COMMENT | Never been to Bon Odori, I had to go this time
COMMENT | After I posted about what a wonderful time I had last Saturday at my first Bon Odori, a friend commented, “Those who never bother to learn and explore beyond their tempurung (coconut shell) are making too much noise. Going by their logic, Malaysia needs to be sealed off from the rest of the world.”
This led me to Google “Hadi Awang tempurung” as I remembered him slamming Malaysians who dared to speak and write in English. But my phone autocorrected it to “Hadi Awang tempura”!
Oh well, maybe such Japanese foods may open up the minds of the ulama who don’t seem to like people having good, clean fun.
We all know that one month ago, PAS’ Religious Affairs Minister Idris Ahmad told Muslims to stay away from the Japanese Bon Odori festival, claiming that it was “influenced by elements of other religions”.
This petty fault-finding would be a...
COMMENT | After I posted about what a wonderful time I had last Saturday at my first Bon Odori, a friend commented, “Those who never bother to learn and explore beyond their tempurung (coconut shell) are making too much noise. Going by their logic, Malaysia needs to be sealed off from the rest of the world.”
This led me to Google “Hadi Awang tempurung” as I remembered him slamming Malaysians who dared to speak and write in English. But my phone autocorrected it to “Hadi Awang tempura”!
Oh well, maybe such Japanese foods may open up the minds of the ulama who don’t seem to like people having good, clean fun.
We all know that one month ago, PAS’ Religious Affairs Minister Idris Ahmad told Muslims to stay away from the Japanese Bon Odori festival, claiming that it was “influenced by elements of other religions”.
This petty fault-finding would be a disaster for multicultural Malaysia because “elements of other religions” can, of course, be found in Chinese New Year and Deepavali as well as the Gawai and Kaamatan harvest festivals.
Scoring cheap points?
So, if somebody wanted to score cheap political points, he could scream that all those Umno politicians tossing CNY yee sang at the MCA open house in the spirit of muhibbah are indirectly “worshipping” choy sunn, the God of Prosperity.
Or we can take a wider view that while all those Chinese, Indian, Dayak and Kadazandusun festivals may have religious origins, in Malaysia, they are also celebrated as neutral, cultural events.
This is basically what the Selangor sultan, who is the official head of Islam in the state, said about Bon Odori when he rebutted our dear religious minister.
His Majesty even called on Idris to attend the festival to “understand the difference between religion and culture”.
But just one day later, somebody chose to double the cheese and double the chicken. Yup, PAS doubled down on their religious stand.
Selangor PAS state commissioner, Ahmad Yunus Hairi, even urged the Selangor state government to prohibit Muslims from Bon Odori. Perhaps it was a ploy to show that PAS was “more Islamic” than the Pakatan Harapan state government?
But it directly contradicted the sultan, something that mere mortals would never dare to do. Unless the ulama of PAS believe they are from a higher, perhaps more celestial realm?
This tactic of condemning this and that tiny thing, just to show that somebody is “holier than thou”, is getting tiresome.
Hmmm… wasn’t that the same gimmick as calling for the ban of Timah whiskey because it was named not after the Malay word for tin but for Fatimah, the Prophet’s daughter?
Does PAS think that Malay-Muslims are so fragile that the slightest contact with anything non-Muslim will shake their faith?
If so, then it should tell its followers not to visit any Christian, Buddhist or Hindu country for fear of accidental conversion.
Where are its priorities? Attending a Japanese cultural festival seems to be a very minor issue.
PAS should instead be focussing on much more important matters such as rampant deforestation in Kedah and Kelantan which will cause thousands of Muslims to suffer from either devastating floods or droughts.
Their “holy” leaders should not be “doubling down” to support Najib Abdul Razak, even after he has been convicted of corruption. Does that portray a good image of a “religious political party”?
Is PAS willing to harm good relations between Malaysia and Japan with its little political games?
As Japanese ambassador Katsuhiko Takahashi noted, this Bon Odori was meant to mark the 40th anniversary of Malaysia's “Look East” policy. And he added that Japan was Malaysia's fourth largest trading partner and its third-largest investor, with some 1,500 companies operating here.
KINIGUIDE | What is the Bon Odori festival?
Does PAS want to discourage Japanese investment when many Malaysians are jobless?
Finally, Bon Odori had been celebrated locally for over four decades. Why didn’t PAS declare it off limits to Muslims for all these years? But only now?
Is it because it’s currently fighting with everybody – Umno, Bersatu and Harapan – for more power?
Joyful event for all
I had never been to Bon Odori, as I am one of those strange people who has read too much World War Two history. Also, I can’t understand why some Chinese Malaysians seem to behave as if they prefer to be Japanese.
But I simply had to go to the event this time, to see what the political fuss was about. To start with, it was a slog just to get to the venue at the Panasonic National Sports Complex in Shah Alam.
On top of the traffic crawl, people ended up walking for between 10 to 20 minutes from where they could find parking (often illegally). Even those who opted to come from the nearest KTM Komuter station ended up waiting for 30 minutes or more for the shuttle buses.
Once in the stadium, people had to stand in long queues to buy some sushi or okonomiyaki from the few stalls around.
In other words, people made such an effort to be part of something Japanese. Well, maybe Japan had won the war after all, but using culture rather than weapons.
Just as Germany had defeated Britain not with Panzers but with Passats? This is what soft power is all about.
And that was on full display at the stadium - I had never seen so many Malaysian ladies of all races wearing kimonos in one place!
The ritual dances around the central stage and the drum performances got the crowd engaged. The ladies posed for photos with their pretty kimonos. Everybody seemed to be having a good time.
As a rough estimate, Malays probably made up 20 to 30 percent of the crowd. One supposes that they had chosen to listen to the more moderate views of the Selangor sultan rather than the narrow version of religion preached by PAS?
Or maybe they had seen through the party’s game? Of being petty party poopers just to score some political pahala?
Or maybe the Malays weren’t even thinking about religious politics but just wanted to enjoy a cultural event?
Whatever it was, it seemed that moderation had won over intolerance.
So, maybe the firebrands of PAS should consider leaving their tempurung for a while. Lighten up la… and enjoy some tempura folks.
ANDREW SIA is a veteran journalist who likes teh tarik khau kurang manis. You are welcome to give him ideas to brew at tehtarik@gmail.com.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
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