A Simply Funny But Honest Piece

Reading Zan Azlee's column here, one can't help but laugh at the humour in it. It was a well written piece of perhaps, a true incident in his life. But as funny as the situation he was put in – not the religious matter, please – there is a much grimmer truth to be told.

By Cakapaje (Talk Only)

After more than 50 years of rule under the Perikatan and later the BN, both led by umno, there are still many people, yours truly included, that have vague understanding of Islam. And if the Malays themselves cannot understand their religion well, not much can be said of the non-Malays if they don't, can we? This, relates to the story below.

There is an old story about a Malay kampung. No specific location need be mentioned as the kampung is as typical as any. And situated in the small town of the kampung, one would find at least one coffeeshop, and another selling grocery and sundry goods to serve the needs of the villagers. In many occasion, both shops would be owned by 2 different Chinese families, though there were a large number where a single family owned both the shops. And typical as it was then and even now – in different guise, 'accounts' would be opened in the form of those small 555 note books. But that is not the point here.

At the above point of time, the kampung's statistics would probably say "98.5% Malay, 1% Chinese, 0.5% Indian", where the Indians would most probably be either serving with the Security Forces, or living in a small community of rubber tappers. It would then natural for the Chinese shopkeepers – many of them non-Muslims – to sell and serve alcoholic drinks, which is well within their rights to do so. What isn't though, are, or were, the Muslims who, without shame, participate in a binge or two.

The point of this story as told to me years ago, was that despite the overwhelming numbers, the Malays/Muslims were not able to hold staunchly to their belief but succumbed to the temptations which is against it. Now, I am not being a prude or having a holier-than-thou attitude here, but merely recounting this story which I believe, is well known already. And this, is what umno is all about: they fail to hold on to the principles of the cause of their founding, and created new ones along the way, the kinds which goes smack opposite the former. And instead of creating better understanding of Islam, they turn it into something different that confuses the minds of many, Muslims included, and yours truly not excluded (no need to mention anything specific as there are far too many incidences). But perhaps, their actions can be attributed to their very own lack of knowledge; a wishful thought to some, but we are taught to think kindly of another, weren't we?

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