RECENTLY, there was a lot of hullabaloo about a drink labelled Timah. This is the latest case where sensitivities erupted like volcanoes would in a multi-racial country that did not have any racial fault lines until the longest-ruling party began losing popular support despite all the gerrymandering.

It is no coincidence that we have seen an acceleration in these incidences after the 12th General Election in March 2008, when the Barisan Nasional lost its two thirds majority. Is it a way of retaliating against those who had not shown it gratitude at the polls?    

Among the previous notable cases of such sensitivities rising were when crosses on mission schools and churches were torn down by racist rowdies with impunity. Incidentally, the same mission schools had given good education to many Muslim children, some of whom became leaders of the country, without them suffering from looking at the crosses every day of their schooling lives, or losing their faith. 

Another unique example of when these sensitivities came bubbling up was when non-Muslim primary schoolchildren were herded into washrooms to have their meals during Ramadan. It had suddenly become insensitive to force Muslim children to watch non-Muslim children having food, as though their pangs of hunger would overcome them and they might steal a bite of something and thus nullify their fast. The move was justified as being necessary to respect Muslim students who were fasting!

During the 1950s and ‘60s, school canteens in the then English-medium schools had halal and non-halal food stalls side-by-side, and the non-halal section even had pork dishes.

The Muslim and non-Muslim children would sit side-by-side and eat their respective halal and non-halal dishes without anyone crying about sensitivities. During the fasting month, Muslim children would still be in the canteens sitting and chatting with their non-Muslim friends who were eating. It was racial unity at its best.

Racial bigotry, with the blessings of the government, destroyed this unity.

No child is born with such sensitivities pre-installed in its mind. So how do such matters get programmed into people’s minds, making them react like robots to external stimuli?

Leave two young children of different ethnicities, colours, religions, social status, and so on together and they will play and hug each other. They are not confused about who they are or what they are.

If any adult comes around and tells the well-dressed high-society child not to play with the shirtless child with torn, dirty pants because the latter is ‘dirty’, the child may not dislike the other child at first instance. But repeat that a few times, and the high-society child now develops a sensitivity to the other and becomes confused.

In the case of grown-ups who have been conditioned to believe their religious leaders, some of whom don’t seem to be fit for the purpose (of teaching religion), without question, it takes one such bigoted leader to strike the match and, lo and behold, hell breaks loose. Even some of the educated don’t question these bigoted leaders when it comes to the so-called laws of God.       

Sensitivities are thus a creation of the mind. They are not a condition that people are born with, but an act they play out like actors playing out their roles when filming or on the stage. The acting is done for a purpose, and in the case of religious sensitivities as in Malaysia, it is for a political purpose; of bullying a section of the population to kow-tow to the supposed moral superiority of the bully.

The issue over Timah is just a creation of religious and racial bigots who do not wish to see harmony between the races, unless the race being discriminated against supports the corrupt at the polls!

According to Zakir Naik, a corrupted Muslim is the better leader in a Muslim majority country compared to an upright non-Muslim because the former has iman since he goes to the mosque while the latter does not. What kind of teaching is this?  

A member of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in Egypt, famous cleric Khaled Al Gendy, says that it is not drinking liquor that is haram, but getting drunk. And there are many other types of liquor being marketed with Islamic names, even in Islamic countries, without triggering religious sensitivities.

In 1996, Malaysia’s National Fatwa Council issued a religious edict that smoking was haram as it causes many health problems. Has it stopped Muslims from smoking? I still see a lot of Malay children smoking outside school gates.     

Why do some racists and bigots not like to see peoples of different faiths living peacefully together with an understanding of each other’s religions and customs? How is the government going to achieve its laudable Keluarga Malaysia when it does not, as a first step, want to stop racial bigotry?  

Some years back, the Bar Council’s human rights sub-committee had organised a forum to discuss the formation of an Interfaith Commission of Malaysia. Meetings had been peacefully held in Petaling Jaya and Malacca. But, in Penang on 14 May 2006 while it was being held indoors at the Cititel Hotel, it was interrupted by a group of rowdies led by the leaders of some religious body. The event was cut short under the watchful eyes of the police, who stood by and let the rowdies have their way. That’s rule of law? 

There is no point talking of national unity and Keluarga Malaysia and spending so much money on creating perceptions of unity while allowing the bigots a free hand to continue their anti-unity activities.

The Minister of National Unity must rise to the occasion and take the racism and bigotry bull by the horns, otherwise it can go on organising ‘unity events’ till the cows come home while the racists and bigots carry on their anti-unity activities with impunity to further break bonds. 

She can do this effectively by making it a point to drop in at the religious and cultural functions of the non-Muslims, even if they are held at their prayer houses.

If Arab Muslims can go into churches and sing hymns with their Christian countrymen, and not become Christians but remain steadfast Muslims, why can’t Malaysian Muslims do the same?  The politicians who speak of Keluarga Malaysia should be bold enough to do this.

To quote Thomas Sowell, some people are “enjoying a sense of moral superiority in their ignorance”. For Keluarga Malaysia to be realised in a meaningful way, this “sense of moral superiority” needs to be changed to a sense of humility that does not consider any particular race or religion superior to all others, and stop this sensitivities nonsense, among other things.  – October 26, 2021.  

*Ravinder Singh reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.