In early March 2023, the Terengganu Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council (Maidam), apparently issued a prohibition, with the consent of the Sultan of Terengganu, declaring that mosques and suraus should never be used to cause anxiety, restlessness, or discord in the community.
In response to that prohibition, the President of PAS said that it was not a misdemeanour for politicians to give religious lectures in mosques and suraus and that leaders were obliged to speak about political Islam.
Following that, as a rejoinder, PMX said the PAS President should write a memorandum to the Sultan of Terengganu if he disagrees with the state’s decision to ban politicians from giving lectures in mosques and suraus.
The prohibition issued by Maidam in Terengganu, with the consent of the Sultan of Terengganu, is not a first by a Royal Household in Malaysia.
Back in 2019, the Sultan of Perak called on religious preachers and accredited mosque committee members to relinquish their posts if they have any political agendas and ambitions, adding that such agendas would violate the sanctity of mosques as religious sites.
In late 2021, the Sultan of Selangor decreed that the credentials to teach Islam held by any political activist or politician in the state be revoked, effective 31 Dec 2021.
In Jan 2023, the Johor Crown Prince directs that all mosques and surau in Johor are banned from conducting any talks or discussions on political affairs.
PMX referred to himself as the "father of the nation" (bapa negara) during a speech in Perak in late October 2024.
The PAS President who in 2018 openly said PMX could not be trusted as a Muslim and a leader probably has a huge bearing on their relationship.
This probably explains why, instead of calling on the President of PAS privately, PMX responded to the PAS President in March 2023, publicly and not privately, urging him instead to write a memorandum to the Sultan of Terengganu.
But with his coalition partner making most of the noise presently in Selangor, as the Bapa Negara, couldn’t he have advice his component partner in Pakatan, DAP, privately, to write a memorandum to the Sultan of Selangor instead of allowing the matter to escalate into a public spat as it appeared now?
Or PMX `intentionally and deliberately’, with the tacit understanding of the leadership of DAP, allowed DAP to play out their frustrations in public thus giving the perception to the supporters of DAP that the said party is defending their supporters and their livelihood and thus hopefully the non malay will return in droves to support the party in the next GE?
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