my politics

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it.
– Mark Twain –

So…in the 2 weeks that has become my hell on earth, 2 very interesting topics have popped up on home front: 1) Dr. M criticising Pak Lah 2) the Ulama’s of Malaysia says that Kongsi Raya erodes faith… well I’m sure that there are many more interesting news like who married who and stuff but yea I like these best…more controversial don’t you think? =)

The most mind boggling of the 2 to me is the Dr. M vs Pak Lah situation. Well for most of us we’ve grown up knowing Dr. M as the boss – lots of Malaysians love him and there are those who don’t love him as much. Well I love him. Say what you want but that is one human being that I tink has guts. I mean look can u ever imagine our country being lead by another person and getting to where we are? I personally don’t think so. That old man not only boosted our pride, ego and self confidence but he PUT us ON the Map. He made people listen to us. The big guns finally realized that owh there is a country that’s in between singapore and Thailand (seriously people, u think you are so civilized but you don’t know the use of an atlas? If that’s so hard just type www.google.com)

It is because of he’s no nonsense - I - couldn’t – careless – what – you – think – of – me – but - I’ll – still – give – you – a – piece – of – my - mind attitude that the first world nations paid attention to what we collectively had to say. They placed us one step higher than being the manufacturing point of their household goods. Because of he’s attitude we, as in Malaysia, have a fan base – 3rd world nations and Muslim countries alike. They want to be like us (owh god am I a narcissist or what.) – in a purely economic and political sense. We’ve set an example to a lot of them considering that Malaysia is a much younger country and at the same time a more diversified one. See we actually do get to bask in the glory of being Malaysians.

Having said that I’ve got 2 say that I’m a bit upset with what is going on now. I mean as a Malaysian I do value what he has 2 say. He usual has some valid points. But then again, there is part of me that says, this is an old man who has been in power for as long as I’ve lived – making him the longest serving PM in the world (if I’m not mistaken). Not meaning it as an insult to him, I think that he has a bit of a power withdrawal syndrome. And than to see a guy, who is so not like him, do stuff that he would have done differently would really make him a bit insecure. I mean put it this way. You’ve been arranging the photo frames in your house your way for a long time and then say your bf/gf comes in, lives in your house and totally rearranges it. How would you feel? And than there is another person implying that you haven’t been keeping your house well before your bf/gf moves in and that ur bf/gf has to make do because of that. Won’t you want to tell your partner off and than proceed to chop d other party (d one dat implied stuff) into pieces, make them into curry and feed them to d dogs?

From where I’m looking, thousands of kms away and out of the heat of the moment, it is a simple matter. We have got to realize that no two people are the same therefore no two people lead the same way. But that doesn’t make one better than the other. From my observation, unlike Dr. M who is very vocal and in your face, Pak Lah is the more soft spoken kind (steel under velvet if you must) but that doesn’t mean that you can trample all over him. That guy has got determination and tonnes of faith. It is because of the fact that he doesn’t openly slam you that many people have enormous amount of respect for him. It takes some time to actually see that he can lead our country of 26million.

What all of us, Dr. M included, has to realize is that the times are different and so is the purpose of the government. During Dr. M’s reign, we were part of the unknowns so the point is to raise ourselves and prove ourselves to get those thick headed big shots to notice us and have respect for us. We’ve done that coz we have gotten the attention – both good and bad. We are moving forward, we’ve got fantastic landmarks and lots of our people are known worldwide. Now it is time for us to do, for the lack of a better word, some spring cleaning. It fits Pak Lah’s personality perfectly. We are trying to reduce corruption and we are embarking on plans to be better people. I’ve always believe that if you are comfortable with what you are doing than you’ll do it well. Pak Lah seems to me to be a kind of person who is particular about the ‘spirituality’ of the nation. If that is what he believes than we’ve got to give him a chance to prove it. I think he’s done a great job considering he puts he’s grief second to the nation’s well being and I think we did not give him enough credit for that.

