Hannah Yeoh is not only Malaysian; she is a high profile minister.
Despite that, after being accused of trying to turn Malaysia into a Christian nation, she had over 182 police reports lodged against her, although Hannah herself has vehemently denied the accusation.
According to the police, two investigation papers have also been opened against Hannah, one under the Penal Code and another as a police inquiry paper.
In contrast, Zakir Naik is not a Malaysian. He is actually an Indian citizen.
What is more, he is actually wanted by the Indian authorities for inciting extremism and money laundering related cases.
In the few years that he has been given refuge in Malaysia, he has already been involved in multiple fracas with multiple personalities in the country.
Zakir’s reputation as a rabble rouser is so strong, that there is even a gag order applied on him by the police in August 2019, preventing him from giving speeches in public in Malaysia, in the interest of national security and to preserve racial harmony.
Just last August, PMX Anwar Ibrahim had to come out to clarify Zakir’s status in Malaysia, by saying that Malaysia will not consider extraditing Naik to India only as long as the preacher avoided causing trouble.
Despite that, Naik had given a speech before a crowd at the Perlis International Sunnah Convention 2025, held from Jan 24 to 26 anyway, and in the speech, he would openly call on Malaysian Muslims to intensify efforts to spread Islam to non- Muslims, and declaring that Muslims would have to answer in the afterlife if they were slack in their effort to convert non-Muslims to Islam.
When asked about the status of the gag order prohibiting Naik from giving public speeches in Malaysia, Home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail could only remark that he will have to check on the status of a purported directive before he can confirm whether the ban on Naik was still effective or had been withdrawn.
Zakir, unlike Hannah, was not interpreted to have remarked about his advocacy of Islamic proselytization to occur amongst non-Muslims, mind you. These were his actual words. He is not even denying it.
Although Hannah, a Malaysian and a Minister, had to go through a baptism of fire because some people interpreted that she intended to turn Malaysia into Christian nation, although she herself vehemently denies that that is what she meant, Zakir it seems, does not need to endure even a fraction of what Hannah endured, although he openly said about non-Muslims what Hannah is alleged to have said about Muslims, and although he has been given a gag order to prevent him to give public speeches and even after the Prime Minister himself has warned just in August last year, that Zakir will be extradited to India if he causes trouble in Malaysia.
People always assume that the role of the authorities is to uphold justice in the land, but actually, their role is to merely institute law and order.
We all know that justice is not possible by mere mortals. We all know that not all crimes are solved. It is not the case that every wrongdoer is punished or every innocent person will be vindicated.
The authorities are not “special people” who are connected to the heavens. The skies do not part and voices from the beyond does not instruct our authority about how to carry out justice in the world.
The role of authorities is merely to maintain the concept of reciprocity in society, under the name of enforcing law and order, to keep the peace and prevent any unrest to ferment in the land.
The basic law of reciprocity is simple. It follows the golden rule. “Do not do to others what you don’t want to be done to you”.
Following this principle, if any one of us in the country does to anyone else what we don’t want to be done to us, the authorities are authorised to correct the transgression, in order to maintain the premise that in our country, everybody must follow the laws of reciprocity, and not do to others what they don’t want to be done to them.
As long as we can continue believing that the laws of reciprocity hold in our land, then there will be peace without unrest, even if justice cannot be fully implemented.
It is when the authorities struggle to uphold law and order, that murmurs of discontent will start to percolate in the hearts and minds of the people.
There are of course, legal, social and political reasons why actions have been quick to be taken against Hannah but not Zakir, although Hannah is a prominent personality and a Malaysian citizen, while Zakir is not only not a citizen, but someone who has been repeatedly warned to not disturb the peace in Malaysia.
but despite all that, it is still incumbent upon the authorities to institute law and order in a more effective manner to prevent the notion that the laws of reciprocity can be wilfully disregarded in the land.
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