Quote of the week: Malaysia slides towards Islamism
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November 2-8 was an unusually dull week for quotes, although I've been sleeping a lot and may have missed some.
But the article “Malaysia’s moderate image hit badly” (Aseanplus, November 7) gave us two quotes of mild interest.
Zaid Ibrahim, a former minister in Malaysia, frankly admitted, “The government spends a lot of money promoting the label ‘moderate’. Of course [Malaysia] is not moderate. We are far from that.”
Mr Zaid wins plaudits for his honesty. The world is watching anxiously, fearing that formerly moderate Malaysia may be slowly slipping into Salafism. Christians can’t call their God Allah? Nationalists want to burn Bibles? C’mon, guys!
In the same article, Farida Ashari, a Malaysian civil servant, huffed, “There is pornography on the Net! Do I want my son to see that?”
Of course not. And good luck stopping him, madam.
Stay tuned for the next Quote of the Week. Let’s hope that next week somebody says something more exciting.
Howard Beasley
(The Quote Guy)
