Thursday, February 28, 2013

Puteri Gunung Ledang's 8th condition?


When one reads or talks about the Malay unity, the thoughts/reflections or discussions could possibly lead to the story of Hang Tuah and his warrior-brethren. And we would be particularly intrigued with the puzzle of the Tuah–Jebat fratricidal conflict.


But let us skip the vexing yet perplexing question of why and how Tuah could bring himself to kill his warrior-brethren, his best friend, a man who actually loved and defended him and his honour against a tyrant who wanted to execute Tuah. Ironically Tuah acted on the orders of the very tyrant.

Let us instead mull over the seven conditions that the legendary Puteri Gunung Ledang (the Princess of Mount Ophir) set as pre-marital conditions for the tyrannical sultan who lusted after her. Apparently, as the story tells us, Tuah was the emissary for the royal proposal of marriage.

The Princess demanded seven impossible conditions, far more unachievable than the 12 tasks Heracles was required to accomplish. They consisted of golden and silver bridges to be built to span the distance between Mouth Ophir and the sultan’s palace, for her to travel to and back from Malacca, two feats admittedly less demanding than Dr Mahathir’s crooked bridge to Singapore, wakakaka.


Some of the more ridiculous demands were seventeen barrels of tears from virgin girls to bathe with, seven trays of the hearts of mosquitoes and a bowl of blood of the sultan’s only son.

‘Twas a set of conditions to carry the subtle message of the Princess’ ‘No’ to the sultan’s proposal of marriage, but like Yen Yen, he thought it was a ‘Yes’, wakakaka.


Puteri Yes Yes Yes, wakakaka

But you know, given the fratricidal murder or slaying of Jebat, I wonder whether the Princess would have set an eighth (impossible?) condition, one perhaps judiciously omitted by the original author or folklore story teller, that of Malay unity?

In recent times in the desperate high stakes of the coming Malaysian election, where the winner regardless of its winning majority will take all, we have been pounded ceaselessly with calls for Malay unity, mainly from UMNO but also from some PAS politicians while some in PKR might possibly have pondered over UMNO's invitation seriously but covertly, wakakaka.


Over at The Nut Graph, sweetie Jacqueline Ann Surin posted an article titled The problem with Malay unityI recommend it as sweetie has come up with an interesting approach to her doubts about Malay unity.

To buttress her point, sweetie wonders, for all UMNO’s bleating about Malay unity, why the so-called Malay or Muslim unity hasn't been at work when UMNO itself experienced (maybe still experiences) internal splits, and as the hypocritical author of the ethnic clarion call, demonises and attacks PAS or when as the government, persecutes Muslims or denies them their constitutional rights.

However, the thrust of her message alludes to a far darker portent, as follows:

That’s not to say that some Malays and some Muslims cannot unite in the true sense of the word. They can when there is a solid cause which draws people together because of a shared ideal. But when unity is called for solely on the basis of one’s racial or religious identity as a Malay or Muslim, the basis for that unity is founded on shifting sands. Since there are so many kinds of Malays and quite a few types of Muslims, what kind of Malay or what kind of Islam are the adherents of unity advocating for?

My uneasiness with calls to vote a particular way or to merge parties for the sake of Malay or Muslim unity stems from the underlying, and often unstated, purpose of such encouragement. What are Malays and Muslims supposed to be uniting for and/or against?

Implicit in the call for unity is the need to armour up against non-Malays and non-Muslims. If the Malays don’t unite, the argument goes, non-Malay Malaysians will politically and economically overwhelm the Malays, no matter that the majority of our population are Malays and that Malays hold power in nearly all arms of government. And if Muslims don’t unite, the threat from non-Muslims, Christians in particular, will strengthen to Islam’s detriment.

And so, the rallying cry for Malay or Muslim unity can actually be heard as a clarion call for pitting Malaysians against one another. Hence, advocating for Malay or Muslim unity is really a call for disunity and distrust in Malaysia, where Malays and Muslims should only think about their own interest at the expense of other citizens.

Even more troubling for me is that the way to go is apparently to vote UMNO or to merge with UMNO. Yes, vote in, or merge, with the party that wants ‘ketuanan Melayu’, has not closed the gap between rich and poor Malays, … […].

