Is Saddiq Anti-Islam? No, He's Just A Hypocrite

Syed Saddiq again attracted controversy over his push to remove “uncessary” mandatory courses from University programs, including Islamic religious studies.

Many have questioned if Saddiq is anti-Islamic, given that he also had garnered a great deal of awareness towards his “liberal” tendencies due to his anti-Taliban TikTok video, decrying the support of “a certain” political party towards the fledging Afghan administration.

There is a great deal of irony when the same person who denounced the Islamic government of Afghanistan is the same person who willingly posed with a preacher that was falsely labelled as an extremist, Zakir Naik.

With Syed Saddiq we have a person who is anti-Islamic on the one hand, and a supporter of the global faith on the other.

Such a hypocrite.

Now this has attracted a great deal of criticism from his haters on the conservative right, this sort of Lalang behaviour isn’t anything new from Saddiq – who has made consistently made his political career by portraying himself as a “flexible” politician.

This can especially be seen when he goes on photo-ops in the name of “bipartisanship”, quite often legitimising the current unelected government but the previous government that he had previously campaigned against.

We all questioned his decision to bring his fledging MUDA party to meet with former Prime Minister Najib Razak at his home - a strange turn of events when considering Saddiq’s past statements towards the latter.

There is a great deal of irony when the same person who decried the possibility of a PH-UMNO unity government with Najib is the same person who willing poses and postures with Najib in the name of bipartisanship.

Should we accept that Saddiq for all of his posturing and cries for principles was the one that openly sat down with Najib, whilst PH took great pains to deny the latter’s involvement it is attempts to secure support?

Many have seen this as Saddiq betraying his principles - but it should be noted that principles mattered little for him when he was in power.

Malaysians still remember when Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, went on record to say that “an attack against my Chinese and Indian brothers and sisters is an attack against all Malaysians “about the comments made by the controversial preacher Zakir Naik against the ethnic minorities in this country.

Less than two weeks later, the Youth minister was seen sharing a meal with the Indian fugitive at his home and urging Malaysians to move on.

This, of course, is not that our former Minister of Youth and Sports has been caught bending his principles.

Prior to Zakir's apology, Saddiq had supported a call for the preacher to be deported, saying that "an attack against our Chinese and Indian brothers and sisters is an attack against all Malaysians."

Syed Saddiq often took the opportunity to position himself as a “champion” of the Malay agenda - often at odds with his more inclusive videos on TikTok.

He had no qualms when he supported the Malay Dignity Congress, who were attended by the same kleptocrats and “corrupt” politicians that he today spends much of his time attacking online.

In many ways, Syed Saddiq as a Minister represents many things that were wrong with “Malaysia Lama” – cronyism, entitlement and “elitism” to name a few.

Throughout his tenure as a key figure in Pakatan Harapan, Syed Saddiq displayed a near-fanatical (and dangerous) faith towards Mahathir - and his promise that he would keep his promises.

To be honest, Syed Saddiq can issue platitudes of standing for his “principles” as much as he wants, given that he is now in opposition. But the youth, as seen in politicians such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are looking for leaders who have a spine and are willing to fight for it.

Not to discount his work in Muar but how can we trust Saddiq to do the same when his idea of fixing our problems still remains stop-gap measures and performative that is no different from the politics of the old.

Saddiq needs to keep this in mind and decides what he does stand for – his voterbase will not expect anything less.

If not he’ll just end up as another power-hungry and untrustworthy politician.