On this Malaysia Day, I hear that there will be a demonstration by MUDA and the PN concerning the DNAA of Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

I doubt very much that these two parties have any interest in rebuilding Malaysia as a Malaysia for all.

My instinct tells me that the Saturday demonstration is simply one party’s ego trip to survive, and another party’s opportunity to show its one-race based nation.

Both are attacking the AG and the court decision of granting Zahid Hamidi a DNAA, and I assume that the demonstration is also an insinuation on the so-called ‘failure’ and in many ways ‘hypocrisy’ of Anwar Ibrahim’s Reformasi agenda.

Well, let us talk about our Malaysian hypocrisy, shall we?

I will not only deal with MUDA’s and PN’s clear hypocrisy but also our own citizens’ hypocrisy in this Zahid DNAA affair.

The hypocrisy of PN is very easily understood. Before the Election Commission had announced any winner in GE15, Hadi and Mahiaddin had already seized the morning by declaring that they had had the support of the whole Umno even though there was only a third of the BN traitors who had signed a Statutory Declaration.

When the YDP Agong offered Mahiaddin a Unity Government with PH, he refused because he was ready to work with Umno come what may.

Not hypocrisy? OK, let us roll back to the Sheraton Move that saw the collapse of the PH government with Umno and Zahid accepted with open arms by the likes of Hadi, Mahiaddin and Azmin.

Oh! Let us not forget that Najib was also an MP then with that PN gang.

Now, let us deal with the MUDA hypocrisy.

When the Unity Government was formed, there was a lot of static from many civil society members and one academic who is now very popular to give his statistical views of Malaysia.

These critics love their criticism, believe wholeheartedly of their religious and statistical research values but…offer no solution.

However, I don’t remember any flak from MUDA.

Perhaps everyone was waiting for a cushy government job at that time and so those parties with a minority of one seat sat quietly on the sideline.

MUDA only made noises when its application to be a partner and sit at the big table was not entertained by Anwar.

Anwar is not a person to say no, and so, to be polite, he just used the Muslim way of not meeting to say no.

The Prophet Muhammad, I remember, did that to several people.

I have been said ‘no’ by institutions who just went silent on my applications. But MUDA paints a picture of rejection and not ‘not-yet-acceptance’.

So, to sooth its battered ego, MUDA decides to go into the state election as a protest to the PH’s silence but paint a picture of ‘integrity’, principle first and many other Samaritan values that it was silent before.

And of course, we know the leader of MUDA to be a Mahathir boy and some suspect as his Trojan Horse.

Anyway, speaking of Tun M, working with him was the biggest hypocrisy not only with the PN in the state elections, but with MUDA and all good Malaysians including the PH in GE14.

That was the biggest hypocrisy that I will discuss lastly.

Finally, we turn now to our own hypocrisy as citizens of this country.

For this reflection, we need to think about our relationship and ‘hypocrisy’ with Tun M.

We all know who Tun M was, and is. We can see him as the great leader who transformed Malaysia in many good ways. We know of how he opened the door to massive waste and corruption in the country.

We also know him as ‘saving’ Malaysia from Najib’s 1MDB and then we also know him as calling Malaysia a Melayu nation and not a multicultural one.

In GE14, the PH worked with Tun M. In GE14, Mahathir was once more the hero of Malaysia.

We were all hypocrites in a way because we knew what Tun M had done to the country and to Anwar Ibrahim personally, and yet we knowingly, hopefully, and in full faith worked with him.

Of course, Tun M was not in a court case but many think he is a walking ‘criminal’ by any spiritual, moral, and academic judgement.

Now, Malaysians are at odds with the Unity Government over the DNAA awarded to Zahid, the man who saved Malaysia from having Hadi Awang as the PM.

So funny! Malaysians can work with the biggest ‘criminal of conscience’ in Tun M but not with the ‘small fish’ of Zahid.

I heard the court freed Mahiaddin who could not explain how PPBM suddenly came in with hundreds of millions in their accounts.

I heard many other DNAA given to those I would like to see behind bars, but no demonstrations staged by MUDA, PN or even Malaysians.

We are all hypocrites, all of us. That is no denying the simple definition that does not have any political or larger context.

In life, there is nothing that is clear cut. We need to reflect on our hypocrisy whether it would serve a larger good or only heel our own egos and conscience.

What is our hypocrisy on our own families, our own children, our own faiths? Are there no ‘hypocrisies’ there? Can we afford to live comfortably in our scriptural conscience, our constitutional morality or our academic justifications without the ‘ugly side’ of real life and ‘real politics’?

Thus, on this Malaysia Day, let us grow up, be matured and take responsibilities on our ‘hypocrisy’ of living in a ‘non-Barbie world’ of life to rebuild together this country of ours with hope, wisdom and conscience of reality.

(Prof Dr. Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi is Professor of Architecture at a local university and his writing reflects his own personal opinion entirely.)