Haron Din: A proposed Eulogy

Haron Din: A proposed Eulogy was published by Tommy Peters Bicycles on September 16, 2016

Pas Spiritual Leader Haron Din passed on September 16, 2016, and will be buried at a Muslim cemetery in Livermore, California.

A proposed eulogy must speak first to those in the front row, saying he stood for king and country and fought for and protected his religion above all else. Then, it must talk to those at the back with a toned-down missive saying that he was consistent with his divine end objective, even as he dropped the ball on his partners. Finally, to the outside world that regards him as a bridge between a secular Malaysia and an impending Islamic Malaysia while tiptoeing around his choice to be medically treated by and put to rest in the U.S., a nation regarded by the world as the understatement of separation of church from state. 

The emotion in the air is a calming balm as it will encourage his detractors, who count ironically as partners, to back off and appreciate his austere lifestyle and that, not unlike his predecessor, he lived in a modest home and drove an old Mercedes to work without a cacophony of sirens that accompanies his counterparts in Putrajaya. 

The thing is, after the 60-day rule, critiques will remember not only his austerity but when he came down the pike and said, "PAS will implement Hudud once the party takes control of the central government," and his predecessor, who added that "Pakatan Rakyat will eventually accept the Islamic ideology." 

To his credit, the man was consistent, if not correct, in his position that Islam has no traction without Sharia and that the code is incomplete without Hudud. Despite his partners deliberating the prospect of forming a 'secular' government, it is rhetorical, let alone laughable, that PAS, who proclaimed that there is no justification for the party to exist if Malaysia was genuinely Islamic, has beachheads in three states handed to it on a 'platter of democracy' by the secularists themselves. 

Naïveté is hardly a good excuse in politics. However, at some point, his partners will admit that the root cause of their consternation is a quaint but consistent form of political expediency, commonplace in budding Islamist nations, gone awry. 

Moving Islam to its logical conclusion, let us raise a glass to Haron for 'keeping it real'.

Peace!

Tommy Peters