Imagine no Ibrahim Ali

The are some who appear to be on a sacrilegious crusade to drown this nation in bloodshed for what is hailed as a sacrosanct cause.

Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world

The above are excerpts from John Lennon’s masterpiece titled “Imagine”. During his solo career, Lennon had strained his vocal chords to promote peace, making him an icon of the anti-war movement.

Ironically, Lennon met a violent end when he was shot four times on Dec 8, 1980. The next day, his wife issued a statement, which read: “…John loved and prayed for the human race. Please pray the
same for him.”

Perhaps if he was still alive, Lennon might pray with extra zeal for Malaysians and even consider penning an additional verse for his song, which would read:

Imagine no Ibrahim Alis,
No Perkasas and no dementia
Without bigotry and bullies
Living peacefully in Malaysia…

There are some who appear to be on a sacrilegious crusade to drown this nation in bloodshed for what is hailed as a sacrosanct cause.

These are people, who, in the name of their religion, or rather the votes that it can entice, spew hatred and sow the seeds of discord, doing all that is antithetical to the teachings of their faith – peace, love, compassion and tolerance.

Under the guise of protecting their faith, these opportunists are in fact doing a disservice to their respective beliefs.

Being a witness to these unravelling shenanigans, one cannot be faulted for thinking that this nation is regressing fast in terms of race-relations.

What is more disturbing is that a prime minister, who stepped into office with the grand proclamation of unity, is allowing this disunity to become exacerbated and a former prime minister of mixed parentage appears hell-bent on widening the fissures at an age when he should be contemplating on the afterlife instead.

But then hell hath no fury like a deputy scorned!

And so perhaps the octogenarian fears the retribution here – should the kingdom fall – more than what awaits him in the hereafter. Hence, he must do all within his powers to prevent that man, whom he despises, from ascending the throne, even if it means plunging this nation into the dark ages.

The doctor who transformed Malaysia into a nation with first-world infrastructure appears to be suffering from the malaise of a third-world mentality. His legacy is in tatters.

When the last general election delivered an almighty blow to the ruling coalition, Umno, under the stewardship of its new captain, who realised that most of its non-Malay backers had abandoned ship, decided to leave the keris in the sheath and chart a new course, steering clear of the troubled waters of racial and religious extremism.

The new captain admitted that the coalition made mistakes in the past, which he wants to rectify but saw no reason to do so when he served in the Cabinet for decades.

Enter Ibrahim Ali

Sensing that Umno has left behind a vacuum which can be exploited to his benefit, a self-styled Malay warrior of Napoleonic stature (at least in the vertical sense) set sail for the troubled waters.

While Ibrahim Ali is considered more of an annoying amphibian than a real threat, he however has the protection of what some detractors consider a venomous reptile from Umno.

And so one wonders if the frog is merely spewing what is formed in the cobra’s venom gland.

Is Ibrahim just the mouthpiece for someone, who, because of his credentials, is unable to bare his fangs but by slithering on the same stage when these threats are made without making a hiss, sends an unmistakable signal that he condones them?

Umno has distanced itself from Perkasa but the critics remain unconvinced, claiming that it has outsourced its department of public revulsion to the right-wing movement.

There are certain forces in Umno which disagree with the president’s pandering to the Chinese and Indians, calling it a futile campaign and prefer to consolidate the Malay votes by harping on race and religious issues vis-à-vis the threat posed by DAP (Chinese) politicians and their so-called Christian agenda.

Those who believe in freedom of expression, like the patron of Perkasa, a new convert who championed the cause and took to blogging after being fitted with a muzzle during the previous administration, would argue that Ibrahim has the right to speak his mind.

But the simple fact remains that his call to burn Bibles – regardless of whether he included a language disclaimer or not – is against the law of the land. Yet, no action has been forthcoming.

Furthermore, Umno’s muted response lends credence to the assertions that the party agrees with Ibrahim or that it is behind Perkasa. BN’s ceremonial components MCA and MIC flexed their feeble muscles and issued one or two harsh press statements that fell on deaf ears as usual, once again proving their ineffectiveness and that Perkasa appears to possess more clout than them.

Failing to defend the victims

Racists and religious extremists exist in all parts of the world.

But when leaders entrusted by the people to act for their well-being refuse to rise in defence of the victims of these bigots, then these leaders lose their moral right to refer to themselves as decent human beings and no longer can demand the respect and trust of the people.

Our top political leaders, irrespective of colour and creed, should have severely chatised Ibrahim and reminded him to keep his arguments to facts instead of croaking up threats and stoking the flames of religious tension.

What if the opposite had happened?

What if a fanatical Christian leader called on believers to torch Islamic paraphernalia used for preaching to non-Muslims? Since to each, his or her belief is sacred. Let us leave the outcome of such an episode to the respective imaginations.

Many in the opposition are guilty of playing up similar sentiments and how many of us have done the same? Perhaps it is time for all Malaysians, politicians and citizens alike, to look deep into our hearts to see if a little Ibrahim Ali dwells there. And if he does, burn him!

In a recent text message to this writer, a vexed Umno leader rained criticism on FMT, claiming that the news portal has a skewed editorial position, practised unprofessional and gutter journalism.

His knee-jerk response is expected of a politician, whenever an article hits too close to home.

Since its inception, FMT has been accused of being both pro-establishment and pro-opposition. However, it is for our readers and not politicians to determine the newsworthiness of our reports.

But given the current political climate, perhaps FMT’s alleged gutter journalism is just a reflection of the gutter politics in this nation, of which this pedigree and foreign-educated Umno leader himself is embroiled in.

Decades of racial and religious politics have turned Malaysia into a multi-dimensional land, where its citizens share the same earth but dwell in different worlds. There is 1Malaysia, 2Malaysia, 3Malaysia, God knows how many Malaysia!

This is our motherland, “tanah tumpahnya darahku” (the land upon which my blood was spilled). It is the land which as patriotic citizens we are expected to defend both with the force of logic and the logic of force should she be threatened by enemies.

But sadly, our mother does not love all her children the same, and her favourite sons and daughters never tire of reminding their siblings of this.

May God, Allah or whoever is up there bless Malaysia!