NORMALLY after Friday prayers, I will allocate some time after lunch to go through my phones. Last Friday (March 15) there was the usual collection of frivolous messages, chasing of various deadlines, requests for opinions on various matters, and a couple of videos sent to one of my WhatsApp groups. I pressed play.
Upon seeing a rifle being carried in a first person perspective, I assumed it was a recording of a computer game in the ilk of ‘Counter-Strike’ or ‘Call of Duty’.
I went numb after about 30 seconds, realising that it was anything but. In the moment, I could not determine what to do.
So the video ended, and I later understood that the person who forwarded it felt it was important to see the evil being perpetrated.
I also discovered that several people in the group personally knew some of those who had been killed.
The first emotion of decent people when learning about the deaths of a senseless act of terror is disbelief, grief, sympathy, and anger.
But it did not take long for various individuals to ascribe blame or to offer political perspectives in connection to the attacks.
The most odious of these was that of Senator Fraser Anning, who blamed Muslim immigration for the violence.
He was swiftly rebuked by his own government and many other politicians around the world.
But while even President Trump offered his condolences, many doubted his sincerity since his own populist rhetoric has been blamed for rising ethno-nationalism in the United States.
And while all Malaysian MPs stood together to condemn the act of terror (as per the statement of the Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat which preceded the quiet reading of Al-Fatihah in a moment’s silence), some saw fit to draw parallels to Malaysia.
The reality is that the vocabulary of division, exclusivity, and superiority flourishes
in many areas of Malaysian public life.
Sadly, as I have often written, it seems such rhetoric is still enthusiastically evoked for perceived electoral gain. It remains my earnest belief – however much of a minority I may belong to – that recreating a shared understanding of our Federal Constitution and national principles remains the best way to stem the tide of social fracturing.
At the same time, we must address the feelings of alienation and exclusion stemming from poverty and poor access to educational opportunities.
But beyond the domestic agenda, diplomacy plays a significant role: not just explicit statements of condemnation or money and resources to fight terrorism, but also the fostering of people-to-people ties.
In 2013, I joined the inaugural Australia-Malaysia Muslim Cultural Exchange Programme in which I and five other Muslims representing different institutions visited Muslim and non-Muslim communities in Melbourne and Sydney.
While I was most enamoured by Auburn Gallipoli mosque with its gorgeous Ottoman decorations and intensely poignant reference to that World War I campaign that so defines Australian and New Zealand national consciousness, I am sure that each of my colleagues shared equally compelling and impactful experiences upon their return.
And in 2014 to 2015, the New Zealand High Commission invited me to witness and then launch a remarkable book entitled ‘The Crescent Moon: The Asian Face of Islam in New Zealand’.
At the Masjid Kapitan Keling in George Town, it was pointed out that the archipelagos of Nusantara and New Zealand had long accommodated different religious and cultural traditions, even though it was not always smooth sailing (through ironically a trip to New Zealand in 2014 focused on precisely the seafaring expertise of our Malay Polynesian and Maori ancestors).
Government and civil society must work together to shape the domestic and international narratives that prevent terrorism.
As we have seen, the costs of letting extremism win would be catastrophic.
It is only by nurturing palpable ties of friendship, or at least solidifying ties of economic and cultural trade, that the incentives for division will wither away.
I hope one day that no politician in Malaysia will see a sustainable electoral advantage to playing the cards of race and religion, and I am glad that some politicians have already come to this conclusion themselves.
One Deputy Minister could have drawn on the legacy of his hometown where in 1414, Admiral Cheng Ho is said to have founded what is now the Kampung Cina in Kuala Terengganu, which has remained architecturally distinct and yet, fully embedded in the Terengganu Sultanate for centuries.
As ever, our own history, with its wealth of examples of cosmopolitanism and cultural exchange exposes the idiocy of those who seek to foment hatred today.
Indeed, our seafaring cousins who discovered Aotearoa would not comprehend how their thirst for exploration and knowledge has been replaced by ignorance and hatred.
Tunku Zain Al-Abidin is founding president of Ideas.