What has become of all the good things this beautiful country stands for? Not too long ago Malaysia was held out to and by the world as a model of multi ethnic co-existence. We all lived as one which was far better than the 1 we see being bandied by all and sundry.

Sharing and caring was the order of those days. The three letter acronym for the good old days says GOD.

Recent events have made the rest of the world sit up and notice that things are not as they are made out to be. “Truly Asia” is just not true anymore.

When the Home Minister’s decision was first in the news there was a lot of rhetoric about what the ramifications of the said decision would be. That is now all water under the bridge.

The whole country waited with bated breath the decision by the MALAYSIAN judge bound by MALAYSIAN LAW in a MALAYSIAN COURT. The decision was a victory for the voice of objective reasoning based on the precepts of the MALAYSIAN constitution.

As has been the trend recently, as soon as a decision that is not acceptable to the powers that be is pronounced, the appeal process is accelerated to ensure inJUSTICE prevails. The Justice who ensured that justice is done is told in not so many words by a luminary no less that the defacto (defective?) law minister that the “Judge was wrong”. So much for an independent judiciary or what remains of it.

Then the mourning and moaning began.

The weak among the faithful were appalled that their faith was being attacked. They took to the streets. Protests were organised. Petitions were delivered. Statements were made to the ruling media who were more than happy to oblige in getting this extremely urgent message broadcast. The enforcers looked on benignly. These were peaceful outpourings of emotion of a mourning fraternity. Let them mourn they said. Similar peaceful outpourings in recent times have had their emotions doused by pepper-laced cold showers.

In the press it was all systems go. Freedom of expression took centre stage, for a change. Anything and everything that was said in opposition to the decision was fair game. Published and be damned!

The faith of quite a few was under siege, so they said. Is faith so easily shaken? Just by allowing a word that refers to the Supreme Being, The Almighty, the One God to be shared by His creation to rankle one’s faith defies intelligent reasoning.

To quote, “While some idiots are mourning over the loss of the word “Allah” and therefore basically telling the world that they are people easily confused by nomenclature, and others are predicting riots over what is basically a “copyright” issue, let me define what I think a confident Muslim should be: “The Muslim writer than goes on to describe the qualities of a confident Muslim.

Among others she said, “God never said that only Muslims could call him by the name Allah…A confident Muslim has 99 names to choose from to describe the One God…Ar-Rahman (The All-Compassionate)…Ar-Rahim (The All-Merciful)…A confident Muslim never gets confused over his/her religion…A confident Muslim will not walk into a church hear the word Allah and think he/she is in a mosque…”

“A Muslim believes in only One God. Therefore it makes sense that other people should call God by the same name because there is no other God.” This statement sums it all.

Are Muslims in Malaysia so easily confused unlike their brethren in other Islamic countries? In the Arabic speaking world and even in our neighbouring country having 1000% more Muslims than Malaysia the word for God is universal just like God.

First they excite, then they incite but in this case, in the name of God why don’t they indict?

That is the damning question that irks many sane God loving people.

The Federal ruling (not coalition) is now putting out the fires literally and figuratively. Donations are being made with the people’s money. The damage was caused by the exciters and inciters. Let them foot the bill.

The media should give prominence to the thoughts and views of learned men of God more than those of out-of-work dentists and their like.

Let us believers all pray to the One God that this time around the real culprits are prosecuted. This should start with the authors and speakers who excite and incite the masses.

This article has been printed and distributed via GERAKAN4U BULLETIN JAN 2010/BIL.1

by Sdr. Baljit Singh
Chief of Bureau Legal & Human Rights