Thursday, June 21, 2007

Iqra'. Read. Baca. Apasalah nye..

Lately, I have been reading through some of other blogs out there and it comes to my attention, how easily distructive blogging can be. I am a proponent to freedom of speech and the freedom of the press, however, with great power comes great responsibilities.

What I am getting at is how we freely express our opinions ( me included ) without carefull thought of what the ramifications might be. Ok, fine its our blog. We have right to say what we want and how we want, but then, on occurrences of our lives takpe kot.

Its when we hit certain issues, I feel a little bit of studying on what we nak cakap must be there. Topic in question, there were recent posts in blogs out there mentioning about the Lina Joy case. So many opinions, tapi what cought my eye is how complacent we have become. The funny part is, we base our post on inferred feels and thoughts, rather than facts. Ironic, when the actual situation is right there in the papers.

Posts have been written about the freedom of ones person to pick their religion. Fine by me. Then they question why cant a convert re-convert? Good question. Then it goes to the issue about a simple IC card rectification. Simple too. Then it continues why is Islam unfair? And specifically how our country's constitution deals with this! Ok, back off awhile. Read. The court demands a baptism cetificate or proof of the conversion which the counsellors failed to provide. So the petition of the court was to provide the proof of conversion or else petition to change the IC nullified.

Yg kite pi skewed sampai kata Muslims are hostile in their attempts to retain the populous, cmon man, mcmlah org Islam kat M'sia nih bagus pun. Segelintir je. But what needs to be highlighted, from my point of view, is our view of religion. Ur beliefs should not be the flavour of the month. That to me is a big warning to all new Muallafs out there. Sad thing is I much enjoy the company of Muallafs, as they take more patience and efforts to understand their religion. Majority of them make better Muslims then us. Ok, small percentage of them convert for the sake of nuptial traditions, tapi tu yang salah tuh.


But think about it, once procured, presented evidence, under civil law the court will recognise. This is what Lina Joy is not able to produce and this is what and why some people in the right mind are pissed off. Religion is not an undergarment you put on and take off as when you please.

There are bad Muslims, there are good Muslims. There are bad Buddhist, and there are good Buddhist, there are good Christians and there are bad Christians. We dont hate Jews, cos their are good people we hate Zionist. So, look at the issue. Take it as the case dictates it and the answer is clear.


Lastly, Malaysia is a very forgiving country. As skewed as most Malays in this country are, pls let me straighten some facts. Tak pernah ke kite tanya how difficult it is to maintain a multi-racial multi-ethnic society? Susah siut. And the last thing I want to hear from anyone is their 'honest' opinions of Bumiputra rights. Ade sampai org suggest kite nih conducting pseudo-apartheid principals.

Fact. We have 2 Commissioners report for our constitution, one is the Cobbald Commission, the other the Riggs Commission. What is important, why 2 commissions were deployed was to settle Tunku Abdul Rahman's defiance to accept the Chinese and Indian community. Yes, the initial plan was to allow safe passage of the Chinese back to China and the Indians back to India. The East India Company, then sanction by Lord Ruford was under discussion over the cost for the relocation. There was no citizenship for these races. They are under contract employment from respective employer. However, this is to underline the majority Chinese and Indian community brought here under this contract, not already estiblished Chinese and Indians who came and resided since zaman kesultanan Melayu Melaka.

So this number was 98 thousand chinese and 36 thousand Indians. For 5 days Tun Tan Cheng Lock and Tun Sambathan fought with Tunku to change his mind. Somehow, at the last minute, Lord Ruford declared that change of policies from the Tories at England that this relocation will not be borne by EIC, and the cost must be borne by Malaya. So, it was agreed then, Tunku, Tan Cheng Lok and Sambathan that these people will be retained..as citizens of Malaya.

PROVIDED..the rights of Bumiputra was set. This to protect the separation of social demographics at the moment where the Chinese was heavily involved in trading and the Indians in agriculture. The Malays were in between. Majority in small self-preserving traditional industries, and some prominent numbers in administration. The agreement was, that rights of Bumiputra for land ownership, education and rest that I forgot to detail will be endorse by the constitution in return for 134 thousand citizenship delivered overnight. 134 CITIZENSHIP OVERNIGHT! An unprecedented event even till now!!!

Fast forward. Future. Chinese have majority market control, Indians slowly picking up and filling gaps where there are and the Malays? Tuh yg sedihnye, dah bagi head start and what do we do? We stummer and bungle the advantage. Now 50 years of independence and still bumi wealth is at 20% index. OK. So for the Chinese, you got very rich..do we obstruct you or send you to the gallows like Thaksin? No we celebrate. Give you Dato' ship for God sake!. We set up Chinese schools, Indian schools for your liking. The right to land and ownership.

For the religian, we dont topple down your big Statue of Buddha in Penang, or even Batu Caves. We let the Churches bell ring. We allow big locations for Churches. We provide everything. Hey compare that with abroad! Take England for example. Goddammit what have we learned from our studies abroad? Mosques are not allowed to have high minarets. There will not be a broadcast of adzan at all. And the construction of a mosque, if not blending to town councel's architecture mode, is not allowed. So siapa oppress siapa nih?

We are so forgiving and yet they forget. Jangan kata Melayu lupa, yang lain lupa. And that is what I want to get through. We will be celebrating our new independence. We are Malaysians, we so claim. Bahasa Malayu is the national language so learn it.

In conclusion, correct me if I'm wronglah. About the history of Bumiputra, you've learned it at form 4, just malas nak ingat kot. Those who want to know detail, grab a copy of MALAYA: AN ANTHOLOGY by Tan Sri Khalid Jamaluddin written in 1972 or better still read Riggs Commission report itself at the National Archives!

Facts people facts. We as bloggers have an audience. This audience, whoever they may be will some way or rather take our insights seriously. Imagine the power of opinions we have? Thats why we talk of the power of the internet. Yes. It is more than a tool for getting dates or playing games. Its a cyberspace where in its ether our thoughts can jump out and reach someone.

I'm not free from flaws too. This is where my fellow bloggers comment mean a lot. I have cherish each of your thoughts and views. So, I promise to give mine with deep thought. Tis my promise!

P/S: This post is a dual frustration of the state of the world and the fact that writer's original reasons for posting was to describe his holidays at Johor, but fell short as the wedding photos cannot load!!!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Il semble que vous soyez un expert dans ce domaine, vos remarques sont tres interessantes, merci.

- Daniel