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Posted on January 29, 2019
Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq, in his attempt to suck up to his boss – PM Mahathir Mohamad – appear to have made a fool of himself after the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) stripped Malaysia of the right to host the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships, scheduled to be held in Kuching, Sarawak, between July 29 and Aug 4.
The IPC has stripped Malaysia of the right to host the sports event after the country said it would not allow Israeli para swimmers to enter the country. “When a host country excludes athletes from a particular nation, for political reasons, then we have absolutely no alternative but to look for a new championships host,” – said IPC president Andrew Parsons.
Mr. Mahathir, well known for holding anti-Semitic views, defiantly said Malaysia will stand by its principle in banning Israel athletes from entering the country. He said – “We have a right to voice our feelings and to have our own policies. If we cannot host the Paralympics, we can host other events.” Armed with a pretty face, the half-baked Saddiq said Malaysia prioritises human rights.
Syed Saddiq said that if hosting an international sporting event is more important than standing up for the Palestinians that means Malaysia has truly lost its moral compass. Seriously? Which part of the event specifically for athletes with a disability to compete for the championships that both Mahathir Mohamad and Syed Saddiq don’t understand?
Did any of the handicapped Israeli athletes kill any Palestinians at all? To generalise all the Jews as Zionists is like saying all the Muslims are terrorists. Unless Mahathir can happily accept the label that he, his family members and all the Malay Muslims are terrorists like ISIS, the 93-year-old premier should not conveniently mix sports with politics.
Adding confusion to the anti-Semitic policies, the young minister Saddiq who is still wet behind the ears has practically thrown everything, including the kitchen sink to justify the ban on Israeli athletes. It’s absolutely amazing that the 26-year-old young sports minister has no idea what a fool he has been for showing his disability in differentiating politics, sports and human rights.
On Sunday (Jan 27), Saddiq proudly declared – “Malaysia stands firmly with our decision on the ground of humanity and compassion for the Palestinian plight. We will not compromise.” If indeed the sports minister was sincere and serious about being the superhero in the Israel-Palestine conflict, he should lead the Malaysian Army to fight a Holy War and liberate the Palestinians, should he not?
At least, that was what the dumb Hishammuddin Hussein did in Dec. 2017 when the former defence minister announced that the Malaysian Armed Forces (ATM) were always ready to mobilise their strength against Jerusalem. Hishammuddin apparently made the pledge after Trump decided to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
The U.S. Embassy was officially relocated and opened in Jerusalem on May 14, 2018. So, what is Syed Saddiq waiting for? The oppressed and suppressed Palestinians have been screaming their lungs out for help since last year. Should not Mr. Saddiq demonstrate his unparalleled courage and fight for the poor Palestinians? At the very least, he should declare a “Holy War” against the Israel.
In the same breath, should not Mahathir government boycott the U.S. and all American products – including the iPhone, Boeing, McDonald’s, Starbucks and whatnot – because Israel has become the so-called devil in the Middle East largely due to support from the Yankees? Do you know that Israel has received more than US$121 billion in aid from the U.S. since World War II?
In fact, the United States and Israel signed an agreement in September 2016 to give Israel US$38 billion (£28.9 billion; RM156 billion) in military assistance over the next decade, the largest such aid package in U.S. history. Clearly, Syed Saddiq is a hypocrite and a coward for banning athletes from Israel, but not America, or European Union for that matter.
There are dozens of countries whose human rights are worse than Israel. North Korea is a pariah state that everyone despises, except Malaysia. Relations between Malaysia and North Korea started in 1973 and the North Korean embassy was opened in Kuala Lumpur in 2003. And it was Mahathir, who welcomed the move to reopen embassy in the North after the brutal assassination of Kim Jong-nam.
Did Mahathir and Saddiq not realise that Kim Jong-un was so brutal that the dictator used to execute his officials whom he believed were a threat by blowing them up in pieces using an anti-aircraft gun? Even Kim’s defence chief, Hyon Yong-chol, was executed for the treasonable crime of behaving disrespectfully – falling asleep in the Chairman Kim’s presence.
