I still remember way back, when I was younger, when it was the time to celebrate Merdeka day besides welcoming the 'holiday', we always look forward for the Jalur Gemilang flags, singing Negaraku almost everyday during August month, and also sometime, free movie tickets. Being a class monitor and a favorite among the teachers (and for sure, being one of the top students helps), I was always in the list. And during that time too, we will go to the cinema in a big group of friends/students, juniors, seniors, and sometime, form teachers might join along. In the cinema, you will have school children of all races, and it is nice feeling to be in that environment, it just promotes that feeling of being one Malaysia Malaysians. I mean during that time, I thought and have confidence we are already on track in building our One Malaysia concept, and mind you, that was more than 20 years ago, probably :). And a few days back, we saw the incident in Shah Alam, and I was having a few questions on that so called action by this group of people. I am not going to question their rights, but rather, of yes, I am just wondering why the cow has to be sacrificed, in this manner, in the first place? In the name of religion? In the name of race? The cow (animal) has its own rights too, isn't it? Can any animal rights NGO comment on this aspect?
And personally for me, I do not see any big issue as far as the building of temple is concerned. I think we should handle this in a more tactful and compromised manner, as Malaysians first. Where is our feeling of tolerance, where is our feeling of Muhibbah? Does it only come about during the open houses that we have?
As Anas Zubedy has written, and from my own experience, living in my hometown in BM, we do not seem to have this problem. Majority of the population are Malaysian Chinese, and yet we have mosques built all over the places. The local Chinese are fine with it. At my cousin's place, they have a big surau next to the playground, where majority of the population is still Malaysian Chinese, but nobody ever complains about it! 500m away across the street, there was an Indian cemetery, 400 metres away, there was an Chinese temple.
In Seberang Jaya, next to Sunway hotel, we have a church, a Buddhist temple, a Hindu temple and two big mosques nearby each other. I do not hear any problems and in fact, I used to show my visitors from other countries on this and they feel very surprised by that.
I trust among all, the most important thing is respect for the beliefs and one must be careful and sincere in not offending each other, whether we are Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, etc etc.
After all, our trusts, our beliefs in any religion is between the individual and God, isn't this more important than anything else?
And my Merdeka wish to to have very peaceful Malaysia and open minded Malaysians in accepting our diverse cultures and different religious background.
And Happy Merdeka day.
Choong, Beijing
1 comment:
When a person comes to certain age, he/she will begin to remember the good old days, haha!
However, there is no doubt that we Malaysian lived a more harmonious life back in the 70s,80s. Malaysia was built on the ground of multiple yet unique culture. It is one of the most interesting cultural structure in the world.
We are not the same as people
living in Middle East, South Asian Continent, Baltic Sea region, or even Irish Isle, where people die ( huge number in centuries ) just because of different religions and cultures!
So , be proud as Malaysian and embrace the unique culture of multiple society. We practise our religion in a "Malaysian" way , without conflicting the teaching of individual religion. You don't need to be aggressive to other culture in order to prove how " authentic"or "religious" you are as a believer of certain religion!
Happy Merdeka Day and may all Malaysian be truely "merdeka", not only politically, but also in certain religious and cultural aspects
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