What is an institution without logic?

 

If Ke$ha was deemed to be controversial to perform here, and if Beyonce was too sexy for our audience, perhaps the time has come for us to look at our own backyard and see what we ourselves are doing before pointing fingers and blaming Western culture for corrupting our children. 

Farah Harith, The Malay Mail  

Before I proceed with this article, allow me to establish my stand: I am not entirely anti-establishment, nor am I a modern liberal.

For the most part, I am a logical person who tries to be as traditional and conservative as I can because I still believe that old school is the best school.

As usual, something has gotten me riled up this week, and it isn’t exactly new. With the increased reliance on social networks, particularly Instagram, these applications are no longer being used by ordinary folks like you and me.

Celebrities, as well as members of royal families, have also taken to social networks to share their lives with the “ever-adoring” public. Albeit some of their accounts are “padlocked” for alleged privacy, I don’t see them vetting the requests.

The way I see it, a majority of them will simply approve requests for friends without checking who’s making the requests.

The problem here is not so much with celebrities but with royalty. Some of the ladies post pictures of themselves scantily dressed.

What I would like to know is, why are they doing this, and getting away with it, when we are cancelling permits for foreign artistes to come and perform here, because they wear revealing outfits. It is common knowledge that Malaysian royalty are Muslims.

And it is also common knowledge that most of the foreign artistes who want to perform here are non-Muslims.

So the logical part that eludes me here is, why are we insisting that non-Muslims adhere to Muslim dress codes, but we don’t impose the same on our fellow Muslims in the country? Aren’t members of royal families supposed to uphold Islamic integrity? Isn’t that one of the functions of the royal institution?

I am all for tradition, which means I have no problems with maintaining monarchy. However, when the institution itself fails to adhere to logic, what does it say about Malaysia as a Muslim country? Too many questions and yet there are no answers.

Or perhaps the answers are buried deep in the midst of the mindset that we are not supposed to question these things, instead accept it because that is just how things are supposed to be.

The problem with matters such as these, is that we are not allowed to question them. However, if we choose to adopt logic, the institution can prosper and triumph for many more years to come. The mindset that when one questions these things, one automatically is branded to be anti-establishment and propagating anarchy, must go.

At times, questions are raised so that a solution can be found that will in turn benefit us all.

Which is why at the start of this week’s column, I made the clarification that I am not anti-establishment and I have no plans of inciting a riot on the streets to get rid of our monarchy system.
The monarchy can stay.

In fact, if it stays true to its original purpose, it can even flourish.

The problem is that, when people look at the social network accounts of these royalty, and see them jet-setting across the globe with no true purpose, posing half-naked in public and posting the pictures for others to see, that is when some extremists may go as far as denouncing the entire system.

Some years back, there was a Sultan’s son who took to Twitter to voice his unbecoming thoughts. After backlash from the public, the Sultan’s son announced that he was backing out from social networks.

Today, many others like him have opened up social network accounts and not all of them portray proper conduct that is becoming of blue-bloods.

I fail to see the reason why they need to expose themselves, and I fail to understand why we allow these things to happen.

Perhaps it is because they are the untouchables.

If Ke$ha was deemed to be controversial to perform here, and if Beyonce was too sexy for our audience, perhaps the time has come for us to look at our own backyard and see what we ourselves are doing before pointing fingers and blaming Western culture for corrupting our children.

Why leave our backyard unattended and prune those far away with our judgmental mindset?

If these blue-bloods cannot carry the institution with dignity on their social network accounts, then perhaps they should stay away from it.

If you want to be royalty and be treated like royalty, then you have no business opening up social network accounts like the rest of us nobodies.

* Farah Harith is assitant news editor of The Malay Mail. She can be reached at fharith@mmail.com.my or Twitter @farahharith.