So just to sum that portion up, I think we should be less critical of our current PM, our ex PM has to realize that he’s no longer in power (it breaks my heart to say that) and we all collectively should take into consideration what both parties have to say coz I believe they would really help each other.

Now to my favourite part of the day : criticizing people. The ulama’s of Malaysia have recently said that Kongsi Raya has the potential to erode the faith of Muslims in Malaysian and such joint celebration should be discontinued. My initial reaction was : WHAT THE HELL???? Really man..i’m still wondering what they’re thinking about… I mean as far as I remember I did not go with the nyonya next door to the temple to pray on Kongsi Raya. I still went to the mosque. I do not eat pork on that day and I certainly did not go and change my religion. I dun think the nyonya did either.

I really wonder whether those ulama’s have been to a kongsi raya open house before. Coz if they have they would realize the scenario is often this (well my example would be my nyonya and my family)

Nyonya: hai hai!! Lai masuk masuk…semua ade kat dalam rumah tu…*shouts for maid to bring drinks*
Me: Nya, Happy Chinese New Year..
N: ah trime kasih…nah makan makan (drink: f&n, food: kuih kapit, various cookies – homemade man!, tonnes of oranges)

*note: my nyonya memang speak malay one – the baba nyonya kinda malay.

So we eat drink chat (gossips and such), den when we are about to leave she gives us ang pow..woohoo!!

An almost similar scenario happens when I visit friends for deepavali and christmas. Just change the menu a bit and skip the ang pow.

So, besides the fact that gossiping and over indulging is wrong, where in that scenario did my faith in God got eroded? I still go home believing in God and after 20 years of celebrating Chinese New Year and Deepavali and Christmas with friends I still do. And it’s the same for my friends.

To me what the ulama’s statement really said was this: we do not have much faith in the faith that Malaysian Muslims have in God. We believe it to be shaky and that celebrating with friends would cause them to disbelieve. And to these ulamas I have only one thing to say: THAT IS BLOODY INSULTING! I mean I know I’m not the most religious of people and that the ulama’s knows tonnes more about the religion than me. But to imply such things is just unacceptable. Not only are they generalizing those whose not as religious as them, they are insulting people who are as religious or more religious than them. My grandma for one celebrates Chinese New Year with our neighbours and until today she still keeps reminding me to pray and have faith. Not only that the ulama made me ashamed that they are so, in my words, culture-phobic. As far as I know, my religion teaches me to respect all people regardless of their religion and race. Isn’t celebrating alongside them saying that though we are of different religion, I respect you? Doesn’t it show that my religion is one of love? Besides the Quran states that “to them their religions and to us our religions”

Haih really, how petty can these people get? That money spent on that ‘meeting’ I believe should have been better spent trying to figure out how to minimize the damage done to the name of the religion by the stupid terrorist. Where were their criticisms when these people mass murder people? Didn’t God say murder is a sin and suicide is unacceptable? They should have also used that time to figure out a way to approach troubled teenagers and help them thus reducing our social problems. Rather than screaming and belittling the kids – like the ustazahs love to do, these people should work on better communication with kids. I mean I tink it would be more worth our money if they gathered all those ustaz and ustazah and thought them manners and a little communication skills that does not include insults. They could have discussed so many things that could positively affect the country as a whole but instead they chose to discuss such a petty matter.

These people have the means to do a lot of good things but instead they chose to be so critical and so discriminatory at times that no one would like to approach them. If they did it differently, say be more approachable and calm and nice as opposed 2 be so abrasive and judgemental, a lot of good things could have been done. I mean I know a religious teacher when I was a kid who did not make anyone feel like a sinner. I’ve yet to meet another like her.

The point is this: celebrating Kongsi Raya does not equate to losing faith in God. It does however equate to the fact that though we are of different religions, I acknowledge you as my friend, my countrymen and my sisters.

“O mankind, we created you from a single pair of male and female and made you into nations and tribes that you may know each other, not that you may hate each other.”
- Quran-