Head for a head?

By Shannon Teoh (The Malaysian Insider)

SEPT 8 — For better or worse, the world believes in the right of retaliation. Criticise me, and I will mock you back. Fire a rocket at me, and I will roll in the tanks. Launch a nuclear warhead at me, and I will assure our mutual destruction.

And perhaps that is why Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein thought it a wise idea to use the “pig-headed” defence for the cow-head protestors in the continuing debacle over the Section 23, Shah Alam Hindu temple relocation issue.

Without going into whether or not the Muslim residents there have a case — the courts will have to figure it out — bringing up another incident where a pig-head wrapped in an Umno flag was left outside one of its offices was a disastrous thing to say to the press.

“I have it in my records to show there were cases where a pig-head was used by irresponsible parties including leaving the head in front of an Umno building covered by an Umno flag,” he said in a press conference after coming out of a dialogue session with leaders of the committee who organised the protest but offered no further details of such an act.

Whatever point he thought he was making here is probably irrelevant. What most people will take away from this is that the home minister was saying nobody should get worked up over incidents involving severed heads.

In fact, in the context of the cow-head protest, he seemed to imply that it was okay for the cow-head to be produced since a pig-head has been produced before. What this means is that because some crazy people caused hurt against your community, it legitimises similar acts by members of your community against a whole other community.

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