Is Zaid Ibrahim The Latest Victim Of Derangement Syndrome

---

 He suggests the clerics of PAS can take Malaysia to greater heights, citing the mullahs of Iran as example.
From Terence Netto
Over the past quarter century that lawyer Zaid Ibrahim has declaimed from several contrarian parts of the national political landscape, one has grown used to the surprise the latest gyrations of this maverick have caused.
Even allowing for that familiarity, it was difficult to dismiss the consternation let loose by his latest stance – that the clerics of PAS could well take the Malaysian polity to greater heights, like the mullahs have done for Iran.
The report on his newest spiel, appearing in Malaysiakini on June 17, has drawn from netizens overwhelming derision and disbelief that an ostensible liberal democrat like Zaid could commend to voters the clerical leadership PAS proposes to foist on the Malaysian body politic.
Zaid argues that if PAS can combine its moral vision with good governance and inclusivity, they would be able to match the achievements of the Iranian theocrats whom Zaid claimed have led their country to weather the adversities of a sanctions-straitened economy and stand proudly in the comity of nations.
This skein of thought embodied in his argument is enough to tell you that Zaid cannot tell chalk from cheese.
How moral is a vision for a multiracial and multi-religious society that, from the outset, would distinguish between believers and non-believers (dhimmis), practice gender discrimination as a matter of fiat, and accord the testimony of a male believer a higher degree of credibility in a shariah court than that of a female or a dhimmi?
Just as untenable is the assumption by Zaid that the Iranian regime enjoys popular support when the opposite is more nearly true.
Still more incredible is Zaid’s assertion that the powerful Council of Guardians, the highest judicial body in Iran, is a fount of scholarly wisdom and ideological purity.
This is the body that decides on the religious bona fides of candidates for the presidency of the country.
Your bona fides have to be of the right hue to qualify to contest.
This is the central weakness of a theocracy: no theocratic power can guarantee that its subjects are religious in their personal consciousness.
Followers can mime the motions, but that doesn’t mean that they have internalised the maxims.
A lot of people in this country pray a lot which makes the high prevalence of corruption a puzzle.
Equally puzzling, given his experience of Malaysian politics and his legal training, is Zaid’s commendation of clerical rule that is certain to emphasise the forms of overt piety which is no guarantee of transformative conduct on the part of the believer.
Perhaps Zaid is simply exhibiting the derangement syndrome that so many believers in reformasi are feeling now. - FMT
Terence Netto is a senior journalist and an FMT reader.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.

---