Zakat is the biggest piece of discriminatory legislation in Malaysia.
People may think it's the NEP or Syariah courts, but to me , it's so easy to prove economic discrimination against the non-Muslims of Malaysia by a so-called 'Islamic' government.
Here's how it works:
1) If you're a Muslim who owes the Tax Authority Rm10,000. All you have to do is pay Rm10,000 into Zakat and you don't owe the government any more money.
2) If you're a non-Muslim who owes the Tax Authority Rm10,000. You have to pay Rm41,666.67 to a Charity like UniCef before you don't owe the government any more money. If you're on the lower tax-scale (like myself), you'll have to pay RM150,000 before you stop owing the government.
So a Muslim can make a 'charitable' contribution to Zakat and stop paying taxes, but a non-Muslim cannot do the same.
Zakat is not a charity, a charitable contribution is something you do with disposable income. The Zakat money (most of the time) is meant to offset Tax contributions, which means it doesn't come from disposable income.
The Muslim in the example above HAD to pay Rm10,000 , it was just a matter of to whom.
Of course, I know a lot of Muslims who don't claim tax-deductions of their zakat mostly out of principled...and a few out of ignorance.
But here's the thing, you cannot claim it to be a charity, when most of the money that went into Zakat was actually channeled from the Income Tax. Income Tax makes up roughly 20% of Government income, and money channelled away from direct government income cannot be used for just one particular religion. It's a simple matter of Moral Obligation.
If Zakat was made tax-exempt, then it would be no surprise to see a spike in government income of about 5-10%. This money would have be used to build roads, schools and bridges that every Malaysian could enjoy regardless of race and religion.
But there is hope yet.
Khalid Ibrahim has a plan to charge non-muslims Zakat. The rationale is, Zakat is channeled to state funds and not Federal funds. That way, the state government can levy a sort of income tax on it's citizens, without having to rely on government funds (which unsurprisingly has been slow to come)
The idea of paying Zakat may seem absurd to many non-Muslims, and even disgusting to a certain extent.
Why should we pay Zakat, when the Muslims are insistent that Zakat cannot be used to help non-Muslims?
First of all, it's Utusan Malaysia that is insistent that Zakat cannot be used to help non-muslims.
Utusan Malaysia is not the voice of Muslims in this country. The Muslims in this country have individual voices and they can speak for themselves, without Awang Selamat making rash statements supposedly on their behalf.
Secondly, where do you think all the funds for racist agendas like the NEP come from... the income tax. So we've been paying income tax to fund the NEP, the Zakat I'm more comfortable with.
Thirdly, the state government has the DAP, PKR and PAS. The only person I'm worried about is PAS. Whereas the federal government only has UMNO, where MIC and MCA have no say.
So if PAS is OK to disburse the Zakat money to state development projects that will be shared and enjoyed by all races and religions...I'm ok with that.
I trust the DAP and PKR to provide checks and balances.
I trust if DAP get out of line, that Wee Choo Keong will run his mouth on them with no fear (he's my favorite MP by the way). I trust that if PKR get out of line, someone from either PAS or DAP will make it public knowledge.
I trust that if Hassan Ali starts his nonsense, both Ronnie and Khalid will set that two-timing UMNO wannabe in his place.
As a non-muslim, I'm OK with Pakatan Rakyat, because they have the best check and balance system out there.... they don't trust each other. Therefore if anyone were to walk out of line, we'll know about it soon enough.
So better channel my hard earn money to the state government rather than the Federal Government, which has a proven track record of fucking up.
That's my 2 cents, don't spend it all in one place.
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