LETTER | I am a non-Muslim Chinese Malaysian and I am probably the only human being who proudly walks inside a big mall in Kuala Lumpur - near my office - with a Palestinian scarf. I also wear my Palestinian scarf every time I leave my office or home.

Most non-Malays in public places would give me a weird look and the Malays would give me a more pleasant but surprised look. They may be wondering why a “China man” here is supporting the Palestinian cause.

This may be a symptom of what is wrong with our society today and why it is going to be tough to achieve the so-called national unity that many people talk loudly about.

Most people here tend to see things through racial or religious lenses, whether they care to admit it or not.

I have been supporting the Palestinian cause for decades since my student leader days in Britain in the late 1970s and had many Palestinian and Arab friends.

I wear the Palestinian scarf not to show off or to gain popularity with the Malays - I am not a politician out to gain votes or support - but to show solidarity and support for the Palestinian people who are suffering from oppression, atrocities and genocide, especially in Gaza now, at the hands of apartheid Israel, probably the most evil regime the world has ever seen.

For the Zionist leaders to mercilessly and deliberately bomb and kill with precision the humanitarian people, such as personnel of the World Centre Kitchen, who were providing and delivering food to the starving Gazans, speaks volumes of how evil and barbaric the Zionist (not Jewish) regime has now become.

The mostly Muslim Palestinian people are perhaps the most oppressed in the world today, facing triple oppression of being chased out of their homeland in 1948, still mistreated in occupied territory and Israel and facing genocide and land grab.

By being a champion of these most oppressed Muslims for decades, I do have a locus standi and legitimacy to speak out on issues related to oppressed Muslims.

When our then-prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad delivered his closing speech at the 10th Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) Summit in Putrajaya on Oct 17, 2003, he gave an excellent fact-supported account of how the Zionist lobby controlled the major institutions (such as the government, mainstream media and banking) in the Western world, especially in the United States.

Over the next few days, Western mainstream media condemned Mahathir for being racist and anti-Semitic. Not a single Muslim leader here or elsewhere came to his defence, perhaps because he was retiring soon and also perhaps not many Muslim leaders here had the depth of understanding on the Palestinian issue like Mahathir and I.

‘Are you a Muslim?’

This might be another symptom of what was wrong with many of our self-serving politicians who were not prepared on principle, to publicly defend the correct views of an outgoing prime minister as he might not be useful anymore.

Feeling very indignant about the complete absence of any credible response against the attacks on Mahathir’s OIC speech by the Western mainstream media, I wrote a full-page article in The Star, titled “Anti-Semitism claim baseless” which was published on Oct 29, 2003 (the article is still available online).

The Asian Wall Street Journal also published my letter on the same date. Mahathir wrote to thank me later and stated “not many have done this or argued based on reason.”

In 2006, I was a guest speaker at a forum at Mara University in Shah Alam, to talk about the second Intifada (uprising) with the main speaker being the Palestinian ambassador to Malaysia (who then made me an honorary Palestinian).

The Malay students gave me a standing ovation. After the forum, a group of Malay students rushed towards me to ask me: “Mr Tan, you Muslim kah?” (Mr Tan, are you a Muslim?)

I told them “No” but I was a civilised human being like all of them. With the Palestinian ambassador next to me and supporting me, I said this was not an issue about religion but the principle of humanity that we are all equal, regardless of our race, religion or gender, before our Creator and no ethnic group has the right to oppress another.

There was also at least 10 percent of Palestinian people who were Christians.

I also told them bluntly that if my fellow non-Muslim Chinese were to oppress them as Malays or Muslims one day, I would fight to defend them against the Chinese oppressors.

This incident was a major sign of what is wrong with our society today and how everything here seems to be seen via racial or religious perspectives.

I wrote a piece in the New Straits Times titled “An MP must speak for every race” published in February 2019 (the article is still available online).

Representing all Malaysians

In our parliamentary system of democracy, which has been practised elsewhere, sole racial or religious representation is both illegal and immoral as there is not a single constituency in our country in which all the voters belong to only one race or religion.

Even if there is one person in the constituency of another race or religion, the elected MP or state assemblyperson concerned must represent his or her interest based on the justice of the case and not based on race or religion and regardless of whether or not this person has voted for the representative.

This is the principle of our parliamentary democracy. Whether they like it or not, those elected representatives who disagree with this principle must vacate their seats now and leave for another country or another planet to practise their racial or religious politics.

Even the rulers, whose main role is to protect the sanctity of Islam and the Malay community, must also protect and represent the legitimate interests of all other races, as stated clearly in our Constitution.

The recent controversy over the socks bearing the word Allah is also very telling of what is wrong with our society today and how it is so easy for unscrupulous and dishonest politicians to play the race and religion card.

The Chinese owners (and socks supplier) of KK Mart have been accused and charged in court with intentionally wounding the religious feelings of Muslims, even for having a few pairs of socks with the word Allah on them, out of more than 18,000 pairs, on display in three outlets.

Fair enough, the authorities concerned have the right to charge any party with such an offence.

But the owners of KK Mart have not been found guilty yet.

Where is the justice?

Islam is a religion of justice, peace and compassion.

So who gives the right to any politicians to deem the owners of KK Mart as guilty without any further investigation on how the socks got there in the first place?

The owners of KK Mart have already publicly apologised and agreed to review their standard operating procedure for allowing an outside party to put the offending items there.

Therefore, is it just to organise a public boycott of KK Mart without first establishing the facts of the case and the guilt of the owners?

We have an Umno state assemblyperson from Malacca, who is responsible for playing up this issue and initiating the boycott of KK Mart and who is also supposed to represent the interest of non-Malays as well based on justice.

Yet, he was talking very loudly that he must defend his religion at all costs, without first investigating and getting the facts of the case right on how the offending socks got there in the first place.

It’s easy and a no-brainer to exploit the race and religion card by blaming the owners of another race first on any issue.

It is not about boycotting an outlet or certain products, which every consumer has the right in this world to do so based on the justice of the case.

What IF the court finds KK Mart innocent later on? Who is going to compensate for their losses?

Even if KK Mart is found guilty as charged, is it fair to the mostly Malay employees of KK Mart to suffer the negative consequences of their livelihood from a boycott on something that they are not even involved in or have any control over?

This is a form of collective punishment which is very unjust, like how the Zionist regime is punishing the entire population of 2.2 million people in Gaza for a militant act committed by Hamas on Oct 7, 2023.

Defective political system

We also have some stupid former politicians asking this Umno politician from Malacca to “stand down as he had made his point”.

What point? That it is right to attack a legitimate business and punish its staff on an issue for which the owners have not been found guilty yet? This is also a symptom of the state of our defective political system today, which is very much in denial.

The fact that the Umno politician concerned from Malacca has been pulled in by the police for questioning and is likely to be charged with sedition, after having caused so much ill will in race relations, is beside the point.

How on earth is our country going to achieve a true sense of national unity (which is much needed for our social and economic progress) with many of our elected politicians resorting to such cheap tricks to deceive and instigate people belonging to their ethnicity?

Unless the people of all races wake up soon and do not allow any politicians to get away with playing the race and religion card so easily, God help us all in our beloved country.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.