Boss Lepton's Wasteland: Nik Aziz

One of the many people I've always respected is the Chief Minister of Kelantan, Nik Aziz Nik Mat. Although I've grown up with an image that all PAS members are evil and the leader of PAS being devil incarnation, I've soon realised that I've been wrong about all these, as they say, these are all politics.

You would in fact be surprised how modest this man is despite being one of the hated figures of non-muslims. Read Jonathan Kent's report on his meeting with Nik Aziz here.

Nik Aziz studied at the same religious school as all but one of the leaders of
Afghanistan's Taleban.
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He may believe that I(Jonathan Kent) am going to burn in hell but he is always charming and welcoming, and there is always a mischievous sparkle in his eye. [Source: BBC]

Such is the phrase used to describe him. I've always like the satirical little comic strips featuring him on Utusan Melayu when I was in secondary school, and to my mom's dismay, that might be the only thing I read from the malay daily most of the time. You see, I pestered my mom into subscribing an english(NST) and malay(Utusan) newspaper daily so I could hopefully read and increase my command of both languages. As many of us know that Utusan is a tool used by the BN coalition to propogade malay readers, it is not at all unusual if another reader has the same view of Nik Aziz as me at that time.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a PAS person, although the little state I love(Kedah) was once under PAS not too long ago. I am also not an advocate of PAS or Nik Aziz, I merely respect him as a religious leader and not as a politician. He is akin a grandfather when speaking about the rights and wrongs in society. So much so that he wants the country to be governed by Islamic law, not to my preference. However, in these he taught non-muslims the other side of story, many of his opinions are in fact not without basis. Taking an example in him saying that ladies who "wearing make-up can invite rape", you can see his basis in saying this from all those rape cases in the newspapers.

It is also hard to see that all his opinions are for good causes. Like preventing rape, preventing adultery, all the good values that should be present in a muslim. His only miscalculation was only that Malaysia is a multi-racial and multi-cultural country, and that not all his views can be accepted.

But imagine this, with him at helm, the BN government hasn't been able to find a way to steal the state of Kelantan from PAS. I personally think that this is not because they are not capable in doing so, there must be some love the Kelantan people have for their beloved leader. Agree?

So, what's your view on this?

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