The Walk of Life

Some years back, there was a huge protest in China and Korea over how the Japanese Education System brain-washed their younger generations into believing that Japan never invaded China and Korea. How the Japanese did it was a slow, long process of changing their history books and leave out that part of their history i.e. the invasion of China and Korea.

In fact in one of the history book, it even mentioned that it was China who invited the Japan Government to send troops into China on some vague collaboration exercise! It was quite an ingenious way to change history using the education system so much so that the later generations of Japanese youths could not believe or accept the accusation that Japan was hostile towards her neighbors.

As long as I can remember, during my school days our history lessons were so rich and we learned about Parameswara who ruled in Malacca, the Chinese Kapitan Yap Ah Loy, Princess Han Li Poh who was given in marriage to the Sultan of Malacca and the Malay Sultanate!

Sad to say and as I was told that nowadays our Malaysian Education System seems to be stressing so much on the contribution by the Malays and very little was mentioned in our history books about the contribution by the other races who, came and settled in Malaya for as far back as in the 1800's! One good example would be the true story of Madam Rasammah Bhupalan.

The removal of such historic facts tend to produce a new generations of Malaysians who never know of the great sacrifice, contribution by these patriotic migrants. So much so that today, even ex-Prime Minister can openly deny the contributions of these non-Malay patriots and some Ministers even has the audacity to call the non-Malay citizens in Malaysia as Traitors just because many non-Malay citizens are choosing to migrate to other countries. He should find out why they leave in the first place! Has the current Government Policies over the past 30 over years got to do with it?

I sincerely believe that we, the decendants from such great patriots must feel very hurt and feel rejected by our own Government who, for the sake of some political manoeuvering said such insulting words. Our ex-PM, Mahathir whose father was an Indian national from Kerala was creating mischief when he talked about 'The Social Contract' in our History! It was a very biased and half-truth article and we are thankful for people like Raja Petra Kamaruddin who gave another version of our History!

I consider our ex-PM and that Minister who called those migrating citizens as 'Traitors' very irresponsible for choosing a time like this to utter such things when racial and religious tension is high and what more they are only giving a slanted bias view of the truth and not doing justice to the contribution by our forefathers! I just wonder whether our politicians only interested in retaining power at all costs and the people in Malaysia can go to hell for all they care! Perhaps there is a diabolical plan for all these irresponsible rantings and write-ups in our local news media? So help us Almighty God for the sake of the good people in Malaysia I sincerely pray!

Ever since the Cow Head Protests started last year, another animal head, this time a Pig's Head was used to offend the Muslims here. Yesterday two pig heads were thrown into the compound of two Mosques in Kuala Lumpur.

It is obvious that the perpetrators wanted to offend the Muslims who abhor the pig and this is a really low down action done by cowards and people whose aim is to cause racial and religious tensions in our nation.

I am really thankful that the plan of these irresponsible people fail miserably and I applaud the Muslims for not reacting to this provocation. Fingers are again pointed at the Government for stirring up religious and race issues to unsettle the Opposition Controlled State of Selangor but there are many other opinions as well which I am not going to delve into. Until the Police have done their investigations then no one knows for sure.

However it seems that our beloved nation is under some Dark Forces trying their hardest to cause disunity, disharmony here. That reminds me of a Scripture from the Bible which says:-

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the world's rulers, of the darkness of this age, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

It is all so familiar isn't it? So we have to pray against these dark forces and to me the word 'principalities' although implies a spiritual dimension but it also include the physical dimension such as a group of people or a system of society among us! Even the word "high places' can be considered on such lines as well.

Married to a Cockrel? It can only happen in China! Although this is true but the whole wedding ceremony is more for symbolism than anything. Well, in the olden days in China, whenever a girl or woman intends to stay single will go through a ceremony as a symbolism that she is sort of already married but not to a man but to her profession or women group using the cockerel to represent the 'groom'!

This was a very common practice among the women who came from the Silk River Delta in Shun Tak, Guandong. Actually these amazing women are quite independent. They work in their silk trade by rearing silk worms and from the cocoons produces silk. They form associations and they made monthly contributions into the association so that in their old age, the association will take care of them! Some even purchased properties and these become the famous old maids home!

Actually I wanted to share about Ah Fook which is the name of the cockrel being used in the coming play by my daughter, Women Of Silk River. Ah Fook is for the symbolic wedding ceremony in one of the scene in the play.

Ah Fook is a Japanese modified cockrel and hence quite small! Typically Japanese who loves to shrink everything! Remember Bonsai? Dawn took Ah Fook home and since we have Vladimir our pet Pekinese, we have to separate these two for Ah Fook's safety and security. So Ah Fook lives in my toilet! Rock and dawn just cannot stand the messy chicken shit in their own bathrooms! Everyday when I sit there, Ah Fook will fly up and perched on his basket and started crowing!! The din was unbearable. Cannot imagine for such a small thing and it can make so much noise! I just wonder what is Ah Fook announcing to the neighborhood! Either announcing what I am doing or complained about the stench!!! He is also the alram clock now but the problem is he started crowing at 5 am!!!!

Guess I have to tolerate Ah Fook sharing my toilet for the next 3 weeks until the play is over! Who is he to complain since he made a mess of my toilet and I have to clean it everyday besides feeding and checking on him! Anyway Ah Fook is really domesticated and in the evenings, dawn will take him out for a walk! Unbelievable! Dawn just walk slowly ahead and Ah Fook will trotter behind. When dawn carries him on her bosom and pets him, Ah Fook just closes his eyes and went to sleep! I am growing rather fond of Ah Fook now and am thinking of getting a pet Japanese cockrel myself!

