I am attracted to what Harussani Zakaria, the mufti of Perak, said about Tugu Negara, the proposed beautification park around it and the likely transgression into idol worshipping. To him, a national monument in human form is proscribed. He is also against the beautification project which will cost a whopping RM650 million. According to him, the money should rightly be used to improve the lives of the rakyat.

All Abrahamic religions prohibit idolatry. It is considered a sin and a distraction to forsake God.

So the issue now is to consider what constitutes idolatry? Did Tugu Negara replace or substitute the God we believe in?

One definition of idolatry is when we worship an object/image as if it is our God. Another definition is when we have extreme attachment or devotion to something.

Is Tugu Negara thus far an object of our worship? Did we go there to pray to it and to seek divine intervention from it?

Unless Harussani Zakaria is able to provide me with another explanation, all I know is that Tugu Negara is just a symbol for us to remember something, which in this case, is the sacrifice of those who have fought for this country. We didn’t go there to worship them; we went there to remember their sacrifice. I don’t think remembering the sacrifice of our fallen heroes will diminish our faith in God.

On the beautification project costing RM650 million, I agree this is a little dicey, given the track records of this country. But then, if we wish to criticise this project, I think there are many more that are worse than this one. Why didn’t Harussani talk about assets bought with stolen money as specified in the US Justice Department (DOJ) lawsuits? Surely we can build a much bigger park from money recovered from there.

Why criticise a park for Kuala Lumpur that can potentially benefit thousands of city dwellers who practically have nowhere else to go other than shopping malls? In fact, I wish the earmarked park around the National Monument could be bigger than 66 acres. I wish it could be as big as the Hyde Park in London or the Central Park in Manhattan. I wish once the park is established, it shall forever remain so without encroachment by any powers-that-be in the future.

Dr Mahathir Mohamad is criticised for many things, including building the Petronas Twin Towers, the North-South Expressway, independent power producers (IPPs), Proton, KLIA, Putrajaya and the Formula 1 Circuit. You know what, Harussani Zakaria; I would rather Najib Abdul Razak be criticised for establishing a real gigantic park in Kuala Lumpur than for the fiasco in 1MDB.