Allah ® Copyright Reserve - a necessity?

I am a bit sick of the debate still going on about the use of the A-word to refer to the Christian God in articles and letters over at Malaysiakini. The pointless debate has been and is distracting our attention from far more important issues like corruption, cronyism and crimes.

Let kaytee give his personal opinion and in the process annoy or upset both sides – it’ only fair ;-)

As I had blogged in What in God's name ... UMNO is striving to keep one step ahead of PAS in their holier-than-thou battles. It’s a fierce combative struggle for the hearts, minds, souls and most important of all, the votes of the faithful because it ensures political power and the associated trimmings.

I also mentioned in that previous posting, that politicial joustling has been the one of the principal reasons why Malaysia has jumped the divide from Tengku Abdul Rahman’s secular Malaya/Malaysia across to what UMNO now claims it to be, Islamic Malaysia.

Both parties have been striving hard to recruit Allah swt over to their banner. Yes, it’s all for votes that Allah swt has been ® by the UMNO-led government.

Therefore the reality is that the UMNO-led government will never budge on its exclusion of non-Muslims from using the A-word. Any ‘slow or sweet talk’, logic or reminders of global Christian use of the A-word to refer to God won’t work.

When UMNO ministers talked about the use of the A-word ‘confusing the people’, they had two issues in mind, both structured to prevent PAS from exploiting (1) any perceived UMNO ‘leniency’ in permitting the use of the A-word, especially by Christians, and (2) the (perception of) feared incursion by the Christian Church into Malaysia’s Islamic parish.

The second issue is not solely about adverse political perception but a genuine wariness regarding the proselytizing design of the Church. Christianity like Islam is a missionary religion hence it has a duty not only to God but to the Church to convert as many into its fold as possible.

The unfaltering belief of the Muslim heartland in UMNO’s role as the guardian of Islam is vital to the political party’s very survival, a status that PAS has been endeavoring to erode so as to position itself as the 'genuine’ religious guardian.

Thus UMNO will not condone any possibility, no matter how slight, of PAS pointing an accusing finger at it failing to protect Malaysian Muslims from the encroaching doctrine of the Christians or other non-Muslims.

Remember the incident when the FT Gerakan criticized the Mufti of Perak and proposed to petition the Sultan of Perak to get rid of that seditious bloke? Well, didn’t PAS immediately jump on Gerakan as interfering in Islamic affairs?

It was an opportunity for PAS to put UMNO on the defensive, that of having political allies who had been ‘disrespectful’ to Islam [as if the Perak Mufti has been/could be a shining paragon of Islam].

And why do you think Gerakan swallowed humble pie and apologized? Did you imagine for one instant that it was afraid of PAS? ‘Twas just a case of Taikoh telling the Gerakan to kill the controversy off mucho pronto by making the unnecessary but politically expedient apology.

Likewise with the cases of Lina Joy, etc!

Therefore I believe the Catholic newspaper Herald has been ‘relatively’ fortunate to have its permit renewed. I stress ‘relatively’ fortunate because the stark reality is we are not living in an ideal world.

We aren’t talking about right or wrong here. Before UMNO’s interests, all must and will be swept aside. If you don’t believe me, ask the MCA. As Mao said, power comes from the barrel of the gun, and UMNO has the guns!

Now, over to the motive of the Herald!

As I had also blogged in What in God's name ... I must ask the publishers and editors of the Herald why they had to use the ‘Allah’ word when an alternative and more commonly used word ‘Tuhan’ exists?

Yes, yes, we can go into semantics and argue that Allah is used by Christian Arabs ... yadda yadda yadda ... but my point is why use the word ‘Allah’ to refer to God when we can easily anticipate the claim staking of the Almighty's name?

Yes, WTF does the Herald want to use the A-word?

As I said, it's not as if there is no other word to refer to God, when in fact an adequate and more commonly used word, namely Tuhan, exist. I hailed from a Methodist school so I can safely say that we didn’t refer to Allah swt as God.

No doubt the Church’s defenders will bring in the use of the A-word by Arab Christians, but are we Arab Christians, and have we historically referred to God as Allah swt?

No doubt the Christians supporters will refer to the Iban Bible’s use of a form of A-word, but is the Iban Bible a staple reference for Malaysians Christians in general? The use of the Iban Bible is peculiar and limited to one particular community, such that the PM has allowed its continued reference to the A-word.

And I have no doubt that same permission will apply to the Sikh religion. In fact the Sikh God is Vāhigurū, and reference to Allah is contained in the teaching by Sri Guru Granth Sahib as follows:

"I observe neither Hindu fasting nor the ritual of the Muslim Ramadan month; Him I serve who at the last shall save. The Lord of universe of the Hindus, Gosain and Allah to me are one; From Hindus and Muslims have I broken free. I perform neither Kaaba pilgrimage nor at bathing spots worship; One sole Lord I serve, and no other. I perform neither the Hindu worship nor the Muslim prayer; To the Sole Formless Lord in my heart I bow. We neither are Hindus nor Muslims; Our body and life belong to the One Supreme Being who alone is both Ram and Allah for us."

Its use is limited and qualified. Quite frankly the Sikhs can go ahead and publish the Allah word in Punjabi and the UMNO-government couldn't care less.

But not so in Bahasa, where the readership could embrace the Malays and worst of all, its use reaching the eyes of the PAS political propagandists.

In both Malaysia's Rukun Negara and Indonesia's Panca Sila, God is referred to as Tuhan. Of course we can play silly politics and clever semantics by pointing out the use of Allah in some State anthems.

Indeed I question the sincerity of the Herald publishers and editors in insisting on using a word that is not regularly used by Malaysian Christians. If there is no sinister proselytising intent, then why persist obdurately in wanting to use it?

We may not like what UMNO is doing with its Islamist agenda, but that doesn’t mean we ourselves cannot be fair (standing above the grubby gutter religious politics of UMNO and PAS) and question the true intent and sincerity of the Herald. We shouldn't blindly take the side of the Herald just to spite or merely oppose UMNO (or the Muslims).

Of course I'll continue to support the Herald's right to publish its Bahasa section - that's quite different from the issue of the A-word.

But I definitely do not support the Herald’s whining, wailing and whinging about its right to use the A-word to refer to the Christian God. I am not interested in supporting its selfish agenda. I want to concentrate on publicising the BN’s corruption, cronyism and crimes rather than the Church's recruiting drive, by stealth.

Sh*t, will my Christian friends still talk to me after this? Wait, let me put on my flak jacket ;-)