When the first Citizen-Nades column appeared in 1991, I made a solemn promise to myself - no race, no religion or anything personal in the articles. I had to break that promise when I wrote about the loss of my daughter in a car crash in 2004 and thereafter when racial tensions were running high in 2012.
Today, I am breaking that undertaking (again) to make a loud and clear clarion call to our leaders - both political and religious - to assert their power and authority to stem the tide of racial and religious extremism.
I live in a neighbourhood with three mosques in the vicinity. Sometimes, I enjoy sitting in the porch and listen to the kutbah or sermon. I have joined Muslims in Friday prayers in London but am unable to do so in Malaysia. Temples, mosques, churches and other religious building are houses of God.
Let me reiterate that I respect every religion, culture and practices of fellow Malaysians with one caveat - don’t impose your religious diktats, practices and values on me. Don’t impede on each other’s turf.
In secondary school, proverbs were part of our English lessons. “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth” was one of them and its antithesis was “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.”
The giving of a gift can be interpreted either way. It is dependent on the giver, the recipient and in most cases, the motive, the circumstances and the timing.
When a politician goes out handing out RM50 notes before the election, we can make our own conclusions. But when he claims he was making payments for goods and purchases when there was none, we take it that he is telling a fib.
In difficult times, many would accept any form of aid without batting an eyelid. For them, it would have been God-sent without which they will have no food on the table.
It is common acceptance that such giving must come from the heart without accepting anything in return including the publicity that comes with it. If by chance, journalists find such information is of public interest, then it makes the news.
Against this backdrop, the recent protests in Penang should raise more than just eyebrows. When such simple acts are misconstrued by blinkered politicians and rent-a-crowd mobs, it is no longer “we versus them” and instead it becomes “my race and religion versus the rest”.
The hostility towards MPs Steven Sim and Kasthuri Patto is not just a one-off thing. It is not a culmination of organised protests but is an issue that has been festering for years and will continue to do so unless action is taken immediately.
Why is Sim perceived as an evangelist and as a Greek bearing gifts? Why can’t it be viewed as one human extending his helping hand to another? Why this narrow view?
No government leader has come out to criticise, let alone condemn such remarks. It gives the impression that such action and words are condoned and acceptable. We had no such problems in the past.
Until the mid-80s, parents of all races were sending their children to mission schools where there was no segregation in the tuck-shops; we shared our home-prepared meals; and we had sleepovers in each other’s houses. Uniformed societies like the Red Crescent Society, the Boys Scouts, Girl Guides and Boys’ Brigade were multiracial.
Many did not notice the early signs but they were ominous.
Slippery slope
About 35 years ago, a record company had to change the labels of a Malay musical recording. Some religious person decreed that the cassettes (at that time) could not be brought into Muslim homes because the singer wore a crucifix in the picture that appeared on the cover.
Issues like education became battlegrounds and even air wells got into the picture unwittingly. Mission schools were targeted. A simple cross on the ridge of the roof of a mission was ordered to be removed and it did cause a multiplier effect.
The Internet was at its infancy and social media was unheard of. By word of mouth and unsigned letters, the issue spreads. But a bigger cause was the politicians who exploited it to the hilt for their own agendas.
Bahasa Baku was introduced; educators set their own rules; and physical education (PE) classes were reduced to two sides of 20-something kids (segregated by race) kicking a football while the teacher stood under the shade of a tree or an umbrella.
From then on, anything resembling a cross was deemed as “confusing to the people of our faith”. In 2015 in Langkawi, there was a hue and cry because the air wells in a row of houses looked like crosses from afar. As an immediate “solution”, the Kedah government ordered the air wells to be painted black so that they don’t resemble a cross.
How to drive home the point that not every object that is shaped like a cross has religious connotations? In our daily lives, we come across many objects which are shaped thus. How do we avoid them?
In jest, I then wrote that in future, there will be only 25 alphabets because the government has ordered the removal of the letter “t”. I further said schools will no longer have any lessons on addition in arithmetic because the plus sign (+) resembles the cross!
Much later, a group of 50 people gathered outside a church demanding that a church in Taman Medan in Petaling Jaya remove the cross it had hung on its facade.
Fortunately, there was quick intervention though. Azmin Ali, who was then Selangor menteri besar, pointed out that to Christians, the cross is a sacred symbol and forcing its removal is disrespectful to the community.
“To force them to remove the symbol is certainly unacceptable and disrespectful to the Christian community,” Azmin was quoted telling the protestors.
I often wonder how a small group of bigoted, bird-brained and narrow-minded adults say that the sight of a cross would sway the faith of the youth. Did they escape from the asylum or should their exclamations be taken with more than a pinch of salt?
The spiteful posts on social media seem to have no boundaries nor limits. No one is spared as the zealots and fanatics continue to have their say without any qualms of being hauled up under the Penal Code or the Sedition Act.
It has come to a stage that many appear to thumping their chests and claiming “we are untouchable” as if protected by some Godfather.
Whatever it is, the race and religious drums are getting louder and no one wants to stop it, perhaps fearing being labelled a liberal. Those entrusted with safeguarding all Malaysians must act - even if it means acting against their kind. - Mkini
R NADESWARAN says that when a government lawmaker suggests that constituencies be delineated according to race, it becomes the perfect prelude to destroying our founding fathers’ dreams of unity and equality in our cosmopolitan state. Comments: citizen.nades22@gmail.com.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
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