Of crusaders, clowns and kooks
By M Veera Pandiyan, The Star
Rabble-rousers will only end up enjoying influence way beyond their merits if we take them too seriously or give too much attention to their grandstanding.
WHAT politicians say or do tend to invoke a whole range of emotions – from anger and disgust to fear and surprise, and in rare exceptions, even joy.
In Malaysia, there’s one player whose antics have been perpetually confounding.
When it comes to Perkasa head Datuk Seri Ibrahim Ali, one is often left wondering whether to laugh or to cry.
The latest being his threat to wage a jihad (not a crusade, in this context) against Christians, if, in his own words, they continued to challenge Islam’s position in the country.
The source of the grossly implausible story, published by a newspaper on page one recently, is now under police investigation.
The newspaper cited two blog sites which claimed that a meeting attended by Christian and DAP leaders to make Christianity the official religion had taken place in Penang.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has since met Christian and Muslim leaders on the issue while the Home Ministry has sent a letter of caution to the newspaper.
At the meeting with Najib, besides strongly denying involvement in any such conspiracy, Christian leaders – except one bishop, who turned up his nose at the event and described the delegation as lambs being led to slaughter – reiterated their upholding the spirit of the Federal Constitution and the status of Islam as the religion of the federation.
They also gave their commitment to work with the Government to sustain peace and harmony and seek amicable solutions to various outstanding inter-religious issues.
Despite this, the Pasir Mas MP has been going round the country accusing Christians of “challenging the sovereignty and dignity of Malays and Muslims” and challenging the authorities to take action.
It’s tragic that this is happening when Najib is urging moderates of all religions to come together in his current trip abroad.
But it is no secret that just as in mosques and suraus, preachers in churches, too, have abused the pulpits to preach highly-political sermons.
We certainly don’t need this, especially with the country already having too many demagogues enjoying influence way beyond their merits.
They have proven time and again that reason and common sense is no match for rabid rhetoric, especially when it comes to issues of race or religion.
Most of the seeds of intolerance and distrust were sown more than two decades ago but how many fanatical cyber-utopians of today will bother to go that far back to trace the planters?
Ironically, some of the disingenuous politicians are now portraying themselves as champions of unity and religious harmony when they have never sought to find common ground in the name of seeking solutions, even when they had the power to do so.
As for DAP and those who have been denouncing Ibrahim’s actions as the worst kind of grandstanding, they are only fanning the flames.
The Home Minister has been accused of being soft on Ibrahim but he does have a point about not giving the Perkasa leader too much attention.
It’s really up to right-thinking Malaysians to evaluate him.
It is up to us to see him as a crusader or as a clown.
Aren’t his antics comparable to Benteng Demokrasi Rakyat (Bendera) – the group of Indonesians armed with “samurai swords and black magic” who planned to invade Malaysia two years ago as revenge for stealing their country’s cultural heritage?
Ibrahim certainly does not represent the majority of Malays and Muslims in the country and neither does he have any real support to wage any kind of war.
But thanks to the increasing lack of civility in our political discourse, and with key players still focused on scoring points, this unnecessary anger is allowed to fester.
Life is too short for one to be taken in by serial rabble-rousers or to take them too seriously.
It could well be very, very short indeed – as in 153 days from this Saturday – according to a kooky group of Christians led by Family Radio Worldwide’s founder Harold Camping, 88.
The preacher, an engineer by training, has predicted that the Bible-prophesied Rapture and Judgment Day will take place on May 21.
Unlike predictions based on the Mayan calendar, which ends next year, and the Hollywood apocalypse movie 2012, Camping, who has believers stretching from the United States to China, is convinced that the date is correct.
His followers, who claim to be God’s true believers, are expecting to be lifted into heaven and be saved, along with some 200 million more of the faithful.
They say that those left behind will have to suffer ghastly torment until Oct 21 – Camping’s date for end of the world.
But we shouldn’t be too worried, I guess.
The preacher, who claims he has studied the Bible for 70 years, has got it all wrong before.
On Sept 6, 1994, the date he had promised for two years, believers gathered awaiting the Rapture by holding their Bibles open-faced towards heaven.
But, the world just moved on – with no shortage of kooks, crusaders and clowns continuing to sell their gullible believers all sorts of promises, theories and beliefs.
