focus are the same, to go against Islam as the religion of the Federation and the rights of Malays in this Malay heartland.

"You can use any name, but we know who you are and who you work for," Isma president Abdullah Zaik Abdul Rahman (pic) said today.

What else could we have expected from someone with such a parochial mindset?

He has nothing good to say about efforts to bring sense and sensibility back to Malaysia. Instead, Isma and even Perkasa only thrive in a cauldron of rhetoric, hoping that the country is always on the edge.

Because they are only relevant when there is tension. And if there isn't, they have to make sure that there is some simmering somewhere in Malaysia. Anything to cool down frayed tempers and misunderstandings is alien to them.

People like him make the country look bad. People like him are also the ones that have scuppered Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's vague 1Malaysia idea.

While that is as good as being shelved into the archives, Malaysians now have another chance of rallying to the country's need for unity and harmony through Negara-Ku.

After all, it brings together disparate groups, 68 at last count, under one roof for the country. Yes, most of them were also the ones behind electoral watchdog Bersih, but here's the thing: it is all good for Malaysia in the long run.

Those behind Negara-Ku include prominent Malaysians such as Pertubuhan Ikram Malaysia deputy president Zaid Kamaruddin, the steering committee chairman; former Bersih co-chairs Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan and Datuk A. Samad Said; and former vice-chair of the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia, Tan Sri Simon Sipaun.

Their aim: to mobilise and empower people to return to the basics of the Federal Constitution, the Malaysia Agreement, and the Rukunegara.

Can Isma aspire to do the same for Malaysia or does it just want to be the group that believes in its narrow race and religion cause? If that is the case, then it is just a Johnny-come-lately as Umno did that from the 1940s and Perkasa has been around since 2008.

Malaysia does not need Isma. What it needs is more groups like Negara-Ku and the younger generation who believe in a Malaysia for all, not for the few. 

- TMI