Talking about assassination and execution, Syed Saddiq should advise his boss to shut down the Saudi Arabia Embassy in Kuala Lumpur and order all the Arab diplomats to leave Malaysia within 2 weeks. After all, Mahathir has personally labelled the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, whose body was cut into pieces, as an act of “extreme cruelty” and was unacceptable.
Khashoggi, a columnist with the Washington Post, went missing after visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct 2. Saudi officials initially denied claims he was dead and claimed that he had left the consulate, but on Oct 20 finally admitted that Khashoggi had been killed. Two days later on Oct 24, Saudi made a U-turn, admitting the murder was pre-planned.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was the architect behind the Yemeni Civil War. Although the Saudi Arabian-led 10-nation of Arab states could not defeat the Yemen until today, the war which was started in 2015 has caused a humanitarian crisis, including a famine, which has threatened 13 million people, as well as an outbreak of cholera which has infected an estimated 1.2 million.
On November 2018, UNICEF said Yemen was “a living hell for children”, saying that every 10 minutes a child is dying due to preventable diseases as a result of the war. More than 85,000 children under age 5 may have died of starvation. Last year, the Saudis used money to bankroll a militia of Sudanese fighters – many of them children – to fight on the front lines against Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
Ahh, but closing down the embassy would anger Saudi, denying more than 30,000 Malaysian Muslims from performing the Hajj pilgrimage in the kingdom. Are the oppression and suppression of the Palestinians by the Jews worse than the murdering and butchering of Jamal Khashoggi? Or was Saddiq trying to say it’s perfectly alright for a Muslim to slaughter another Muslim like a pig?
China has been bullying, suppressing, oppressing and repressing the Muslim Uighur community at the industrial scale. It is estimated that as many as 1 million Uighurs have been relocated to camps where they receive “anti-extremist ideological education”. Human rights groups say there could be as many as 2,000 detention camps built to detain the Muslims.
So, why aren’t Saddiq moaning, crying, whining and bitching about the mainland Chinese having tortured and brainwashed the Muslims in Xinjiang – the autonomous region in western China home to approximately 10 million Uighur Muslims? Or was the sports minister deliberately cherry-picked the Jews because he thought the tiny Israel can be bullied but not the superpower China?
Why is Israel a criminal state that deserves to be condemned, but not the U.S., Saudi, North Korea or China? Does Syed Saddiq know that even Saudi Arabia and most of the Arab states do not really like the Palestinians? In fact, the Saudis were so suspicious of them, so much so that up to 300,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon were banned from performing pilgrimage last year.
Actually, in an interview last year, the Saudi Crown Prince has recognized Israel’s right to exist. When asked about anti-Semitism in Saudi Arabia, he said – “Our country doesn’t have a problem with Jews. Our Prophet Muhammad married a Jewish woman. You will find a lot of Jews in Saudi Arabia coming from America, coming from Europe. There are no problems between Christian and Muslims and Jews.”
So, even though Israel and Saudi Arabia have no official relations, the Arabs have no problems with the Jews but instead, have problems with the Palestinians. That’s because the Palestinians are not supportive of Saudi’s Sunni Islam. Instead, they prefer Iranian’s Shia Islam. In fact, the Arabs believe that a fully independent Palestinian state would give birth to instability in the region.
Israel has been accused of brutally for firing on schools, mosques and hospitals where Palestinians had taken refuge. What most Muslims were not informed was that Hamas, the governing authority of Palestine, deliberately stored mortars and other weapons in schools and hospitals and fire at Israel from such places – happily using Palestinian innocent children as human shields.
The truth is, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia doesn’t give a damn about the Palestinian cause, and is more than willing to accept almost any kind of Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, as long as it can cut a deal – any deal – with Israel against Iran. Wait a minute. Does that mean Iran is a bigger evil than Israel? If it’s true, then why the heck Malaysia hasn’t cut off all diplomatic relations with Iran?
Source : Finance Twitter
