Judging by the events of the past week, Umno’s perennial ploy of posing as the champion of Malays and protector of Islam in an attempt to sanctify its corruption and criminality appears to have blown up in its face.

Far from causing rifts between races and religions, the protests and fire-bombings that followed the Umno/BN regime’s failure or refusal to accept the court ruling in the ‘Allah’ controversy appear to have brought the faithful of all creeds closer together.

So much so, that there seems to me far more chance of a united multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious Malaysia in reaction to Umno’s dark and divisive activities than could possibly result from this God-forsaken party’s pathetic, cosmetic attempts to make itself appear respectable.

Metro Tabernacle church after the firebombing In the scores of stories and blogs and hundreds of comments I’ve read following the arson attacks, the vast moderate majority of Malaysians appear calm and conciliatory towards those of other faiths, but overwhelming in their suspicion or condemnation of Umno and its operatives.

And a group of 121 NGOs including the much-admired Sisters in Islam and a broad spectrum of other religious and professional organisations and political parties expressed similar solidarity between religions in the face of Umno’s betrayal of its responsibilities to the rakyat .

Speaking for the group in deploring the fire-bombings of churches, Farouk Musa of the Islamic Renaissance Front stated that such violence on places of worship “is as much an affront to Islam and to all religions as it is to Christians”.

And in clear reference to government efforts to suppress discussion of subject it deems too ‘sensitive’ for public consumption, he added that “No issue is too sensitive for rational debate in a democratic society”.

zaid kamaruddin interview interfaith 010606 pointing out Jamaah Islah Malaysia president Zaid Kamaruddin (left) , while honestly conceding that “the Muslim community quietly detest the High Court decision,” stated that “if they intended to provoke us or to polarise the society or to drive a wedge between the adherents of different religions, I think we must stand together and show them that they will not succeed”.

Zaid did not specify who “they” are, but Haris Mohd Ibrahim of Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia made it pretty plain, saying, in part, that “Now, if we understand the decision of the High Court and the statements in the public space, there has been a sinister attempt to turn this into a race issue”.

“In reality, if we go to the ground, Malaysians by and large get on well with each other, but the agenda of a certain quarter is being facilitated by the mainstream media, which carried a very slanted reporting of these issues,” he said.

“It is the responsibility of every Malaysian, who understand that falsehood is being fed to the masses, to make an effort from our part, individually or collectively, to try and diffuse and neutralise the lies which are being told to the rakyat .”

Trust betrayed

As everyone with half a brain knows, these people were referring to Umno and its mouthpiece media.

PM Najib Razak speaks to the press outside the gutted administrative block of Metro Tabernacle church 1 And no amount of protesting by Najib Abdul Razak that people “shouldn’t point the finger at Umno”, or lying by his cousin, chief enforcer and hero of last year’s cow’s-head atrocity against Hindus, Hishammuddin Hussein, that he was misquoted, will change any sentient person’s understanding of what Umno is up to.

Umno does not, as it keeps endlessly and emptily repeating, represent ‘1Malaysia. People first. Performance now’, but the precise opposite: ‘UnMalaysia, Umno first, Performance never’. 

And far from the champion of the people it is proclaiming itself to be in its latest publicly-funded propaganda campaign Juara Rakyat , it’s actually nothing but ‘Judas Rakyat’.

Betraying the people’s trust at every opportunity and in every arena, from law enforcement and justice to finance, public works, education and the media, and sacrificing racial and religious harmony in its determination to cling to power by dint of divisive and diversionary tactics as in this long-running ‘Allah’ affair.

My favourite cartoonist Zunar has summed-up the situation with his customary combination of levity and brevity, in his latest masterpiece for Malaysiakini .

It shows the rakyat off in the distance fighting each other over the Allah/God issue while in the foreground Najib mutters “Thank God” for the opportunity the distraction has given him to sweep Umno/BN’s latest dirt - the ‘missing’ jet engines, the PKFZ scandal, suspicious deaths while in police and MACC custody, and the rest of the ugly mess - under the rug.

But thanks to the element of incompetence that always attends Umno’s corruption, still more dirt keeps piling up. For example, the outrageous claim by the inspector-general of the  ‘Royal’ Malaysian police, Musa Hassan, that he hadn’t the manpower to patrol and protect Christian churches from desecration and destruction.

As dozens of bloggers and other commentators have angrily pointed out, he can spare personnel by the truckload to man roadblocks and mount cordons when it comes to thwarting peaceful anti-government protests and vigils.

azlan Hishammuddin then had the hide to defend the police, declaring that “If I am dissatisfied with them I should also not be satisfied with myself as their minister”.

He has countless reasons not to be satisfied with himself as a minister, including allowing that Umno-owned rag Utusan Malaysia to consistently and seditiously rouse the rabble with its racist and religionist rantings.

Not that I consider Herald , the publication at the epicentre of this long-running spat, by any means entirely innocent of incendiary intent.

While I have scant knowledge of theology and no interest whatever in religion, it seems to me that Catholicism has quite enough names for its object of worship - God, Lord, Tuan, Jesus Christ and whatever else - without needing to beg, borrow or steal the Arabic/Islamic term ‘Allah’.

Religions have caused enough grief in the world, God knows, without going out of their way to create more. Especially in the knowledge that the world is full of Judases like Umno that see and seize on such discords as heaven-sent opportunities to divide and rule the rakyat for their own unholy ends.

 

DEAN JOHNS, after many years in Asia, currently lives with his Malaysian-born wife and daughter in Sydney, where he mentors creative writing groups. Soon to be published in Kuala Lumpur is a third book of his columns for Malaysiakini , following earlier collections ‘Mad about Malaysia’ and ‘Even Madder about Malaysia’.