A man-made storm

There is this often told story about a dead elephant in the room and everyone is too polite, or is it too fearful, to point to its presence despite the overwhelming stench. Well there is one in our house. It may be dead but it is still dangerous. It is in the form of an ominous storm that is brewing over our horizon and it is getting more threatening by the day.

This is certainly no act of nature or God, though His name has been invoked. Yes, this storm is entirely man-made and it is threatening to sow the seed of discontent and discord among the different communities in this multi-racial, multi-cultural nation. Whether it is driven by lack of confidence, lack of faith, misguidedness or evil intent I leave it to the readers to surmise. What I know is that it fills me with trepidation.

It fills me with trepidation because those who create this storm are playing with materials that are so portent that they can numb our brains and raise the raging unthinking beasts that have been buried under layers of civilisations.

I am talking about fear and raw emotion which if stoked can release the evil genie of racism from the bottle. I need not dwell too much time to convince us about the havoc that this genie can create. Take a look at the world news and read about the barbarities that have been perpetrated by warring tribes, races and ethnic groups on each other. In the name of protecting a place under the sun for his own particular race man has plumb the depth of depravity.

To me the most poignant and painful story I have heard was that of the plight of a barber in an ethnic war torn country. He was an old barber in a village. His lived there all his life as had his parents. One day a group of heavily armed young men came into his shop and shouted, “Get out, leave our village, you don’t belong here. This is our country.” He was shocked, but what was even more shocking, painfully shocking, was that one of the boys was one that his wife, a midwife, helped to deliver into this world.

“Mel,” he said to one of the boys, “how can you do this? We have known you since the first day you were born.”

There was no mercy, never mind kindness, in the cold eyes of Mel as he stood there in the door way with his finger on the trigger of his cocked gun.

Every prime minister in Malaysia signalled his intent with a lofty vision. Our present one is ‘1 Malaysia’. To me it is at once noble and somewhat sad. It is noble of course; it is a call for equality and it accentuates the uniqueness of Malaysia’s ‘unity in diversity’. (I know this is such a clichés but it is a good clichés) However, it is sad because that we need to be reminded to treat us each other as equals seems to be an acknowledgement of lack of confidence.

It is even sadder because this clarion call is seen by some people as a threat to their group’s interest. So, they go frothy in the mouths proclaiming that according every citizen the same rights and privileges is an erosion of the rights of their specific group. No content with just playing the racial card they have now moved on to introduce religion into the brew.

Now, they are saying not just their race but their religion is under siege. No matter how preposterous it sounds – to say that the majority religion Islam (constituting 60 per cent of the country’s population) is being threatened by the Christians, who account for only 10 per cent of the population, one national newspaper chose to headline this claim in its front page. So, one community is being targeted. Talking about enticing the evil genie from the bottle indeed!

Do you think I am too much of an alarmist if I were to quote that famous piece written nearly a century ago by Martin Niemöller, (1892 – 1984, a prominent German anti-Nazi theologian and Lutheran pastor.

“In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.”

May be we need to be reminded of the saying by Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797), statesman, political theorist and philosopher: “All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.”

Evil hovering is over the nation in the form this threatening storm. As I said earlier this is not act of God, this is a man-made storm. The only consoling thought for me is that if it is man-made then man can stop it.

However, many people said that it takes a very enlightened man and a very brave man, some sort of superman, to arrest this tide of doom and lead us out of this dreadful storm. Unfortunately, it appears that the enlightened and brave are rather thin on the ground. Those who are supposed to be wearing the mantle of leadership seem to start from a rather defeatist attitude and appear to have a rather dim view of capacity for goodness of the ordinary citizens. They state that there is a polarity between different communities and that the best we can hope for is ‘tolerance’ of each other. It is as if the very existence of people of another race, religion or culture is so obnoxious that we have to pinch our noses and ‘tolerate’ them.

As one writer posted recently — “Who says there are racial conflicts in this country? Malaysia is the most peaceful country in the world. Malaysia’s ability to preserve its peace and multiculturalism all this while is a wonder by itself.”  I just can’t agree more.

I content that we do not need a superman to guide us out of this dark storm. The ordinary people of Sarawak have already shown the way. For years we have lived together in peace and harmony. For years we have celebrated each others’ festivals with gusto. During Chinese New Year we had as many Malays and other races visiting us during the ‘open house’ as there are Chinese. The same can be same of the Hari Raya and the Gawai celebrations. Recently, one of the most heart-warming pictures was that of our Chief Minister, a Muslim, officiating at the opening of a church.

So, in response to Edmund Burke’s exhortation I can say this: “We are doing something; we have been doing it for years. Only let us not stop doing it.”

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