Two months ago I posted Court's ruling on Perak - second Pandora Box opened! in which I wrote about the 2 Malaysian Pandora Boxes, namely:
(1) When Dr Mahathir wanted to outflank PAS and the Islamic Party’s growing influence among the pious in the heartland, he declared Malaysia an Islamic nation. This was made against Tunku Abdul Rahman’s very declaration that Malaysia was a secular state which would uphold Islam as the nation’s official religion.
That's when the Islamization of Malaysia gained real momentum.
(2) … the Federal Court made a decision [in Fenruary 2010] based on a ruling that once again opened another Pandora Box, that of a ruler being able to dismiss an elected MB of a State (or, in the federal arena, the elected PM of our nation).
Think Perak!
In today’s Malaysiakini column, sweetie Helen Ang wrote in her new article of Malayasia being not quite secular.
She said: Last week, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang called on the government to amend the first precept of the Rukunegara to 'Belief in Allah'. All those who insisted on the Catholic Herald's 'right' to 'Allah' should now warmly welcome Hadi's proposal made in Parliament when debating the motion of thanks on the Agong's speech. After all, these people had so enthusiastically embraced the idea that "your Allah is my Allah too".
Even Indonesia, the largest Muslim nation in the world, states the first of its Pancasila (national ideology) as 'KeTuhanan Yang Maha Esa', thus without mentioning 'Allah'. Our Rukunnegara was just a modified copy of the Pancasila.
Now, Pak Haji Hadi Awang wants to better Indonesia in this department. He has effectively raised the ante for UMNO to follow.
But sweetie Helen warned that Pak Haji Hadi Awang’s 'Allah' is not quite the ‘Allah’ that Father Lawrence Andrew and the Catholic Church have in mind. Read her article to find out more.
So be prepared for onward escalation of this issue if/when UMNO succumbs to the temptation to outflank PAS on this one, in similar fashion to what Dr Mahathir once thought was an excellent idea.
And we can only have Father Lawrence and the Catholic Herald mob to thank for the probable opening of the 3rd Pandora Box, which will be both an extension and an advance model of the 1st Pandora Box.
To the extent that I have offended my good friends Lucia Lai and D'Cruz and many Catholics, I have voiced my opposition to Father Lawrence Andrew's (I know he’s just the front man for the Catholic Herald mob) dogged intransigent pursuit of the right to use the ‘Allah’ word as God in the Malay edition of the Catholic Herald.
As I wrote in my post Allah, Elohim or Yahweh? [which was also published in Malaysiakini, but in a more formal version]:
Really, what is the morality or motivation behind Father Andrew’s rejection of ‘Elohim’, the original name of the Judaist-Christian God, and his insistence on the use of ‘Allah’ to refer to the Christian God when locally it has always been recognized that ‘Allah’ refers to the God of the Islamic faith.
Ultimately let us also not forget that both Islam and Christianity are evangelistic missionary religions with an obligation on the faithful to convert the so-called ’pagans’ …
Of course, to the Church, everyone who is not a Christian is a pagan.
But bear in mind also that to Islam, everyone who is not a Muslim is a pagan.
It’s their holy duty to proselytize for the greater glory of Allah swt.
Once upon a time, according to my elders, when Tunku Abdul Rahman was chairman of The Star (and a damn good newspaper it then was), a new (Indian) reporter responsible for the weekly TV roundups made the gross mistake of writing, words to the effect, that “It’ll be a boring week because of the Ramadan prayers being screened.”
The outrage from Muslims was understandable and quite frightening, and that bloke had Tunku to thank for when the Grand Olde Man nipped the lighted powder keg in the bud by stating firmly that the young reporter made a mistake and would apologize, and he (Tunku) didn’t want the issue to be blown out of proportion, so he wanted everyone to stop commenting on the issue - matter closed!
Then he possessed the wibawa - the status, respect and the influence - to quell the anger of the Muslims.
Today, with people like the Kulim Wonder, Mufti Harussani and Ridhuan Tee (wakakaka), if any inexperienced reporter (or for that matter, any non-Muslim) were to be silly enough to make similar mistakes, Tunku , even if alive, would not be able to save him – and may God, no, make that Allah swt save his/her soul.
Now guess what the conditions will be if indeed PAS succeeds in exploiting or stampeding UMNO into the opening that Father Lawrence has opened so kangkang for them, and take the Islamization of Malaysia to PAS’ ultimate dream state.
As one sweetie commented, if even a fraction of that probability were to come true, padan muka (serves him right) to Father Lawrence Andrew and the Catholic Church – question is, will the Church then be still allowed to practice here?
Correction
ReplyDeleteIt was a Chinese guy, just graduated from a western U.
Like you, he has emigrated to Australia when Star was temporarily closed down.
God riddance to him.
He's hostile and racist in his dealing with others.
Another correction
ReplyDeleteIt was the Quran competition and not the Ramadhan prayers.
KT boy not so fast..
ReplyDeleteAre'nt you forgeting that there are other faiths in Malaysia other than Christianity and Islam like Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Sikhism and others.
And their God(s) are definitely no Allah though Sikhs also has the term
"Allah" in their holy book.
thanks Star staff, when I mentioned Ramadan prayers I meant the Quran competition - nonetheless I stand corrected; however I cannot argue with you on whether the young reporter was Indian (as I was told) or Chinese, but obviously he was a non-Muslim who was insensitive to the feelings of Muslims by using the insulting word 'boring' to describe the Quran reading.
ReplyDeleteAnon of 9:43 PM, April 01, 2010, the Muslims aren't worried about the Sikhs using the word 'Allah' because in this case they don't fear the Sikhs using the Punjabi language to proselytize Muslims, unlike their fears of the Church using the Malay language as well as the 'Allah' word (representing the Christian god) to proselytize Malays and other Malaysian Muslims.
An old nun who was living in a convent next to a construction site noticed the coarse language of the workers and decided to spend some time with them to correct their ways.
ReplyDeleteShe decided she would take her lunch, sit with the workers and talk with them.
She put her sandwich in a brown bag and walked over to the spot where the men were eating.
She walked up to the group and with a big smile said: "and do you men know Allah?"
They shook their heads and looked at each other very confused.
One of the workers looked up into the steelworks and yelled out, "Anybody up there know Allah?"
One of the steelworkers yelled down, 'Why'?
The worker yelled back, "Cos his wife's here with his lunch"
I would defend the right of Father Lawrence and his people to use the word Allah to refer to their Gods. This does not necessaily mean that I tolerate the imposition of the Allah on everyone else.
ReplyDeleteAiyah, allah or no allah, Lord JESUS
ReplyDeletehas died innocently for ALL our perpetual wrong doings !!