Folly

I’m not exactly following the case. So I don’t know what’s going on. But to go to the Malaysian Insider website and see the above image posted on every article regarding this case, is very misleading. If I weren’t Malaysian, or if I didn’t know any better, I’d have thought that the article was about some explosive TV drama premiere, “Anwar Sodomy, Season 2″.

Which says enough about the level of politics we have. TV drama material.

Surau attacked

From Malaysiakini:

Two surau in Muar came under arson attack early this morning, with one sustaining serious damage.

From The Malaysian Insider:

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 21 — Two suraus in Muar, Johor were damaged in suspected arson attacks early this morning, weeks after similar attacks against churches, believed to be linked to the controversial “Allah” ruling.

Police found traces of kerosene in the Sirratulrahim Surau in Kampung Sabak Awor, Jalan Ismail which had a window and curtains burnt, while the Parit Beting surau suffered worse damage.

I have nothing more to say. What can be said here in response to what is happening, I’ve already said in my past few posts.

This is ridiculous. This is wrong. Completely wrong.

Sikh temple gets stoned

From the Malaysian Insider HERE:

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 13 — A sliding glass door to the entrance of a Sikh Temple in Sentul here was found cracked late yesterday by a barrage of stones, making it the first non-Christian house of worship hit since the controversial landmark “Allah” ruling.

During the incident, he said, several volunteers who were busy cleaning the temple witnessed stones flying into its main entrance and immediately alerted the police.

Some 20 stones were thrown from outside the temple compound, he said, adding that police had retrieved the stones and were carrying out further investigations.

I don’t know how this is related to the Allah controversy. Or the church burnings. Or that incident with the convent school.

But one thing I do know is this. The situation is becoming increasingly ridiculous.

Fo all we know, the stones could have been hurled by random people who have nothing to do with any of the political nonsense, and who didn’t know any better. But we must ask this question: If it really were just an isolated incident, why did the ’stone-throwers’ feel it right for them to do that? (This is only assuming it was isolated. I don’t want to speculate if it were organised with some more sinister motive, like instigate racial/ religious hatred and segregation…)

If we were to look back during the past couple of years, we would see news reports of molotov cocktails being thrown into houses because of some ‘political issue’. Pray ask, what has happened to those investigations? And pray ask, what did our leaders do when those incidents occured?

The lack of action, the lack of a united condemnation by ALL of our country’s top people, when incidents such as this happen is leading us further and further away from the harmony and togetherness that we seek as fellow countrymen.

We get statements that go, “This was an isolated incident”. And then what? It has nothing to do with so-and-so incident, so there’s nothing to worry about?

Does the incident being an ‘isolated’, ‘one-off’ incident take away from the fact that it was a malice? That it is completely wrong? I certainly hope not. Isolated or not, when acts of violence happen, there should be no doubt, no passing the buck around. Everyone should take a solid stand against it. Our leaders should know better than to say, “It’s an isolated incident, and by the way, don’t blame it on us.”

What is increasingly disturbing is that these acts of malice and violence, (by people, it seems, who are bent on destroying things) have now extended to attacking places of worship. Places where people congregate to give praise to their Lord(s), where they are supposed to share harmony and love and all the good things in life. People, it seems, are getting ever more daring, and not even in a good way.

Isolated or not, acts like this are increasing the tension in a society that is already stretched. At a time like this, statements like this:

He (Hishammuddin) also vowed to use the Internal Security Act (ISA), which allows for detention without trial, against those who stoke religious tension.

do not help. I’d be more worried than relieved if the ISA is the only act we have that protects the people from harm.

Is it too much to ask that the leaders take a common stand against any sort of violence, that they not make excuses for why these have occured, and that they find a way in which a resolution can be reached?

Politicking the church burnings

Walski left me a comment on my previous post about the church attacks, saying that the one thing that we should NOT do right now is speculate on who is responsible. I wholeheartedly agree, because politicking at a time like this helps none.

But I see that it is futile to even think that politicking might keep out of the way.

Immediately after I read that article on the church burnings, I read this on Malaysian Insider HERE:

Datuk Zaid Ibrahim today condemned Umno and urged the government to take full responsibility for the church attacks.

The title of the said article? “Pakatan wants UMNO to take responsibility for church attacks”

Look. I don’t care if you *think* that UMNO is responsible. But what the hell do you expect as a response from this accusation?

THIS, also from Malaysian Insider, is what comes in reply:

Hishammauddin also laughed off allegations made by Pakatan Rakyat that the Umno-led government should take responsibility for the spate of church attacks.

“If they want to blame us for the attacks, then the Pakatan Selangor government should take responsibility (because all the attacks happened in the state),” he said.

So what comes out of this? Another spat between the political parties over who should be held responsible.

Hello-o. We’re forgetting that *individuals* were involved here. I don’t care whether they are politicians, political party members, or kids who have been terribly misguided. The people responsible for the acts themselves have to be identified.

This is not a time to play politics. Sure, I’m naive and whatnot, seeing as how this whole issue was a political issue to start off with.

But if we want to get to the bottom of it, we’ve already taken a wrong turn.

P.S. And what’s this about using the ISA if need be? Again, I repeat. There has got to be enough laws in our country that allow the police to detain people who threaten to harm others, without resorting to using the ISA.

Churches attacked..?!

First, one in KL got torched. The Malaysian Insider HERE:

A city church in the leafy Desa Melawati suburb was set on fire at midnight as police warned angry Muslim groups not to protest a controversial ruling allowing Catholic weekly Herald to use “Allah” in its national language section.The attack on the Metro Tabernacle A/G, an Assemblies of God church in Jalan 4/4C Desa Melawati, completely gutted its administrative office on the ground floor. There were no reported injuries in the midnight attack.

Meanwhile, Kuala Lumpur police chief Mohamad Sabtu Osman said it was premature to link the attack on the church to the protests over the Allah ban.

Then a second attempted attack on a church in PJ. Also the Malaysian Insider HERE:

A Catholic church next to the Assunta Hospital here came under attack early this morning, just hours after another church in nearby Kuala Lumpur was torched.Roman Catholic church officials said some homemade explosives were lobbed into the Church of the Assumption in Jalan Templar at about 4am.

“It did not explode,” said Father Lawrence Andrew, the editor of Catholic paper Herald.

This is people gone mad. Attacking places of worship?! Whatever next? (I don’t even want to think about it)

It’s ‘premature’ to link it to the Allah ban, but it’s also rather difficult not to link them together.

I don’t understand. Why the violence? Why the hostility?

Are we so damned hot-headed, so intolerant, that we cannot resolve what started as a non-issue without burning something down?

This act is not only burning a church. It is also burning that already fragile, invisible bridge between the people of Malaysia.

Refer also Walski’s statement HERE.