Friday, June 29, 2007

Deliberate Ruckus In Society

Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang had posted a very interesting issue in his blog today.

It is actually an account by an Indian man, who witnessed 10 religious officers under the Islamic Affairs Department raiding 4 Indian food shops this morning at Bangsar.

A very notable extract from the mail written by MS:

They spent a good 20 minutes going through the place (and it is a small place!) and finally one officer writes out a writ and gives it to the cashier. They then left. Curious, I asked the cashier what that was all about and he replied that they were not allowed to have their little altars and pictures of their deities in their shop “because otherwise, Muslims cannot come into their shops” .

Malaysia is one of the countries that has various cultural food. There is no harm for anybody of racial creed to try food of other cultures, as long you observe the very core principals of the religion. However reading this has irk me much, for:

1) Non-general law authorities but instead religious law authorities created an issue that should be avoided to prevent further cracks to a multi-racial society that our forefathers had set foundation upon.

2) We did nothing wrong against the law, but some misuse their power for the reason of law or religion.

The scenario of authorities using law to their own devices are also mentioned in the account:

Better yet, I discovered as I was leaving , that the JAWI personnel had targetted the other 3 banana leaf shops along that row of old shops (near the vets office - off Jalan Maarof). There were at least 4 nos of vans for the officers , ALL double parked on the main road and causing an inconvenience to the other road users. Is there a separate set of laws that govern these people? Notwithstanding the fact that they are trampling all over the definition of religious tolerance in this country , they also flaunt the general laws of the land. This makes me really angry and sad about the state of our country.

This is not the only scenario that we usually come upon. A common scenario that we use to see is the traffic police. They will at times book us for offenses that we might not commit at all. Is this for the purpose of finding quick cash? They use the purpose of 'routine duty' or 'it's the law' as excuses to look for trouble.

In the past, the fanatics of Christianity would use religion as the purpose and prejudice against the Muslims, particularly during the Holy Crusade. They would pillage property, rape women, and do variety of things that is actually against the teachings of God for the sake of religion. That's why to this day there is no Kingdom of Heaven.

The account has also raised a number of observations, concerns and questions from this blogger:

1) If every policy in this country is subjected to religion sub-policy, then the country can never prosper or be in the competition as one of the best countries in the world in overall aspects of life.

2) The crime rate in this country is getting higher and higher. Perhaps it is time to focus more on tackling those issues rather than looking into religious affairs. There are things and restrictions that I find that it does not have logic and making sense at all. For what reason is it there? We still have corruption to handle and deal with. This religious thing should be placed as low priority.

3) Does the statement implies that those idiots want people of each race to eat only their own food? People have right to try other food. What matters is that food is one of mankind's basic needs and that need does not take into account of food that is subjected to policies.

4) With this case, is Malaysia starting to become another Saudi Arabia? Non-Muslim people being forced against things that they do not want or need to? A friend of mine told me that there are cases in Johor were non-Muslim students are required to dress as a Muslim - (songkok, tudung and etc..) during school days.

5) The shop guys should forward this matter to the MIC guys (Indian branch of the National Alliance) over this matter. This matter is deemed breaching the basic rights of Malaysian citizens. The raid considers infringing article 8 of the Constitution: religion freedom.

6) Are those Indian shops sell pork-free food? If yes, then it is not a problem for our Malay friends to enjoy the Indian food. After all, our Indian friends do produce good food for breakfast, right? Judging from the shop where it got raided, the shop must be selling pork-free food.

7) Are those little Napoleons running around wild to show us how great they are?

In summary, should this problem is not solved, the inter-racial society that we've held quite long will crumble as the amount of respect between races diminished the more of this kind of situations will happen.

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