The One & Only Problem In Malaysia"

Why do Malays foam at the mouth and get extremely upset when you ‘show them no respect’ by serving pork? But why do they not show the same unhappiness when it comes to spirits? And why would they not allow a morsel of haram meat (even beef or chicken not ‘properly’ slaughtered) to touch their lips but have no problem downing gallons of beer, wine and whatnot?

So you see, the Malay mind is very complex and not easy to understand. And to qualify as Malay you must also be Muslim. A Christian Malay is not a Malay. So when race, culture and religion are one and the same then to change the Malay mind you must first change their mindset about Islam.

I really do not want to delve into all the various examples. We have been down that road before and whatever I may say would be just repeating myself. But then how best to describe Malays viz-a-viz the other races? Even Dr Mahathir lamented as to why the Malays can’t be more like the Chinese. And before the Hindraf people start accusing me of being a racist I had better mention the Indians as well.

I suppose we can sum it up as follows.

The Chinese do not stop to think about God too much. They just go out and make money and once a year during Chinese New Year they devote to God. That is why the Chinese are successful, economically at least.

The Indians appeal to God every day but God Samy Vellu just enriches himself, his friends and his family and ignores the Indian community. But the Indians do not appear to see that God helps those who help themselves. You can’t expect others to help you. If India maintained that same level of thinking as the Malaysian Indians then India would probably still be a British colony until today.

The Malays know that praying alone does not help (they need to help themselves) so they go out and steal all the money (help themselves to the taxpayers’ funds) and then fly off to Mekah to pray for forgiveness and then come home to enjoy their ill-gotten gains.

Basically, the Chinese look after themselves. The Indians want their hands to be held. And the Malays live by the principle that the ends justify the means just as long as you repent later and pray for forgiveness just before you die and leave this world. In fact, the closer to the point of death the better because repenting and asking for forgiveness too early in life would mean you run the risk of repeating your sins and therefore would have to go through the entire repentance process all over again.

Therefore, understanding the Malay mind, how do you honestly propose to, as you said, help the Malays? You lament that no one is talking about how to help the Malays. My question is: can the Malays be helped unless they change their mindset as to what is right and what is wrong?

That, is the crux to the whole matter. We need a mental revolution. We need a Muslim Martin Luther to nail his reform proposal to the door of the National Mosque in Kuala Lumpur. But when the Malays are embroiled in debates about whether ‘dirty’ Malaysian Chinese should be allowed into the mosque seeing that they are opposition supporters while the rule should not apply to Taiwanese Chinese since they are tourists do you really want to waste your time by attempting to engage the Malays?

Yes, I agree with you that the Malays need help. But it is not the kind of help that you are thinking about. The help the Malays need is to help them free their minds from outdated religious superstition and from the belief in folklore and myths, which they have accepted as the indisputable word of God.

excerpts from RPK
21/09/10

No comments: