The insidious pattern
By The Malaysian Insider
Since Election 2008, the racial and religious mercury has appeared to rise in Malaysia.
Little incidents of friction have sprouted here and there, testing inter-community ties and blotting the Malayan, and later, the Malaysian dream of Tunku Abdul Rahman and the Merdeka generation.
Fact is, there is an insidious pattern all over Malaysia, especially in states held by Pakatan Rakyat (PR), where little slights have exploded into full-blown crises that appear to require the deft touch of senior politicians to maintain calm and cool-headed thinking.
Name the issue, from Lim Guan Eng’s name in a prayer, relocation of temples, destruction of suraus and, the latest, where a surau allegedly had its speakers turned down after a complaint from an MCA man.
Many of these things were brought up, broadcasted, twisted and turned to major issues when the solutions could have been found within the communities themselves.
What is certain is that most are linked to either Umno or their allies, who manufacture racial or religious slights and then go on about how Malays/Muslims’ interests cannot be protected by PR.
In doing so, these protagonists have no care about worsening racial relations in the country. That most communities have lived through thick and thin but now face tests to their community spirit to resolve issues rather than make it a cause.
