The story has its origins in 2016, when Mastura Yazid became an MP.
In 2016, the MP for Kuala Kangsar, Wan Mohammad Khair-il Anuar Wan Ahmadin, died in a helicopter crash in Sarawak. A by-election was arranged and Umno-Baru nominated the MP’s widow, Mastura Yazid to be their candidate.
Sympathy vote and her supposed experience
We do not know if Mastura’s arm was twisted, or if they could not find a more suitable candidate.
Clearly, Umno-Baru wanted to capitalise on the sympathy of the electorate.
They did this in 2010, with Linda Tsen, the widow of the Batu Sapi MP in Sabah.
In 2017, Adenan Satem’s widow, the 62-year-old Jamilah Anu, became BN’s candidate in Sarawak’s Tanjong Datu by-election.
According to the erstwhile deputy PM, Zahid Hamidi, Mastura is “very experienced” to become a politician because “she accompanied her hubby on many of his visits to meet the people.”
In that case, the self-styled former First Lady Of Malaysia, (FLOM), aka KakRos, who has been on more trips than any politician’s wife, visiting the electorate, could have become our PM if anything had happened to the disgraced, former PM Najib Abdul Razak.
Who would dare oppose KakRos’ candidacy?
The first Umno-Baru spin
In 2016, we were told that the Umno-Baru candidate, the widow Mastura, wanted to observe “iddah”, or the 130-day mourning period.
Umno-Baru consulted the Mufti of Perak, Harussuani Zakaria, he of the “sex on a camel fame”, as well as other religious scholars.
If Umno-Baru had the hot line to God, they would probably have told us that, too.
Harussani gave his blessing.
Wow! If every Malay widow in Malaysia, could observe this 130-day mourning period, the Malaysian economy would grind to a halt.
How come other widows do not observe this iddah period and return to work, after a few weeks compassionate leave? Are they workaholics? Are they less religious?
Umno-Baru’s intentions are less than sincere.
Working mother pressures
Many women already have a hard time trying to hold down a job, with employers saying:-
(i) Single girls want to get married,
(ii) When they get married, they want to get pregnant,
(iii) When they give birth, they want months off to take care of baby,
(iv) When they have kids, they want time off to nurse their sick children,
(v) When hubbies take a second (or third or fourth wife), they want time off for depression… etc
If every Muslim widow applied for leave to observe the 130-day mourning period, employers would not want to employ Malay women.
Why is Umno-Baru helping PAS, to put women in the home prison? Remember PAS president, Hadi Awang, saying a woman’s place is in the home?
Umno-Baru/BN want to parade Mastura’s piety, in front of the Malay folk. How dare they belittle the role of women and mock the religion, in this manner.
If you are a working mother and a Muslim, do you think your employer will allow you to have 130 days off to mourn your husband’s death?
Isolating the by-election candidate.
Umno-Baru managed to isolate Mastura from the electorate and prevented us from asking her probing questions.
Perhaps, they did not trust her with the critical questions people would ask.
Questions such as: What is her view about (i) Najib and the millions of ringgits which Jho Low deposited into his personal account, (ii) the 1MBD, (iii) hudud (iv) Najib’s role in bringing down a 134-year-old Swiss bank, (v) is it right that Shahrizat Abd Jalil, the disgraced former Minister for Women, should be awarded the Tan Sri-ship and (v) what she thinks about KakRos’ jolly to Turkey using taxpayer’s money?
The second Umno-Baru spin
To complete the facade, Mastura consulted the religious scholars to see if she would be allowed to vote on 18 June.
As far as we are concerned, if Mastura wanted to go out and vote, then she should have had no problem coming out to canvass, face the electorate and not allow her political masters to make a mockery of her and Islam.
The Kuala Kangsar residents probably wanted to know what her plans then, for the constituency, but instead of being able to ask her, they paraded other senior politicians.
Mastura broke her 130-day mourning period, with a press conference (PC) in her house And yet, we were told that she would not face the public during her “iddah”.
So, she had already broken one election pledge before the by-election.
At the PC, a reporter asked her about hudud and she said, “…Oh let me think about this after the by-election. I want to focus on Kuala Kangsar.”
It is clear that she was not prepared for the role, because when asked a question, she prevaricated. Hudud is a loaded question, but as a politician, she had to think on her feet and not bide her time.
KK issues are tackled by a KK Adun (local state assemblyman) and these will mostly be about blocked drains, rubbish, the jams along the highway approaching KK especially when an accident occurs.
Immorality of the story.
Iddah has nothing to do with mourning or seclusion. It is the period during which a woman may not remarry following a divorce or her husband’s death.
Umno-Baru mocks Islam. They were prepared to use extra helpings of piety to pull the wool over our eyes, including during our time of sadness.
