Somewhere over the rainbow

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THOSE amazing multi-coloured arches in the sky always fascinate me. They look near enough to touch, yet I know they are too far to be within anyone’s reach.

Whether seen from the green grassland or by the river during my carefree childhood days, or whether they caught me at the most unexpected moments like when I am travelling on the road, rainbows remind me of God’s purpose in gracing the sky with such beautiful and awe-inspiring parabolas.

It is His promise to Noah that He would never again destroy His people with a global flood – as is recorded in Genesis:

“This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.”

The covenant of the rainbow is between God and man – that there will never be another such event where He will destroy the land by flood. It is a covenant of grace.

Over the years, different people take rainbows to mean different things. Australian Aboriginal and American Indian legends link the beautiful bow to a creation event and even the Chinese have a legend linking rainbows to the birth of Emperor Fu Xi.

Scientists tell us until light is received by the eye and interpreted by the brain, it’s just electromagnetic radiation. The portion we see in a rainbow is only a very narrow portion of the vast electromagnetic spectrum that comes from a prism.

Yet, God designs our eyes and brains and give them the ability to see, transform and experience the many shades of light and colour and remember His promise.

On Thursday night, when our reporter Jonathan Chia filed the story of Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How calling on the state government to take the initiative to hold a Rainbow Roundtable, comprising all component parties from the Barisan Nasional, Pakatan Rakyat, other state political parties as well as NGOs to discuss and find solutions to problems affecting the state and country, I almost fell off my chair – and murmured to myself, this YB is chasing rainbow.

Nevertheless, as I read further on – with my faith firmly etched in God’s promise regarding the rainbow – I changed the YB’s seemingly futile dream of chasing rainbow to one of hope that something good can be found somewhere over the rainbow.

See said a Rainbow Roundtable is appropriate because it symbolises the coming together of people with different and divergent interests to address common issues and concerns.

I am not too sure how our learned YB got his interpretation of rainbow but I take it to mean rainbow represents a bridge for people to cross over to a brighter, happier place just as Judy Garland’s Somewhere Over The Rainbow in the Wizard of Oz represents an arch for young Dorothy and her three companions – Scarecrow, Tin Man and the not so lion-hearted Lion – to get to a happier place.

If you remember, the overwhelmingly enduring classic theme song goes like this:

Somewhere over the rainbow

Way up high

There’s a land I heard of once in a lullaby

Somewhere over the rainbow

Skies are blue

And the dreams that you dare to dream

Really do come true…..

More than ever before, our country is plagued by religious and racial issues – and it seems the man at the helm has not given them a thought or has not set his priorities right. Or are all these issues actually churned out from his own party?

If the big boys over in the peninsula are not doing anything positive to address these pressing problems, it does not mean we should not be doing anything about it as well.

See (Chee How) sees hopes for the rainbow connection in Sarawak. He said and I quote: “It is quite clear that the relationship between the political leaders is more cordial and certainly not uncommon for Sarawakians to express common concerns on matters affecting the state.

“The very recent examples are the rational statements by Senior State Minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Jemut Masing, Assistant Ministers Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah and Datuk Daud Abdul Rahman who take a common stance on the cause which is customarily championed by the state’s opposition.”

Yes, these BN leaders and many other state politicians have time and again voiced out on the issues of Allah and the Malaysia Agreement.

Lately, Daud, himself being Minister in charge of Islamic Affairs, has expressed concern about the mass conversion in longhouses, and stressed the Sarawak Islamic Affairs Department (Jais) “does not sanction the works of some NGOs from the peninsula in propagating Islam in longhouses.”

Daud also said it is the state government’s policy to keep Sarawak’s racial and religious harmony among its 27 ethnic groups intact.

Since we have been able to preserve racial and religious harmony in the state, there is no reason why our leaders cannot put aside their political differences and work towards tackling the “attacks” from outside which have become so obvious lately.

These are concerns of not only See or other opposition leaders but also BN leaders and peace-loving Sarawakians who are hoping (and praying) the racial and religious tensions in the peninsula will not spill over here, and also that the situation there will not turn bad.

Bible scholar John Gill says of the rainbow: “Though it is a bow, yet without arrows, and is not turned downwards towards the Earth, but upwards towards heaven, and so is a token of mercy and kindness, and not of wrath and anger.”

In the pursuit of peace, harmony and happiness, let’s wish upon a star that our politicians from both sides of the political divide will wake up from the dark dream of agrimony to a new reality where the clouds are far behind them, where troubles melt away like lemon drops above the chimney tops, and work together to bring Sarawakians, their own people, somewhere over the rainbow where blue birds fly.

The aim is to set an example for the leaders in the peninsula to wake up to the covenant of grace, signified, as promised, by the rainbow whose iridescent hues of peace and amity readily cast a bright light over the dark clouds of intolerance and discord.

Story to the pictures: My good friend, also a friend special to The Borneo Post, Chang Yi, was in Kuching on Feb 25 last year.

As we drove to the Sarawak River where she would take a sampang back to her mother’s house, we saw this rainbow.

She took the picture of our magnificent DUN building with a double rainbow over the sky while in the sampang! (Due to printing configuration, the rainbow pictures are in black and white).

Double blessings to our leaders who hold their DUN sittings there where important issues of state and people are deliberated and decided.

And will that be a sign for a Rainbow Roundtable to be convened soon?

Till then, may God clothe you in rainbow of blessings and purpose and full of promise as we usher in the Lunar New Year this week.