Ever since the fire bombing of more than 10 Churches and a Sikh Temple, many Malaysians of the various Faiths are praying for the Nation of Malaysia. In my experiences living in Malaysia over half a decade, never have I seen so much fervent prayers by so many people and different religious groups.

For people of Faith, prayer is the most powerful means of committing issues to God. Prayer is basically conversation with God and let Him know our fears, problems and is also a petition to request divine Intervention in human daily living.Even atheist pray and I am not sure to whom they pray to.

Does prayer really work? Personally and from experience, prayer Works! To the unbelievers, they may say coincidence but my question is how come coincidences happened so frequently when one prays? To me there must be a Divine Listener. This is not a treatise on prayer but more of sharing the genuine concerns of the people of Malaysia over Malaysia's decline in the eyes of the world in so many national and international aspects.

I am not sure what other Malaysians pray for but I guess more for Peace, Harmony, Race and Religious tolerance and understanding and of course the poor economy in the country, the increase in crime, blatant excessive corruption and justice for the under-priviledge and oppressed.

Personally one of my main concern is the increase in religious extremism. This is very dangerous, deceptive and also a feel-good thing. Everyone wants to be on God's side and some may even think they are defending God! What arrogance and who do we puny humans think that God need us to defend whether be it His Name or His people! In the process of trying to be "holy" very often we loose our balance and get violent and even commiy murder and massacre of the so called 'enemies of God'. It also makes one 'self-righteous' but they are nothing more than bigotry at the highest level. Apart from God who has the authority to judge others based on his or her own standard? Even if they refer to their religious Holy Books there is no guarantee that there is no personal biases in our judgments. God said that the heart of the man is evil and deceptive.

The highest form of hypocrisy is unconscious unreality which means we are not even aware of our own hypocrisy, unreality, lack of love in all that we say and do! Pray we must but we need to check our motives and our hearts before we petition to God for the the prayers of a righteous man avail much!

Malaysia is now under the Eyes Of The World! I was watching the Aljahzeera Interview with some Malaysians on the use of the ‘A’ Word Issue. I can't help but noticed the vague reasons given for why the Malaysian Islamic Groups were against the use of this word by the Christians!

Even the statements by the Home Ministry can only say ‘Malaysia is Unique’! Is being unique justify the objection? Hardly any concrete reasons given. In what way is the uniqueness of the Malays in Malaysia related to feel so strongly about this? I don't really know because no answers were given by the Home Ministry.

RPK posted on Malaysia-today suggesting that perhaps the contention is the conversion of Muslims to Christianity! I would think that this is like a two-edged sword as well, meaning Christians can also convert to Islam if the use of the ‘A’ Word seems to create confusion so to say. Are the Islamic Groups not happy about this? Moreover why aren't the church worried? Hemm! Perhaps the Christians are more established in their faith than Muslims are in theirs! Another big question that begs answers!

I also noticed one interviewee just said that all his Christian or Roman Catholic friends he knows never uses the ‘A’ word in their prayers or devotion! Firstly, this gentlemen seems not to have any Christian East Malaysian friends for then he would have known that they do use the ‘A’ word. Secondly from such a small sampling such as a personal circle of friends, it does not mean other Christians do not use the ‘A’ word! Even if so, is that a reason to object? Rather a vague answer again.

One elderly gentlemen seems to be confused with the issue for he mentioned that why now the Christians want to use the ‘A’ word!!! I guess little did he realized that the ‘A’ word has been used by Christians in Sabah and Sarawak long before Malaysia or even Malaya gain Independence and to me the Christian asking why now makes more sense! After all it was the Home Ministry out of the blues started to forbid the use of this word plus a few others a few years back when it was totally fine for more than 40 over years or longer. Yes! Why Now? Is there a bigger agenda hiding behind all these hoo-hah!

Another interviewee seem to say 'the ‘A’ word is very close to the Muslims heart' and he keep repeating this a few times and unable to move on from there! Also not really an answer as to why the objection. I am sure the ‘A’ word is also very close to the Christians heart as well.

However, I am rather impressed by the answers given by the Christian interviewee though. It looks like the Christians are asking for a good reason why and they are also open to inter-faith dialogue to resolve the issue whereas the Government and the Islamic Groups just say forbidden to use which lead to some emotional people loose control and started bombing churches. He sort of asking for a good reason for the church to withdraw otherwise the church is seen to be bullied into submission and that's a wrong message to send to anyone in this country who claims to be Democratic, obeying the Laws and the Constitution.

This brings to mind what Dr. Mahathir said that this issue cannot be settled by the Courts! Well, not by the Courts i.e. by Law and in addition cannot hold inter-faith discussion, then what other venue? Only a man as smart as him can answer and all I can say is neither by bombing churches can this be solved.

Well, taken all these statements and interviews, it seems like the Muslims could hardly venture a solid defense as to why they object except mentioning about sensitivities, close to their hearts, the word only for Muslims in Malaysia, or a copy-right thing in Malaysia. No real solid reasons given really. Perhaps they do not want to say it out loud for fear of being ridiculed in the eyes of the world over some vague excuse or no excuse except to show power and using intimidation on minorities.

Also reading comments from other Muslim Scholars from US, Middle-East, Turkey, Indonesia etc they too are confounded as to why Malaysia is unique in this matter!

I also remembered some time back some Islamic Groups barged in to stop an inter-faith discussion! Now, after some church bombings, they are saying why not have discussion rather than going to court! Well if the inter-faith discussion was allowed by the Government and not pandering to the Islamic Group perhaps the Roman Catholic Church do not have to exercise their only option within their constitutional rights by going to the courts for justice and perhaps the bombings may not have happened! Anyway since both sides are positive about the inter-faith dialogue then there is still hope that the issue may be resolved amicably. I hope.