As the shocked world including Malaysia mourns the victims of the terror attack in Paris, we hear voices of Malaysian authorities giving assurances that every measure will be taken to ensure such a tragedy does not happen here. We are told to take comfort that Malaysia has gone into ‘high security alert’. I’m sure all peace loving Malaysians do not want to see a replica, even a tiny one, of the massacre in Paris.
What are we to make of such assurances because the same voices had in the past, even in the recent past, been endorsing the voices and actions of the small band of rabble-rousing bigots and racists in the holy name of defending religion, defending the ‘maruah’ of the Malays/Muslims, and warning the non-Muslims not to hurt the sensitivities of the Malays/Muslims as their ‘dendam kesumat’ (feelings of deep revenge and hatred) has no bounds?
None of those shouting ‘defending race and religion’ have given a point-by-point explanation of the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of the dangers to race and religion. Well, never mind that there is none. Make noise and create an illusion and people will form the perception that there is one, and a very serious one, and that salvation lies in ensuring the continued survival of the one and only political protector of race and religion.
When people in leadership positions endorse in any way words and actions of bigots and racists, (and remember, silence is consent or endorsement), they are goading them on to carry on spewing their vitriol and anti-national behaviour that creates ill-will among the citizens of the country who have had no differences between them in the past.
Just two months ago, we had ministers including the very pinnacle of government, the prime minister, rubbing shoulders with the red shirts who had been dispersed from Petaling Street a couple of days earlier by the Federal Reserve Unit with water cannon.
On the day of the ruckus, while he was in Sabah, the same PM had sung a different tune - he said he had directed the police to take action against those who caused the ruckus. Then why celebrate and dance with them just a couple of days later? What was the strong message that he was giving them by the endorsement of their actions in Petaling Street?
A couple of weeks ago we saw another former top leader shouting that his silat group was ready for war. War against whom and for what? Surely he did not mean war against corruption and the corrupted! What message was he sending to his members by that battle cry? He was surely firing up the ‘dendam kesumat’ of the members. For what?
Then we have the attorney-general (AG) who cannot prosecute the leader of the Malay army veterans’ body as he “cannot find evidence” of the racist speech he made at Low Yat Plaza. What about the director of the National Civics Bureau (BTN) who says that there is nothing wrong to call the Indians and Chinese ‘pendatang’, but not explaining how someone born in this country is a ‘pendatang’ since he did not come from anywhere but is the son/daughter of the soil? Why did he leave out the Bugis and others whose ancestors also came here from across the seas?
So the BTN director’s ‘pendatangs’ are actually the non-Muslims even if they are born here but not Muslims whose ancestors (like the Bugis) came from some other lands. And he calls that a history lesson.
What’s the common denominator?
What is the common denominator running below all these words and deeds if not subtle approval of racism and extremism?
Racism and extremism when not nipped in the bud, but horror of horrors, are endorsed through silence and non-action to stamp them, will progresses into radicalism and finally into terrorism.
Let us be honest and face the hard truth. Should anything like the Paris massacre ever happen here, our leaders who have been tacitly endorsing racism and bigotry, must take some of the blame for not putting out the fires when they started.
When bigotry and racism are not nipped in the bud, it only encourages those involved to become bolder and move up the ladder of extremism that eventually leads to terrorism.
There is no knowing what the seeds of racism and extremism that got sown in Malaysia, and were nurtured by the endorsement of the leaders through their silence and myriad excuses for not taking action to stem the tide, for reasons best known to them, may mature into in the days ahead.
Please don’t allow anyone to use race and religion to create ill will among Malaysians of all races and religions. It will be useless to cry over spilt milk. Nations are not built in a day, like Rome, but can be destroyed in a day. Malaysians of all races and religions have lived in peace and harmony for ages, so why the endorsement of racism and bigotry which are the poisons in Malaysian society and which lead to the cancer of extremism, radicalism and terrorism?
