AUG 7 — The on-going crisis regarding the police-led Jais raid on the Damansara Utama Methodist Church last week could be viewed as an event signifying collective blindness.
Jais sees only the illegal proselytising of Muslims, without seeing how a faith-community is trying to help and better the lives of other folks (which may include Muslims); also, why Jais don’t see ANY occasion for gratitude here will, I suppose, remain a national mystery.
Hassan Ali sees only the words “Quran” and “prayer” used in a non-Islamic setting, without seeing that “James Bond” and “gun” being uttered in the same location within two hours doesn’t necessarily mean anyone’s about to become a British spy. Thank God (no specific religion specified) that PAS is now over-seeing him.
MCA sees only how the Selangor government has messed up on the issue of human rights and that of other religions, without seeing how this is like Coke complaining about the sugar levels in Pepsi.
Pakatan Rakyat sees only the failure of Najib & Co to prevent the gradual fading (or hacking) away of the rights of non-Muslims, but frankly I wish they’d see and say more than just how “it’s not their fault”.
Berita Harian and Harian Metro see only how Christians want to bribe Muslims into believing in Jesus Christ, without seeing how Christians may in fact be concerned about the very poverty of some communities (including Muslims, obviously) and how the fact that some Muslims end up being Christian may reflect less some odious scheme to convert Muslims and more the natural sense of gratitude humans have when people show compassionate love.
In a word, the politically motivated see only what they want to see. But what they can’t see is that segment which they must be most responsible for i.e. the least of “the people”. I’m talking about the homeless, the AIDS victim, the drug addict, the orphan, the widow, the handicapped, i.e. the very people for whom the DUMC dinner was thrown — who sees THEM? Only, it seems, DUMC and Harapan Komuniti.
The drug addicts and homeless are those whom society doesn’t enjoy seeing, so all the more reason why our leaders must take a good hard look at how they came to be. The orphans are the ones for whom GE13 will make hardly a whiff of difference, so it’s critical that voters make a difference at GE13 bearing these children in mind. The handicapped are the ones who will continue to suffer after the media furore has been cleaned (off the fans and the surrounding “areas”), so we need to bring them to the top of our political priorities lest it makes our talk of justice and a “high-income society” full of nonsense.
It’s pretty ironic when we remember that the people being served by Harapan Komuniti represent the very definition of “marginalised”. And yet when an incident involving them sprouts up, the last thing we think about is them. Because after the political parties and analysts have finished their speeches and back-patting, after we’ve finished convincing ourselves that the bad guy remains as bad or even worse than before and that our good-guy party isn’t an iota responsible, the abused wife who has to feed three kids still has to fight back the tears every day to ensure her kids don’t have to fight back their hunger.
We need to see the less privileged in our community as part of us and not merely as pawns in political ploys to get people to tick a preferred square on a piece paper come election day.
I’m glad Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim apologised for the incident but I’ll be gladder if his commitment towards justice doesn’t end with reprimanding Jais for their conduct and if, overall, Pakatan Rakyat is defined less by their criticism of Barisan Nasional and more by their efforts to bring joy and hope to these individuals.
This is not, though, to say that BN and their PR machine shouldn’t be slammed. The “reports” by Berita Harian that Christians are bribing needy Muslims to become Christians sound only slightly less ridiculous than the suggestion that the Second Coming has happened.
Rev Father Michael Chua wisely said that such sensitive issues cannot afford to be given “trials by media” that only perpetuate half-truths, prejudices and lies. Well, there’s some bad news and some horrible news following from this.
The bad news is that in a world suffocated by social networks “trials by media” are even more pervasive than they already were. We know no other kind of trial not because we reject authentic non-media trials but because we no longer have the ability to distinguish media from non-media.
The word “media” nowadays makes as much sense to an average Malaysian as the concept of “water” would to an average fish. We won’t be able to recognise “non-media trials” if they jumped out naked from a giant birthday cake.
The worse news is that even if DUMC were to produce a top-secret document listing out ways the Church planned to convert every Muslim within five miles of Dream Centre, this would in no way cause a re-arrangement of the locked-in battle lines. When it comes to political discourse, the establishment of the objective facts of a case or event is often IRRELEVANT in changing political attitudes.
How DO political attitudes change? Probably the same factor that caused some Muslims to make a decision for the Christian faith (or vice-versa). You can bet a Chinese 10-course dinner it’s not because of better arguments or anything they heard or read in a political speech.
Chances are, they decided to live a new kind of belief because they experienced a new kind of life. When a group of people meet your needs, give you a fresh sense of belonging and share their story, there’s a really high probability you’ll want to be a part of that story too.
Jais and Berita Harian don’t quite understand this right now and maybe never will. Here’s hoping things will work out in our country such that they won’t have to. Alternatively, some of their directors should consider attending a cross-cultural dinner one evening?
* Alwyn Lau reads The Malaysian Insider.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication. The Malaysian Insider does not endorse the view unless specified.
