Beware the Bomohs!
So time is not on your side, since the more ill the patient becomes, the more unlikely will what you say be accepted. And meanwhile these ‘bomohs’ are trying to put a curse on you for destroying their livelihood.
Suflan Shamsuddin, The Malaysian Insider
Today, some village bomohs (save for the super-bomohs to the VIPs!) are just about able to eke out a living. But in the yester-centuries of ignorance, superstition, illiteracy, and limited medical practitioners, bomohs thrived. Spirits needed to be exorcised. For small ailments, the bomoh was fine. But for truly serious illnesses, the intervention was at best, neutral in effect. For patients suffering heart disease or cancer, it provided false hope.
The bomoh plied his spurious trade because it was a good living for him, and he was ignorant of religion, science and medicine. The villagers took to his methods because of their own ignorance, superstitions, and for want of a better choice. Thankfully today, most people know that cancer or heart disease isn’t about exorcising a spirit. So the market for bomohs has shrunk.
But the ‘bomohs’ who peddle racial or religious chauvinism (and they exist in all parties, whether in government or in opposition!) continue to prosper. They market their ‘cure’ to unsuspecting citizens, because it makes them a good living, and these bomohs are ignorant of religion, universal values and of any other solution to society’s ills. And those who buy this cure (by voting them into power) do so based on ignorance, superstitions, and for want of a better choice.
Our society’s illness is like a cancer, and these ‘bomohs’ are making things worse and creating false hope. And unless the patient goes for proper treatment, the prognosis is poor. If villagers now know that bomohs cannot cure cancer, can’t ordinary citizens learn to understand the same thing about our society’s cancer? Of course they can.
But there is so much to do. Firstly, you need to expose the bomohs for the charlatans, religious hypocrites, and fools that they are. And secondly, you have to offer the public, true knowledge and understanding, proper faith, and a better choice for treatment. Unfortunately, you must do all of this as the patient’s condition worsens. So time is not on your side, since the more ill the patient becomes, the more unlikely will what you say be accepted. And meanwhile these ‘bomohs’ are trying to put a curse on you for destroying their livelihood.
This change in mindset is an arduous task. It needs critical mass and support from others who similarly fear the cancer spreading. So in an article entitled “Time for a Malay Counter-Movement’ I proposed the need to set up an independent, non-partisan Malay movement built on Islamic and universally-held values, virtues and ideals, to mount a challenge on those who peddle Malay dominance or Ketuanan Melayu and their ideas. I proposed a Malay movement because I feel that chauvinism was now rampant in our community and many Malays like me are distraught at how it is being destroyed as a result. I believe that the Malays must remove these ‘bomohs’ on our own, if our community’s condition is to regress. And it is a task we need to do not just for ourselves, but also for all other Malaysians, since the dreams of a Bangsa Malaysia would rest on the success of such an endeavor.
