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Malaysia is a unique country because it is able to straddle the Islamic and non-Islamic worlds. Sadly however that enviable position of a nation able to play the role of mediator in a troubled Middle East has been lost by it taking sides. Nothing that Israel does will be right in its eyes and the Palestinians can do no wrong.

Malaysians are conditioned to see the Middle East not with open minds and hearts and be fair and objective but anyone who does not take the side of the Palestinians will be labelled a traitor and what is essentially a political problem in the Middle East conflict is constructed as a religious cause.

News that filters through in the local media on the Middle East conflict and the latest war between Israel and Hamas over Gaza is often biased. We know however that in a conflict such as the one between Israel and its enemies not all is black and white.

There are no angels and devils, no cowboys and red Indians, in the proverbial sense of a tussle between good versus evil. There are no good and bad guys - only a mindless cycle of violence and deaths and the innocent continue to suffer on all sides of the conflict. The tooth-for-tooth and eye-for-eye and tit-for-tat approach of the Middle East combatants have only dragged others including Malaysia into a violent quagmire that will eventually destroy everyone.

 

Telling people one-sided stories of how the Israeli Defence Force killed children makes no sense when we leave out the important fact Hamas has reportedly been using schools and hospitals to store their rockets and often fight from civilian homes using civilians as shields.

We should know by now that all we have away from the conflict is news that we have to filter carefully and balance with various sources to form a truer picture of the real situation. No one has the ownership of truth except those who were eye-witnesses and all news reports have to be carefully sifted to get at the grains of truth.

Malaysia has lost the opportunity to play the pivotal role of pacifier and negotiator for the Palestinians maybe because it has little traction with the Palestinian and Israeli leadership who don't see Malaysia as being able to do much unlike the power-brokers in Europe and the Americans.

That may be so but former PM Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar Ibrahim can still be put to good use to earn the respect and hearing of certain Islamic leaders who have a swaying influence in the conflict, not only in the Middle East but in other places.

Why is Mahathir wasting his time in puerile parochial politics and toying with the Malaysian people and even the incumbent prime minister like a cat toys with a mouse it has caught?  Mahathir uses words like a magic wand to mesmerise the impressionable. Should he not be out there with the Americans and Europeans helping the Palestinians come to the peace table with Israel like what former American oresidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton once did?

What is the point of heading a peace foundation but not making peace?

Regrettably Mahathir has chosen a road less travelled by national leaders after their departure from office in getting embroiled in local politics instead of using whatever influence he has to do good on the international scene. No retired country leader I am aware of does what Mahathir does, and even Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew when still active in his country's local politics held a formal government post as senior minister for some years.

And you would never catch Lee say or do anything to create national disunity in his country unlike Mahathir who abuses his special privilege of freedom of speech given him as a government perk to say things that upset people and create ill-will.   

Mahathir holds no official government post yet underemploys himself in the politics of parochialism instead of leaving national affairs it to those who are charged with governing the country. As the patron of a rightwing Malay group he lost much credibility and potential as a statesman. In fact he risks being lumped in with the world's many shamed dictators including Suharto and Marcos. His latest comments on the Jews are so full of half-truths, sarcasm and prejudice as to make us wonder if we should even take the man seriously.

In fact some of the views and news we read these days including Mahathir's makes me wonder if they are the news that matter - they are obviously not but it proves Malaysiakini is true to its mission in providing a balanced coverage of national affairs. We know what they have included but I guess there is much they have also left out because I have never seen so much ridiculous things taking place in a country now threatened by the irrationality that Lee Kuan Yew warned would destroy Malaysia in the 1980s.

What has Mahahtir done for his country and the Middle East besides squandering the opportunities to do good for his country and helping the troubled region make peace with one another? Perhaps asking Mahathir to make peace in the Middle East is taking 'Malaysia Boleh' to the lunatic fringe, but how about helping his own country stop the rising madness of irrationality where you even see a former chief justice talk nonsense and sound like a VIP bigot.  

'I don't see the disunity'

In Malaysia we read reports of racial disunity. But everywhere I have been, I don't see the disunity the right-wing groups and certain politicians complain of. In fact I only see Malaysians going on with their lives as they have always done for years. Every time I engage a Malay whom I have just met I make a new friend and since there are not many Malays in the community in Australia, I am always thrilled to make a new Malay friend when I visit the country.

This morning I stopped by a roadside where a Malay family was stoking the raging fire to cook the popular 'lemang' in bamboo poles. Three generations of the family were involved in the once-a-year roadside business. They were openly friendly and told me about the food which I had never tasted before. "I'd like to try some, I said," but quickly checked myself remembering it was fasting time.

"No problem," the Malay man said in Malay, and I apologised as I ate the delicious beef rendang that was served. "I like the Malays," I told him and his family and they seemed pleased to hear that as they appeared to be Malaysians who can get along with anyone and spoke of the Chinese with ease, as they have had many Chinese customers.

When I asked the Malay hawker if he would be afraid of the police if he ate food during the fasting period he immediately said, “No.”

"I am afraid of Allah," he explained and I was glad I met a Malay who was more afraid of God than a policeman. Your country is in trouble when people are more afraid of the government than God.

When rascals invoke religion and race to create a schism between Malays and non-Malays should not Mahathir step in to save his Bangsa Malaysia?

It is fine to be patron of a Malay group but is it not unwise to still be patron when it is seen as causing division in the country?

I don't have all the answers but I do know that Malaysians live well with one another and we should keep it that way. Our common enemy is the rascals who use ignorance and lies to create alarm and disunity between the Malays and non-Malays and it is time for the government to rein in those rascals.

The ploy of outsourced religious and racial strife will not work.

We are all brothers and sisters of all races in a country that is now suffering from the politics of irrational ideas and even a former chief justice has caught the sickness.

Ambiga Sereneevasen is absolutely right is giving the reminder to the former chief justice to behave himself and refrain from such unbecoming talk.

A former judge, a family friend of ours, once was talked to by his superior for not wearing clothes that reflected his important role in society though I didn't see anything wrong with him doing the 'Malaysian thing' and walking about in a pair of shorts and Hawaiian shirt and sandals and eating at the roadside stalls with friends.

Malaysia is a country that does not deserve to be destroyed by rascals sometimes in high office. We need to work harder to overcome evil with good and look out for opportunities to help one another. Let us do good for one another this Hari Raya season and reach out to one another. I gave my father's Malay neighbour so many durians they were simply overwhelmed.

Let Malaysia overwhelm with goodwill and may God keep everyone safe on the roads.


STEVE OH is the author of the novel Tiger King of the Golden Jungle and composer of the musical of the same title. He believes in good governance and morally upright leadership.

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