Political parties can’t take you to heaven

Erna Mahyuni, Malay Mail Online

It is the 21st century and yet many Malaysians have the mentality of serfs. Obedient, unflinchingly loyal to their “masters” to the point they abdicate reason and common sense.

Neither PAS nor Umno have direct lines to God. Yet many Malaysians act as though they do. When you put your trust in someone else to look after your faith, it is obvious you do not know what it means to believe.

I have the sneaking suspicion that in reality our leaders are worshipped much in the same way as deities. Witness the blind obedience, the supplication, the bowing and scraping.

Our leaders act as though they were chosen by God and expect to be feared and revered as such. Yet they ignore and suppress the very people who chose them.

Some days I wonder why people act as though our government is the Roman Catholic Church and we must petition it to intercede with God for our souls.

Are Malaysians just too afraid to take responsibility for their own faiths? Must we use the police, force and coercion to defend God?

The scary truth is that no one really can say where our souls go. It seems silly to punish people for transgressions against God when that is His job.

I wouldn’t be surprised if our leaders call for the next Hunger Games film to be banned seeing as it depicts rebellious citizens fighting back.

But our citizens are not rebellious. No, we have successfully made it a Malaysian thing to be intrinsically afraid of bold action and created citizens who mock demonstrations and consider them “inconvenient.”

So when I see people obeying leaders and claiming they fear God, I say the reality is that you fear your government more than you do God. And if that isn’t a one way ticket to Hell, I don’t know what is.