GEORGE TOWN: Kedah Menteri Besar Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor has become the latest symbol of Pas's toxic approach that prioritises divisiveness over national unity, populist sensationalism over competency, and a willingness to jeopardise racial and religious harmony in Malaysia.
DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said Sanusi's discriminatory policies against non-Muslims and his recent hateful remarks against minorities, particularly Hindus and Indians using racial stereotypes following the high-handed demolition of a Hindu temple in Alor Star, has created widespread anger.
Sanusi, Lim said, remains unrepentant, and has now unleashed a shocking threat to dam up Sungai Muda and redirect its waters away from Penang to deny raw water to 1.7 million Penangites.
He added that clearly, these two latest incidents not only display the new Kedah Menteri Besar's 'big bully' attitude, but also his cruelty.
"No Malaysian leader, until Sanusi, has ever threatened to deny water to fellow Malaysians. Furthermore, he is tinkering with Mother Nature by wanting to redirect Sungai Muda, which is the natural border between Kedah and Penang. Is Sanusi not defying God's will by interfering in what God had determined to be the natural course of the river?
"Such behaviour by Sanusi contrasts with his mentor and Pas's first Kedah Menteri Besar Tan Sri Azizan Abdul Razak from 2008-2013.
Azizan was cultured, an honourable gentlemen, an intellectual who was the head of the Islamic Syariah Department of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). Azizan was everything that Sanusi is not, despite the latter being appointed as Azizan's political secretary for the five years Azizan was Menteri Besar. Most importantly, Azizan was competent, whereas Sanusi is not.
"Sanusi cannot differentiate between the value of RM43 trillion and RM62 billion in rare earth deposits in Kedah, where even the RM62 billion is disputed. Does Sanusi realise that RM62 billion is equivalent to 100 years of Kedah's annual budget?
"Worse, the federal government has clarified that no license has been granted to mine rare earth in Kedah as claimed by the Menteri Besar. This is populist sensationalism at best, or evil lies at worst," he said in a statement today.
Sanusi, Lim said, may not be as well-educated as his former boss, the late Azizan.
Lim added that Sanusi should appoint good advisors to help him run a competent government in Kedah, especially in addressing the chronic water shortages and water rationing in Kedah.
He said the late Azizan belonged to a generation of moderate and Malaysian-minded Pas leaders such as the late Tok Guru Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat and Datuk Fadzil Mohd Noor.
"Unlike the present Kedah Menteri Besar, I do not recall Hindu temples being arbitrarily demolished by Azizan during his tenure as Pas's Kedah Menteri Besar, winning the confidence of non-Muslims and non-Malays.
"Definitely, Azizan did not threaten to redirect the waters of Sungai Muda away from its natural course into Pulau Pinang," he added.
"Sanusi reminds Malaysians everything that is wrong about Pas. Not just the broken promises but also the dangers that Pas in government poses to the future of Malaysia, including both Sabah and Sarawak," he said.
Sanusi had recently joked that he would dam up Sungai Muda and redirect its waters away from Penang if the state does not pay a raw water bill it owes Kedah of RM50 million annually.
Both Penang and Kedah have been engaged in a verbal war over water issues and the need to gazette the Ulu Muda Forest Reserve as a water catchment area in recent days.