Bridge of Death - Banggol Jering river in Pasir Mas - PAS country
yet the UMNO government could afford to half complete and abandon 
the crooked bridge to 
the tune of over RM1 billion but couldn't bother to build a safe one for these school kids.
UMNO, where's Malay unity?
(NST photo by Syamsi Suhaimi)

Much earlier, RPK has also written on that nebulous and questionable unity for Malay and Muslims, an unachievable state worthy as the eighth condition that should have been (maybe even was) set by Puteri Gunung Ledang as a prerequisite for her marriage to the Malacca sultan.

Bridge of Death 2 - also in PAS country
Pengkalan Pasir village near KB
UMNO, where's Malay unity?

RPK didn’t confine his article to the Malay environment but reached back to the humongous split between Abu Bakr and Ali, respectively the father-in-law and cousin (& also son-in–law) of the Prophet Mohamad (pbuh). The result of an unsatisfactory settlement between the two as to who should inherit the Islamic leadership from the Prophet (pbuh) led to 1500 years of irreconcilable schism between Sunnis and Shiites.

There have been very bitter wars between Sunnis and Shiites ever since, to an extent that today Saudi Arabia considers Shiites as far greater enemies than Israelis – and doesn't that just say something about the hatred between Sunnis and Shiites.

So much for Muslim unity, and don’t forget that when the Boxing Day tsunami occurred with approximately 350,000 Indonesians killed in the Muslim stronghold of Aceh province in Sumatra devastated, a number of oil-rich Gulf countries came up with pathetic donations in sharp contrast to Western nations, China and Japan, etc.

An example of the missing Muslim unity or brotherhood was Midas-rich Kuwait giving a measly US$2 million (one-fifth of what Michael Schumacher, a German Christian, gave as donation to the tsunami funds; another Christian individual, Sandra Bullocks gave US1 million). As if that was not pathetic enough, it added insult to injury when its mullahs from their Friday pulpits condemned their Muslim brethren in Aceh for being punished for their decadent sins by Allah swt.

Now get this, the same Kuwaiti government immediately donated US$500 million (without any patronising moralising sermon of attribution by Allah swt for wickedness) to the USA when New Orleans was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Presumably the people of New Orleans were not as sinful as those poor Muslim fishermen and farmers in Aceh, Sumatra.

New Orleans, USA, where the people are less sinful than Acehese

Australia, a principally Christian nation, provided AUS$1 billion (yes, billion, not million) to Indonesia. Look, maybe those were Western conspiracies to make the Muslim Arab-Gulf countries look bad.

Locally of course we have witnessed in UMNO the schisms between Oon Jaafar and Tunku, Tunku and Tun Razak, Mahathir and (in turn) Ku Li, Musa Hitam, Anwar Ibrahim, Pak Lah, and of course some internal UMNO sabo-ing against Ali Rustam, KJ, etc, not that the latter two deserve any sympathies at all, wakakaka.

Then there’s UMNO versus PAS and PKR, where both have been UMNO splinter groups born out of acrimonious wedlock with the Mothership.

Within PKR we witnessed bitter relationships between Anwar-Azmin against (in turn) Ezam Mohd Nor, Johari Yasin, Abdul Rahman (PKR membership No 3), Zaid Ibrahim, and even a still serving PKR member, Badrul Hisham Sharin (Chegubard).

Incidentally, should I consider former PKR VP Chandra Muzaffar as a Malay? If I may, then add his name to the list above.

Since its last party elections, PKR in reality has been a house divided, very very much divided. Jonson Chong (admittedly not a Malay-Muslim) like Zaid Ibrahim left PKR in frustration over the alleged dodgy-ness in the party election process, and in parting, advised Dr Wan Azizah:

"If the president still does not take some serious action to remedy this situation, then I'm afraid the party’s days may be numbered with or without a new line-up. And let me unequivocally state that I am not addressing the de facto leader on this matter because I no longer recognize the validity of that position."


That PKR internal rivalry hasn't ended where we currently hear of Team A (headed by Azmin Ali and 101% back by Anwar Ibrahim – the team comprises PKR’s ‘inner coterie’) in acrimonious rivalry with Team W (headed by Wan Azizah – the team has Nurul, Khalid Ibrahim, Faekah Husin, etc).

See also my post Talam - DAP & PAS rescue a PKR MB while PKR act dunno. It's rumoured that Khalid Ibrahim doesn't even know where he stands (literally) in the coming state election. And we read of Azmin Ali (not Wan Azizah herself) informing us that Wan Azizah won't be standing even as a candidate in GE-13, not even for a state seat - for more, read FMT's Wan Azizah tidak bertanding PRU13.

