DOGMA is “a principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true.” That “authority” is usually government that begged for your votes and then repaid you by enforcing rogue ideologies.
That justified the Johor, Selangor and Perak Royals, especially, to issue scathing rebukes at dogma peddlers inciting disaffection aimed at scarring and ruining national unity. There ought to be a law to outlaw this treacherous malaise.
Madani’s six core pillars — sustainability, prosperity, innovation, respect, confidence and compassion — is a reconstructionist dogma in theory only. Sustainability is manifest as the status quo where nothing changes.
We are the only nation with two federal ministries to watch over religion and national unity, supposedly to inflict pain and trauma upon dogged dogma purveyors. Religion seems vulnerable and susceptible to assaults?
Without a politician’s pre-election covenant, voters are unwittingly shutting the doors and windows for defusing toxic dogmas as decided by the ruling party that has formed the government of the day.
Principles of governance thrust into the lives of the rakyat as the incontrovertible truth is nothing but patent fascism that portends totalitarianism. It has no place in an avowed parliamentary democracy.
“When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow,” warned Anais Nin. That’s the contagious power of dogma when blind faith and belief — absent evidence — walk hand in hand.
The education system in Malaysia has been the major victim of political dogma that almost tattered the English Language to a faded memory. Just listen to our leaders — and the led—speak the English Language today!
Between 1981 and 2003, constitutional convulsions with amendments and repeals were designed to play to the tune, tone, temperament and tenor of “I-did-it-may-way.”
Those troubling twenty-two years witnessed the tampering of the Judiciary, Royalty and the repeal of Parliamentary Services Act 1963. The pervasive dogma was absolute Executive control.
Malaysia Agreement 1963 and the Malaysia Act were also subjected to unsavoury duelling dogmas. One of the signatories to the Malaysia Agreement — the United Kingdom— has maintained an awkwardly embarrassing silence.
But Robert Linggi v. Government of Malaysia 2 MLJ 741 [2011] realigned the edicts of the Inter-Government Committee (IGC) Report 1961 that mandated the rights of Sabah and Sarawak as was required to be safeguarded and guaranteed in the Federal Constitution.
The mischief was caught in the 1994 constitutional amendments to Article 122A(3) and (4) which had contravened the IGC Report in that it required the consent of the Yang di-Pertua Negeri of Sabah and Sarawak for any constitutional amendments that had the potential to affect Sabah and Sarawak’s rights.
“Political dogma cannot taint the constitutional sanctity of the IGC Report,” said the vigilant Federal Court in Pihak Berkuasa Negeri Sabah v Sugumar Balakrishnan [2002] 3 MLJ 73; and in Datuk Hj Mohammad Tufail bin Mahmud & Ors v Dato Ting Check Sit [2009] 4 MLJ 165.
Peninsular Malaysia’s political dogmas must never find a foothold in Sarawak. Unfortunately, Sabah’s demographics were manipulated to artificially and autocratically boost the number UMNO electors through a mass citizenship drive favouring Filipinos.
The Democrats under Biden attempted a similar tactic when 17 million or so illegals entered the southern borders. The pro-Trump media dubbed them “undocumented Democrats” as there was no big secret why they were welcomed in the first place.
Meanwhile Arab dogma is taking a bizarre turn as 1.6 million Gazan Palestinians are unwelcome in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia or the UAE in the wake of Trump 47’s Gaza rebuilding plan. Whether the Conference of Rulers and Parliament agreed or not, PMX presumably decided otherwise.
That is the danger of politically inspired dogmas. Elected officials who spend four or five years in power should not take it upon themselves to inflict their personal and collective ideologies upon the rakyat. Term limits must become a crucial and pivotal constitutional amendment.
The fundamental liberties enumerated in the Federal Constitution are not structured to aid and assist the rakyat in repelling political dogmas. Perhaps the younger generation of leaders of the future will entrench such a provision?
Religious dogmas fall into the realms of personal choices. Government is not lawfully or legally bound to dictate terms through dogmatic persuasions. Government must realise that nobody chooses their parents or the religion they are born into.
The dogmatic PDA 1974 supposedly represents past faults and errors. Constitutional melancholy has a definite cure when relevant treaties and ordinances can be constitutionally immunised from dirty and devious dogmas.
Despite deceptive dogmas that were surreptitiously whispered until 13 May 1969, the state and fate of the Malaysian economy is the shared responsibility of everyone Malaysian regardless of race, religion or region – Madani notwithstanding.
Untamed and unconstitutional dogmas expressed as party politics and policies is treason requiring punishment under the full fire, fervour and fury of the furnace and finesse of the rule of law.
We are inevitably approaching the crossroads of renewal versus revival. The road less travelled is obviously that marked “Renewal”. Revival is the synonym of survival where nothing changes.
Dogma is the forced living of other peoples’ putrefied thinking. Putrajaya should strenuously correct the dangerous listing of the Madani vessel that requires a seasoned helmsman to navigate dire straits and unchartered waters.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of Sarawak Tribune.
