DEPUTY Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Rosol Wahid has put it very succinctly that “no matter what it is called, it is unimportant” when agreeing with Azalina Othman Said, who said there is an important need to educate the public to think more logically.

They were talking about the furore created by some bigots and racists around Timah the whisky, turning and twisting it into a drinkable Malay lady!

The racists really have a great power of imagination but don’t seem to have any of rationality, reason or logic.

Rosol had gone on to say, and very correctly, that if this kind of furore (feigned furore, really) over non-issues is not stopped (meaning the racists and bigots are allowed their way), there would be no end to the trend! He couldn’t be more correct on this.

At the same time, the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry, together with other ministries/agencies, has had a meeting with the manufacturers of Timah and told Malaysians that the company has agreed to change the name and picture on the label.

So, after the holier-than-thou racists had created a lot of smoke where there was no fire, the government and its agencies have subtly arm-twisted the company to “agree” to rename and relabel its product.

The consequences of not complying need not be mentioned as that is common knowledge. The public is then informed of the company’s “voluntary” decision!

Now, what have Rosol and Azalina to say? The government is seen to be doing what Rosol said it should not do and set a precedent.

After the government’s buckling to the racists on this, will parents of newborns have to get government approval when naming their children so that no “sensitive” names are given to any non-Malay/non-Muslim children, not deliberately, but due to ignorance of what evokes the “sensitivities” of people who are so good at feigning “sensitivities”?

It would be understandable if there was substance in the complaints. But there isn’t any. It was all empty barrels making a lot of noise. Hear what someone who has a very good knowledge of Islam commenting on this: Malaysia needs proper leadership to overcome problems – Syed Ali Tawfik al-Attas.

Now, the Timah makers might as well pack up and go elsewhere like what Grab did.

How is it that the religiously “sensitive” people are not sensitive to all the really un-Islamic goings-on that are so rampant, for example, corruption, crime, drug-taking, baby-dumping, stealing from public coffers by overpayments as reported in the Auditor-General’s Reports?

How is it that these pious people have not been able to enforce the 1996 Malaysian fatwa that smoking is “haram”? Doesn’t this make a mockery of the fatwa and of those who were behind it?

Why is Malaysian Islam so different from Islam in other countries, even our close neighbour, Indonesia, where a Muslim can convert to Hinduism without any trouble, or countries in the Middle East where Arab Muslims celebrate Christmas with their Muslims countrymen by visiting churches and singing hymns with them?

Sorry to ask, but will all those Muslims be going to hell?

So, sorry for you, Timah!

* 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.