Where’s the party unity, let alone Malay unity?

Referring again to sweetie Jacqueline’s article, I left a comment there which I reproduce below, but in a much expanded version to address the default limitation in length of comments at The Nut Graph blog.

UMNO in using the term ‘Malay-Muslim unity’ in the Malaysian context is, to borrow a religious term (me being an atheist), seditious blasphemy against the nation because as Jacqueline wrote, it is a call to pit Malaysians against Malaysians on the basis of ethnicity and religion.

The so-called threat to Malay-Muslims has been an unscrupulous concoction when the real threat is the potential political defeat of UMNO the party



By conflating the political party with the entire Malay race, UMNO cloaks its own unpopularity, as a result of its government’s mismanagement & waste, corruption, cronyism and arrogance, with an ethnic-based clarion call to defend the Malay race (and Muslim community) against the hordes at the gates, which incidentally happen to be Malay-based or Malay-dominated political parties (respectively PAS and PKR).

But that, UMNO's political opposition/threat being mainly Malays (PAS and PKR), was swiftly glossed over. As UMNO made the Chinese-dominated communists the bogeymen behind every Malaysian bush in the past, today it has done likewise for DAP, to frighten the Malay heartland into rallying behind the UMNO banner as the only defence against the threat of The Yellow Peril.

And there seems to be no limit or responsible diligence to its scare tactics, as it ratchets up the scale and degree of bigoted scare-mongering and lies to instil a siege mentality in the hope-for faithful.

While Perkasa is the front for UMNO to farm out its politically-driven racism, and perhaps Ridhuan Tee Abdullah its poster boy, there has been disturbing evidence of like-mindedness in PAS as well.


We are already familiar with Hasan Ali, Azizan Abdul Razak, and Nasharuddin Mat Isa, but recently, we came to learn of the terrible mindset of Nik Mazian Nik Mohamad (PAS ADUN for Gaal, Kelantan).

My favourite PAS man, Nizar Jamaluddin asserted that the UMNO-controlled media had spun Nik Mazian’s PAS-centric statement into mischievous news that the latter preferred an UMNO candidate to a non-Malay non-Muslim Pakatan candidate. Nizar matey, I'm not so assured as already there have been indications of more than a few PAS politicians who demonstrated their uni-ethnic proclivity rather than Islamic cultivation.

In this, perhaps we should congratulate UMNO for convincing Hasan Ali and Nasharuddin Mat Isa to join its ‘cause’(?) for Malay unity, while PAS moans its loss because of UMNO’s Malay unity. Hah, the paradoxical outcome of Malay unity, wakakaka.

While seeking to mine the darker side of the Malay psyche with the seditious call of Malay-Muslim unity, all for its own political gains and nothing to do with bangsa, UMNO would ironically be diminishing the confidence and general mental well-being of many Malays, with the longer term effect of destroying Malaysian society.

And that’s why I speculate perhaps the eighth condition imposed by Puteri Gunung Ledang could be the achievement of Malay unity, wakakaka, an impossible condition to frustrate the amorous advances of the Malacca sultan.


If we are prepared to humble ourselves and take a better look at our Indonesian neighbour, we would find their founding leaders recognized the ethnic diversity in the Indonesian people and commendably aimed to unify them, at least in the aspirational sense, with their national motto of Bhinneka Tunggal Ika.

Translated from old Javanese, Bhinneka Tunggal Ika means ‘Unity in diversity’. Here, we see that the call of unity, to achieve the state of being one, has been directed towards unifying all Indonesians, regardless of ethnicity, creed, colour or religion, totally unlike the UMNO clarion call which promotes divisiveness between Malay-Muslims and non Malay-Muslims.

In tracing the origin of the Indonesian national motto into antiquity, we would discover the term originated from the Majapahit epic poem Sutasoma which offered reconciliation and promoted tolerance between the two prevailing and competing or warring religions in Java at that time, namely, Buddhism and Hinduism, with the doctrinal belief that although the religions were of different ideology and beliefs, both were truthful to Dharma*. The unifying promotion emphasized on sameness or similarities rather than differences in Majapahit society.

* Dharma in the Indian sense meant a social structure with its principles being Truth, Love, Fortitude and the famous Ahimsa or Non-violence.

