YOURSAY ‘Aidila is spot on to condemn the church and mosque protesters...’

Standing up against tyranny of the majority

Swipenter: If we were to uphold sacred our federal constitution, then many problems in Bolehland can be avoided and nipped in the bud. Whether you are the majority or minority is beside the point.

We can see how the powers-that-be treat the federal constitution accordingly to suit their political agenda. When it suits them, the federal constitution is supreme. When it doesn't, it is ignored and treated like a piece of paper. Even religious advice like fatwa can be used to circumvent the federal constitution.

Coming back to this incident. Is it not a fact that to construct a new taman, land must be set aside for a mosque or surau but not other houses of worship? Why?

If that is not enough, all sorts of administrative obstacles and barriers are used to make building a church or a temple a nightmare. Where is the freedom of worship as guaranteed in the federal constitution?

Aries46: Like all right-thinking Malaysians, Aidila Razak is spot on to condemn the church and mosque protesters and the need to protect the rights of minorities whatever the colour of their skin. But this is easier said than done.

Digressing to a wider spectrum, the Umno-BN governance is in itself founded and administered on racial divisions and discrimination on the basis of the majority against the minority in the various spheres of national life. This is the root cause of many of the ills of this nation.

Racial discrimination is an entrenched institutionalised reality that seems to be the take of the silent majority by virtue of actively participating and benefitting from the various forms of inequalities and prejudices against the minorities.

The Kampong Medan and Penampang protests are but offshoots of the Umno-BN divide-and-rule racial supremacist policies and it would be futile to treat the symptoms (religious protests) unless the majority is willing to address the underlying disease.

Eyespye : I'll stand by the Muslims in Penampang, just as I will stand by the Christians in Taman Medan. What's missing is a dialogue on our collective fears.

The Sabahans fear the Islamisation of Sabah because they've been badly burnt by Project IC. The loud protesters in Taman Medan were expressing a deep-seated fear of Malays losing control of a country which was, time and again, withheld from them - first by the British, now (apparently) by the minorities.

It is fear which divides us. It is what makes Umno so powerful because it thrives on Malay supremacy, and ideas of communal chauvinism such as ‘Ketuanan Melayu’ are bred on fear; fear of losing ‘bangsa, agama dan bahasa’.

"Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration," to quote the movie ‘Dune’. It makes monsters of all of us, don't you think?

Anticommunalist: Aidila Razak is a respected senior reporter in Malaysiakini and as such she carries with her the baggage of having higher standards of reporting as well as giving an opinion, unbiasedly.

Though the overall content of her comment highlighting 'tyranny of the majority' is credible, it is not fair to compare this single Taman Medan incident with the protest in Penampang in one of the only two states in Malaysia where Muslims are not an overwhelming majority.

If you look at the overall country, the tyranny of the majority is overwhelmingly perpetuated by the Muslim majority. Hence for Aidila to focus only 12 of her sentences on the Taman Medan issue to 15 sentences on the Sabah issue gives it an unfair balance of reporting.

Haveagreatday: Yes, Aidila, I will stand for the rights of the religious minority in Penampang, too. I have read the report on the protest against the to-be-built mosque there and it has come across as an indication of how relations among the various religious groups have deteriorated.

Yes, we who are of the minority can only throw our hands up in despair as we try to find places to build places of worship in the midst of obstacles placed by the majority. And the majority even gets state funds for the construction of their places of worship.

Mr KJ John: Hurray for Aidilah; if all moderate Malaysians can learn to speak up as she does, we will not be bullied into quiet fear. Well done, and I am truly proud of you.

Onyourtoes: Aidila, you are anticipating a problem in Penampang. My intuition tells me that it will not happen like the protest in Taman Medan. It is not just the majority, it is majority with power.

Christians in Sabah are a plurality, not a majority, with no power. It is not ‘majority abuse’, it is ‘power abuse’ because like most, I don't believe the majority of Muslim Malays are unreasonable or bigoted.

Anonymous #20513663: I don't understand why we are always talking about minority rights when the majority has no freedom of religion and no freedom even to choose their own religion.

The category 'minority rights' has been imported from contexts where people freely associate with the religion of their choice whereas in Malaysia the government forbids the majority of Malaysians not only from choosing their religion but also from practising it in an open and tolerant way.

I do not want to get into an argument about who is more oppressed or less oppressed, but simply point out that we are all in this together and we must fight for freedom of conscience for all.

Anticonmen: The Taman Medan protest was instigated by 'you know who' to create a problem in Selangor in order to smear or topple the Selangor government.

I can see the unseen hand by looking at the brother of the top cop, who was allegedly involved in the protest.

James TCLow: Aidila, history tells us that the strong often imposes their will on the weak e.g. Israel versus Palestine. The shrewd often catch the dumb on the wrong foot.

It’s good to have people like you who are on the side of justice. It’s good to have a dream. I always have nightmares whenever people like the 'cross protesters' strike.

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