By jem
Elections in six states are coming up and politicians are ramping up their ‘noise’.
Umno supreme council member Ahmad Maslan has asked Umno supporters to vote for the DAP, which is part of the Pakatan Harapan coalition.
Umno president Zahid Hamidi, after attending a gathering in Machang, Kelantan, also called for Barisan Nasional members to support DAP candidates in the upcoming state elections. He said it will not be easy to erase the hatred that the dominant BN party Umno has for the DAP. Such hatred had been planted and ingrained into the psyche of Umno members for over two decades.
Zahid said BN voters once courted and supported candidates from the MIC and the MCA, both part of BN, and must now back their rivals-turned-allies in the “unity government” instead.
- Sign up for Aliran's free daily email updates or weekly newsletters or both
- Make a one-off donation to Persatuan Aliran Kesedaran Negara, CIMB a/c 8004240948
- Make a pledge or schedule an auto donation to Aliran every month or every quarter
- Become an Aliran member
This seems to have miffed MCA secretary general Chong Sin Woon, who said that Zahid should look after his fellow BN coalition partners.
Zahid then did a U-turn – or just about – at a press conference in George Town, where he urged all BN coalition members to expand their base and work together with PH parties. The new political reality is that they have to embrace the presence of other parties, he said.
Zahid’s comments made at the two different events have two different meanings and are bound to cause confusion. It’s no wonder that many find it hard to believe in the unity government with statements such as these.
Politics really makes for strange bedfellows, and they are always used as a matter of convenience. Old enemies become ‘friends’ and old ‘friends’ become enemies.
Nancy Pelosi, the ex-speaker of the US House of Representatives, once said: “Treat everybody as friends, but know who your friends are!”
A very telling statement, don’t you think?’
Then, as if the country has nothing else to sort out, religion reared its ugly head again in the Allah saga. It seems as if this issue has gone on and on and nobody wants to ‘bin’ it. Desperate politicians use the issue to show they defend an exclusive type of Islam.
Sabah and Sarawak have always had religious freedom, and many religious communities say their prayers in the Malay language, and their Bibles are also in Malay. For those of us who come from East Malaysia, religion has never been an issue.
The word Allah has been used for hundreds of years in East Malaysia, long before all the present politicians in the peninsula were born.
When Sabah and Sarawak became part of the Federation of Malaysia, the 20-point and 18-point agreements, along with the Malaysia Agreement 1963, provided the guiding principles. Freedom of religion was priority number one.
The federal government’s promise to the native chiefs of Sabah can be seen and read as it is etched in the Keningau Oath Stone, and this promise should be taken in all seriousness.
It seems like people in the East Malaysian states have had to defend this right since forever. There has been no evidence to suggest that when Christians in Sabah and Sarawak use the word Allah in their prayers, it caused misunderstandings among the Muslim communities in these states.
It is only certain West Malaysians politicians who seem to like to stir up this hornet’s nest now and then.
I always wonder at the fear that peninsula-based politicians seem to have over the usage of the word Allah. What are they afraid of? Even in the Middle East and other countries that have a Muslim majority, they have no problem with Christians using the word Allah.
When this issue came up and it was all over the media, the PM said there was no need “to kick up a fuss over this”. He added that the court judgment only applies to Sabah and Sarawak and that “only non-Muslims in the peninsula were prohibited from using Allah”.
What about Christians from East Malaysia who live in the peninsula? Will all those East Malaysians who use the Malay language when praying be summoned by the courts or the police and be jailed?
This is going to be a slippery slope for the PM and his unity government. The controversy should be cleared up once and for all to avoid alienating the vast number of East Malaysians who are studying, working and living in the peninsula – and not least the East Malaysian political parties that are part of the unity government!
Muslims in the peninsula need not be afraid because the Federal Constitution has taken away the rights of non-Muslims to speak about and propagate their faith among Muslims.
Instead of making an issue out of nothing, why can’t we all just be allowed to pray in the way we have been taught by our ancestors? We all pray to the same God, even if he is known by different names, don’t we?
Religious harmony is not attained overnight and some might say it is an ongoing process; but it has to start somewhere, somehow, otherwise this will always be a bone of contention in our multi-religious and multi-racial society.
Our politicians and politics have to change as well or else we will fight the same battles repeatedly.
We need to look far beyond the here and now. We must change and change for the better. In those six states that will hold elections soon, many voters may already know whom they are going to vote for while many others may still be ‘iffy’ about this unity government because of Umno’s presence in it.
The unity government is at stake and it is now up to Umno and the other coalition partners to work on instilling public confidence in it. The parties need to talk about how this multi-coalition government is so much better than the previous ones.
It might be a hard sell, but all parties have to prove their worth in the unity government and work harder to get this point across. Trust is not easily earned either!
jem is the pseudonym of a regular reader of Aliran
AGENDA RAKYAT - Lima perkara utama
- Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
- Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
- Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
- Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
- Lawan rasuah dan kronisme
Please exercise extra care with what you write.