SEPT 3 — A few years back when I was a lowly writer contributing to The Star’s Citizen Blog, I wrote a piece called “I Am Not a Patriot.” It was sarcastic in nature because it listed what our government truly sees as things that make us, the common people, traitors to the cause ie the development of this nation.

I was recently pushed to look this article up once again after watching a movie called “American: The Bill Hicks Story.” Bill died of cancer but his message rang clear through his comedy.

A patriot is not one who, as the rap group Ahli Fiqir would put it, just “angguk-angguk, geleng-geleng, tunduk-tunduk, ikut telunjuk, iya-iya, saya-saya, kiri kanan ikut saja,” to put it in contemporary Malay terms. A patriot is one who highlights the mistakes of government thoroughly so that they do a better job for everyone, both the majority and the minority of the people altogether.

A patriot is one who acknowledges that the people are of a variety that needs to be catered to fairly as long as they are citizens, regardless of their race, their beliefs, and their economic backgrounds or yes, even their genders and sexual orientations.

And that is why we see that the patriots who fight for change are the ones who become martyrs, no matter how minute their actions were. And this is something that we do not acknowledge in our history and, even worse, we do not even encourage people to do.

Allow me to then state my opinion on what exactly one should do to be patriotic. It’s a simple process that goes very well with our religious upbringing, for us Muslims. In fact, it is the first sentence brought down by Gabriel to Muhammad. It is in the Chapter Al-Alaq of the Holy Koran, verse 1 to 5. It tells us all, summarily, to read in the name of Allah who created us from a clot of blood and who granted us the ability to write which we knew not.

The verses and chapter do not specify that we should just read Utusan, or Berita Harian, or Malaysiakini or Harakah. It does not even tell us that we should buy newspapers to read them or to purchase them online or even, again, to even purchase them at all.

It does not tell us that we should shun books that raise questions about our faith, because struggling to find such answers and putting them to paper strengthens it and subsequently, when other members of the ummah come across the same struggle, it is lightened if they read what you write. This is exactly how Muslims in the past came up with libraries of books and translations from the Greek and Roman philosophers, once lost in time and then formed their own theories.

It does not say you can’t question a leader’s actions. In fact, it is through explaining and questioning our own Prophet Muhammad (pbuH) that there was even a compendium of his quotations, what we now call the Sahih Bukhari and Muslim. And blessed be the Prophet, he was kind enough to answer any and all questions, unlike our religious scholars and politicians alike nowadays who merely tell those needing answers to not ask so many questions.

Now, these all point to the growth of knowledge, I know. But translate it into the basics of what you understand from it. Thus, your patriotic duty is just this. Read about a topic you find of interest; doesn’t matter if it’s politics, or food, or alcohol consumer rights even, and delve into it with all your heart. Then share that knowledge through your writing. And in this day and age, need I say more about how you are supposed to do this?

Start a blog. Or write to any newspaper through their blogs, letters and opinion sections. Or, if you’re too lazy to even do that, open Facebook and use their note application. It is through this small but effective culmination of knowledge that one is thoroughly doing one’s patriotic duty and, with the proper intent (niat) of contributing to his or her religious beliefs.

And please don’t make language an excuse. Allah never specified you had to write proper Bahasa Malaysia/Jawi/Arabic. Write how you talk, regardless of the Bahasa Malaysia/Mandarin/Cantonese/Tamil/English mix that you use in conversation. After all, can’t you see the best part of you writing in that style?

Your usage, in itself, is the simplest, and highest form of getting people to the goal of 1 Malaysia; the creation of a society where lingual, religious, racial barriers are torn down to form the creation of a truly understanding and inter-communicating people.

With that, I wish you all, fellow patriots and future patriots alike, good luck and God speed in your endeavours.