‘Like Zionists’: PAS member slammed over post on Malaysian Chinese general

In his post, Zaharudin Muhammad wrote about a hypothetical scenario of Malaysia having its first Chinese prime minister in due course

Malaysia’s Islamist party has decried a “racist” statement by one of its leaders, who has been widely criticised for including a picture of the country’s first ethnic Chinese three-star general in a social media post warning of the political rise of the nation’s largest minority group.

Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) grass roots leader Zaharudin Muhammad sparked outrage over a post on his Facebook page on Tuesday, in which he wrote a hypothetical news story of Malaysia welcoming its first ethnic Chinese prime minister, an incendiary idea to many in the Malay Muslim majority nation.

In his post, which included a picture of Johnny Lim Eng Seng, the commandant of the Malaysian Armed Forces Defence College, receiving his third star, Zaharudin said it was “not impossible” that a Chinese Malaysian becoming the country’s leader could be a reality in the coming decades.

PAS said it had nothing to do with Zaharudin’s post, stressing that it went against the party’s principle of upholding racial and religious diversity.

“Racism in any form or colour has no place in PAS, and is incompatible with the grand culture and aspirations of this country,” PAS Secretary General Takiyuddin Hassan said in a statement on Thursday.

Malaysia’s armed forces made a historic move on Monday when it promoted Lim to lieutenant-general, the highest rank ever achieved by an ethnic Chinese serviceman.

It was a significant milestone in the country’s military, which is dominated by the Malay-Muslim majority and has long struggled to attract Malaysians among the ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities to sign up.

Zaharudin, however, appeared unrepentant even after he removed his original post following the pushback.

In a fresh post on his Facebook page on Wednesday, he said the hypothetical scenario he shared was based on the possibility that children of the Chinese diaspora emigrating under the Malaysia My Second Home programme might decide to pursue citizenship.

“If these foreigners come in under a plan, just like the Zionists in Palestine, then it is not impossible that in 2058, the [prime minister] of Malaysia will come from among the children born of these foreigners,” he said.

Zaharudin, who is the son-in-law of PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang, added that he stated clearly that the picture of Lim was tagged to his original post as “illustration” with no link to the content of his post.

But PAS’ opponents have warned that Zaharudin’s actions are stoking underlying racial sentiments, which could incite hostility and hatred among Malaysians.

His decision to tag on a screenshot of the news of Lim’s promotion to his original post was clearly aimed at stirring racial polemics, said Syahredzan Johan, a lawmaker with arch-rival Democratic Action Party.

“Instead of taking the cowardly move of claiming it was taken out of context … Zaharudin should admit his mistake and apologise to the Malaysian Armed Forces and Datuk Johnny,” Syahredzan said, referring to Lim by his title.

Malaysia has long struggled with unresolved racial tensions, partly stemming from the Malayan Emergency and the 1969 riots that killed scores of people in Kuala Lumpur, as Malays acted on deep discontent over the Chinese dominance of the economy.

The country’s culture wars have sprang anew in recent years, exacerbated by a deeply split general election in 2022 when social media was flooded with content pointing to the Malays losing political power and warning of a return of racial riots if ethnic minorities were to demand for more rights.

PAS won 49 seats in that election, making it the single largest party in Malaysia’s 222-seat parliament.