Removing unnecessary sensitivities
Sin Chew Daily
The Langkawi “cross-like” design on the roofs of double-storey terraced houses has been instructed by the Kedah state government to alter.
The developers have reached an agreement with the state government by painting the “cross” with the same colour as the roof tiles so that the so-called “crosses” would now become inconspicuous,
So the incident has come to a close? Not so! We have nevertheless missed yet another opportunity to learn to be more accommodating and tolerant. On the contrary, the incident has given the public another precedent that makes “cross-like” structures and designs all the more sensitive in future. This is not going to help promote interracial or interfaith harmony and mutual understanding.
As a matter of fact, the so-called “crosses” on the roofs in Langkawi are not actual crosses but air wells that give a “cross-like” appearance due to the angle of vision.
When such an issue is raised by certain oversensitive individuals, it is imperative that the government seriously look into it and explain to the public instead of dancing to the tunes of these irresponsible people.
The easiest way to tackle this issue is for the government to resolve it as soon as possible so that life could be back to normal. But, this could also be a very unpolished and inappropriate thing to do for the long-term development of a multiracial country.
What a multiracial and multicultural country needs most is more tolerance and mutual understanding among he different ethnic groups. Along the way, it is bound for us to come across barriers and hurdles, and some irresponsible individuals are bound to raise some sensitive issues or paint non-sensitive issues into highly sensitive ones.
We need to handle such things with maturity and rationality. Unfortunately the government has often opted the simplest way out, focusing only on addressing the surface problem instead of looking into the “sensitive” attitudes that have long existed among the communities.
Whenever religious or ethnic factors have been involved, we the government and many other people as well) will often jump to the quickest fix solution. Get the problem hammered out immediately and completely without the slightest intention of finding out the root cause and truth so as to tackle the problem once and for all.
It doesn’t really matter whether it is right or wrong. Most importantly the “sensitive” problem must be put to an immediate stop, at least for the time being.
Actually some of the so-called “sensitive” issues could be neutralised after some heart-to-heart talks and deep soul-searching, and this is seen as the most appropriate process of desensitization. Unfortunately a multiracial country as we claim, we have never done enough on this, but have instead allowed issues that shouldn’t have popped up in the first place to be cooked up into truly sensitive issues.
In Malaysia, race and religion are sensitive issues that warrant cautious handling. Most importantly, we must take progressive steps to dispel the unnecessary suspicions and sensitivities standing between the different ethnic communities.
