It erodes Malays’ faith if allowed in Peninsula
By Amde Sidik
It’s sad to learn that religious tolerance that we’ve had for so long in Sabah and Sarawak is far from being appreciated. In fact it was considered wrong by certain quarters.
We’re wrong to have lived among various religions, various races and various cultures.
This is my interpretation after having watched Yusri Muhamad, ABIM’s representative who was one of the panelists of three; others with him were Khalid Samad, and Marina Mahathir in the recent interview with 101 Alzajeera TV network.
In as far as Yusri Muhamad is concerned, we Malaysians Muslim in Sabah and Sarawak have lived the wrong way.
Sabah and Sarawak, he said, had set a bad precedent- religiously unhealthy, it confuses Malays. It will erode Malays’ confidence in their Islamic faith in Peninsula’s. That is why he apposed using word Allah for non Muslim Malaysians in Peninsula.
Even though he agreed that non Muslims in many other countries in the world have used the word Allah, but in Malaysia he considered it different.
And this is the view from some one who claimed to be intellectual, can’t be sure if he also claimed as academician.
I hope others who watched the forum would be able to make an assessment as to the quality of our intellectual in the country these days.
Malaysians, if I may say, have divided by religions- as we’ve so many religions-yet we’ve been able to live happily together for the last fifty years. That is fair, but to further subdivide Islam in this country to suit political expediency or agenda, i.e., one in Peninsula and the other Sabah and Sarawak is a bit too much? No amount of ang pau can tame me.
Fueled up by what I view after a Government Minister announced that Sabah and Sarawak are exempted; in other words, non- Muslims in Sabah and Sarawak can continue using the word Allah in their religious ritual, raised many eyebrows. Isn’t this seen as unfair? Malaysia now has two sets of rules, besides seen as arbitrary decision; when a decision didn’t look coming out from a collective decision.
As I see it, even the leaders of the same boat are divided let alone in different boats.
If this isn’t echoing a wrong signal to general public I don’t know what else to call, at the time when the government is struggling to even mention One Malaysia to make belief that the country’s leaders are sincere.
If only my late father, my late uncles and many others knew this is the price for Sabah and Sarawak for being part of Malaysia I’m sure they would think twice to follow Tun Mustapha’s and Tun Fuad Stephen’s ideas some- fifty years ago to form Malaysia.
Whilst I’m fully aware in the past, including those from Sabah were imprisoned for saying something like this. But I must say this, if as result of what I wrote here I must land like them I think Yusri Muhammad deserved to be my jail mate.
One little point before I sign off, I was alerted by a few friends that one Sabah’s blogger had been planning to lead a public demonstration to show that Christians-RC in Sabah were unhappy over the event that took place in Peninsula. He also claimed to represent one of the political parties in Sabah but was stopped by police.
I must say this is untypical of Sabahans, not because Sabahans are naive or stupid to put it crudely. Its simply isn’t our nature. Someone later told me that this guy wasn’t born in Sabah, whether he is not Sabahan or Sabahan isn’t really my concerned. But I must say this, he is not representing Malaysians Borneo -Sabah and Sarawak, so to speak. I knew what he is lacking.