Prambanan - Hindu temple in 9th Century Java

By comparison or more correctly, by contrast, the UMNO Malay-Muslim unity is a seditious obscenity in fostering divisiveness, created purely for some politicians’ selfish personal power and gains, and in reality nothing to do the interests of the bangsa. It emphasized on differences rather than sameness or similarities in Malaysian society.

Finally, I just wonder whether UMNO would spin the government’s non action on the Filipinos’ intrusion as Malay unity (I won’t dignify the unauthorized presence of 200 Filipinos in Lahad Datu as an invasion), bearing in mind it depends heavily on many Bangsamoro in Sabah holding blue IC to substantiate its claim of Sabah being its fixed deposit.

Maybe for Malay unity it will even gazette the so-called Sultan of Sulu as the 10th sultan in Malaysia? Wakakaka.


Wish sweetie Puteri Gunung Ledang was still around today. I would love to consult her on today’s impossible politics and the use of her 8th 'condition', wakakaka.

Look out Hisham, her keris is sharper than your Panca Warsisan
wakakaka

17 comments:

  1. I read early this morning your well written and thought provoking article on Malay and Muslim unity. This subject has been discussed at length privately and various forums, but with our arrogant unscrupulous corrupted government, not much headway has been achieved. But we have to speak out honestly. By the way why don't you disclose your identity. I want to have the pleasure to meet you after all I only live 2 miles from Ayer Itam.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm K.T. Mok.

      Ayer Itam is the biggest village in Malaysia so which 2 miles away would you be?

      Delete
    2. Why ask when you live in Sydney?

      Delete
    3. I'll be returning to Malaysia to attend a funeral for the late Mr Goh. He died horribly at Haadyai. He shouldn't have gone there at his age of 77 and worse, he shouldn't have done what he tried to do. His children had so much trouble getting his corpse back across the border.

      Delete
    4. KT, the departed Goh's spirit could read what you wrote here laa.....wa ka ka ka. Wouldn't be surprised if he's turning in his grave, or rather in his coffin, being the feisty old foul mouth he once was....another wa ka ka ka ~

      Delete
  2. Finally, you have disclose your identity....Hahahaha, I am glad that you have finally mentioned about Lahad Datu. This is after the siege is ended with 10 - 14 deads

    Ktemoc,
    You being a dap supporter, you should be talking something on what Khoo Kay Peng said about DAP.....Being incompetent

    http://khookaypeng.blogspot.sg/2013/03/rm8-billion-infrastructure-projects-is.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/ubXJX+%28Straight+Talk%29

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 'one of the few bloggers who are actually fair' versus 'been critical of the ruling regime 85% of the time blogger'? hmmm interesting.

      lge justify his decision saying public transport were under federal, not sure if penangites agree but somehow i concur with kkp that we shd let the election do the talking as it is only a few months away. what if pr takeover federal? this sucker start to talk like one from bn on the needs of mega project, is he a liar or hypocrite? penangates must be more asserive to urge for more transparency and have more say on issue affecting them. n dun divert the blame to anwar n pkr.

      Delete
    2. my dear looes, I have right from day 1 disclosed my identity, namely KT Moc, admittedly Moc spelt with a 'c'; instead of 'k', wakakaka

      Delete
  3. I just cant believe some people. It's amazing how one can support an argument Malay cannot unite bcoz there's no history of unity but can accept the call for Malaysians to unite when there's no history of unity either. Hebat betul our logic.

    I cannot understand why it's objectionable only if malay unite. We have many associations which are clan or lineage based like persatuan Hakka or Chinese chambers of commerce who are in essence a unison of various clans lineage or race. Why is this not problematic?

    I have issue with many people like this coz they are selective. After this the spin will be its wrong to call for Muslims unity. But Christians call for unity on Allah issue tak pa pula.

    They think we don't see this.

    Ps my problem with you is that you censor ikut suka hati. How can you censor coz you don't like the argument. You argue that I'm grasping at straws while you don't realise you too are grasping at straws with your every Malaysian overseas has constitutional right to vote argument. Similarly with Putrajaya argument. Don't understand why you just rebut ajelah. Oklah Up to you if you want to censor this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. nothing wrong with Malay unity UNLESS it is based on lies that other (non-Malay) Malaysians are taking over. That's pitting Malaysians against Malaysians, for UMNO's benefit. Watch out for my next post.

