All right thinking people in this nation are probably amazed with the antics of Najib Abdul Razak’s government.
As a government, it has the responsibility to maintain law and order without bias. It should uphold the constitutional rights of all citizens, including to profess and practice their religions without undue and nonsensical restrictions being imposed as to how they are to address the Supernatural Being.
The government implied by its actions that the Muslims in Malaysia have a copyright over the term ‘Allah’. The politicians from Umno as well as Zulkifli Noordin of PKR and Hassan Ali of PAS, seem not to have learned to embrace the universal values of humanity, sincerity, empathy and simplicity.
As a result, these unscrupulous politicians have caused the general populace a great deal of anxiety.
Since they have neither empathy nor mutual understanding of what it means to live in a diverse society, they have gone on a crusade to show the world that they cannot surrender their copyright over ‘Allah’.
When they first went on their rampage of arson and vandalism, they miscalculated. Then miscalculated again when they thought they could bring about civil strife by upping the ante. Every time, we forgive them for they know not what they were doing.
The alleged perpetrators have since been placed under remand, and their attempts at creating civil disorder have failed miserably. Politicians must accept that we are living in the 21st century with all the complexities of globalisation and dynamism that it entails for our multi-cultural society.
Politicians from both sides of the divide should henceforth stop playing, propagandising and creating imagined communities. Their political acts will only lead the future generations of the nation to the tabernacle of misfortune and impoverishment.
As Friedrich Nietzsche said: ‘One must separate from anything that forces one to repeat no again and again’. We all know that in this day and age, we as a nation survives on our exports. We cannot progress in isolation and on the premise of ‘Ketuanan Melayu’.
We have gotten onto the headlines of foreign newspapers for all the bad reasons. I wonder how many big foreign companies are going to pull out in the next few months as a result of all the bad press.
The time has come for the Najib government to realize that ‘Ketuanan Melayu’ has long become redundant. As a country of diversified people, we should work on the premise of multi- culturalism, aim to establish a global citizenship and harness our talents, skills and abilities to compete on the world stage.
Men’s natures are alike - it is their habits that separate them, said Confucius. As much as politicians are in competition with each other, they should never fail to advocate tolerance. Ignorance can only lead to arrogance. Make your actions speak louder than you words.
