The Prophet Mohammad caricature controversy recently has brought into light so many things about Malaysia- her people, her newspapers, and most glaringly her politicians. It goes to show how lackadaisical the country has been run and how our current leadership has no clue or vision for the future of our country. There were so much mud slinging in the media and the ministries that the simple or complex subject of the caricatures were totally blown out of proportion and context for political mileage. But thank god good sense and clear thinking still prevails in the form of a letter to malaysiakini by TMF (don't know his real name) but I like to blog it here as one of the best pieces of common sense available on the controversy.
......."Over the years, I also have had several similar kinds of encounters involving my ignorance on religion of different faiths. But none got me into difficulty where I had to be punished, prosecuted, lose my job or business.
I may have been lucky. But the point is, should we punish and prosecute simply because we are offended, because the other party was ignorant or lacking in understanding or even truly insensitive? What does ‘deemed mocking’ mean? Does it mean unilateral interpretation without giving the so-called offending party the opportunity to explain the intent?
I believe that if we truly want others to understand and respect us, we must be confident in ourselves to be graceful and forgiving even though genuine offence has been committed against us.
A show of power to punish and prosecute is no more superior to a demonstration of confidence, strength and character to contain and forgive. Any responsible government which chooses to deal with the issue otherwise stands the risk of being viewed as politically motivated to mislead the masses."
Hear. Hear.
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Yes. It is not the people that are bad but the politics and the politicians. Sadly afew people's agenda is achieved at the expense of the many.
ReplyDeleteThe participants at 95% were discussing this the other day : what can we do to create religious and racial harmony? There were lots of suggestions to watch our words, and be careful not to offend.
ReplyDeleteWell, I disagree with this. I think this will only create separation. If we are so very, very afraid of offending, we won't even speak to each other, we won't go into each other's homes for fear of unwittingly making a wrong step.
What I want to do is to hold people of other races and religions close to my heart, and learn from them. Learn and understand. Then not only will I overcome ignorance, I believe my own life will be much richer too.