      Regarding your grouse about the debate over constitutional rights for every Malaysians (of legible age and having registered) to vote, I have accepted your arguments up to the point when you persisted in recycling old and already answered points. It seems you tactic is to wear people down, and having the last word, not unlike the tactics of one of my ex's wakakaka.

      Delete
  4. Why accuse proponents of muslim unity as a call piting malaysians against one another?Unity among muslims is a command in the Qur'an and muslims calling for unity among dissenting groups are carrying out Allah's command.The purpose of such unity is to foster brotherhood among muslims so as to achieve collective social objectives.Islam being a religion that concerns social,economic and political order would like to foster such unity so that common objectives are pursued.Now,why are the non-muslims prefer a divided muslim community?Is it to enable them to pit one muslim group against another so that they can put pressure regarding their demands.Currently,MCA is pressuring UMNO to accede to Chinese demands in education.If UMNO don't accede The Chinese will withdraw support and UMNO can lost.Hence,UMNO forced to accede to MCA's demands.Similarly,DAP forced Pas to abandon Islamic state agenda to guarantee Chinese votes to Pas.The combined MCA-DAP pressure on both UMNO and Pas released lots of grounds for Chinese demands.So,the Chinese attempt to avoid muslim unity to advance their social objectives.Muslims are always known to be hospitable host.Muslim unity need not be harmful to non-muslims.A more friendly political climate can bring about greater prosperity and stability for everybody.Let UMNO and Pas come up to a brotherly tie as commanded by Allah.As it is today,they are all in a state of sin for perpetuating disunity.

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  5. One of the best articles from KT.

    Very well written.....so true about the deadly, horrendously vengeful infighting among the muslims all over the world, and we get to witness it in 'full colour' at close quaters right here closer to home....PAS muslims and UMNO muslims refusing to pray in the same mosque, 'haram-ing' each other and pronouncing that their Allah will burn their muslim brethens in hell for eternity.

    So much for their muslim unity, even though all are from the same Sunni sect. As for their perpetual calls for malay unity, the minority races here are zoned out from such calls, having put up with it for the past 30 years that they developed a resigned, thick-skinned attitude to such blatant, insensitive 'assault'......Malays must unite, otherwise orang kita will be pushed out from our own homeland by orang lain...blah blah blah.

    But this post shows clearly how viciously and unkindly the malays themselves treat their own malays and yet hypocritically call out for malay unity, lest 'the others' will supposedly trample on the malays, when very clearly it was the malays who trample on their own kind.

    These scoundrel politicians who cooly play with the malay masses' emotion, using the MSM, BTN and ceramahs, pitting these malays against the other races, must be more than aware of the terrible tragic eventual outcome from employing such ruthless and reckless strategy. Are they so totally irresponsible and oblivious to such cause and effect except for their own immediate, overwhelming desire for more power and wealth ?

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  6. I totally agree with what the last comments from Anonymous. The Muslims will always want unity among themselves for their own well being. That does not mean they are to exclude the nonMuslims in their daily relationship. I have experienced myself how the Muslims in Gulf states interact with their friends of other religion. In Malaysia in days gone by the Malays Indians Chinese live peacefully together. I have done school revisions with my Indian schoolmate in an Indian temple. I am still a good Muslim, pray so. What is sad and sickening at present the politicians are using Islam for their selfish ends which are totally not what the Quran enjoins. I appreciate Mr KTMoc for adding on the words pbuh and swt when referring to the Prophet and Allah.

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  7. Last night over 1,000 people came to listen to PI Bala speaking of the truth about Altantuya's death. The crowd overflowed out of the Dewan into the sidewalk and the street.
    Tonight , Saturday night, we expect an even bigger crowd.

    The ghost of Altantuya is out for revenge against those who ordered her death, and she will get it....

    Malay Unity ? Good idea, just make sure its not just for the benefit of those who seek to plunder the country for their personal gain and that of their cronies..

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  8. yes lets all muslims in malaysia unite to worship those in UMNO.. isn't this what unity is all about? to let UMNO putras continue ruling and prosper. while the poor muslims continue to kais pagi makan pagi kais petang makan petang...

    wake up lar.. u middle class malays are having it good. go to lembah pantai. talk to those staying in ppr and see how they have "prospered" under BN rule for over 50 odd years. go and talk malay unity to these urban poor people.

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  9. Will you be writing to highlight Anwar Ibrahim's treacherous conspiracy to encourage the Suluk intrusion into Sabah ?
    It has since turned into a tragedy and Anwar has blood in his hands.

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