Ignorance giving rise to discrimination

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IMPORTANT MESSAGE FOR ALL
The articles are captured from the original writer, MsMarina (with her permission). SambalBelacan is just compiling articles to make easier to find. Any comments received will remain un-respond because it's not mine.Reach her at her very own blog at http://rantingsbymm.blogspot.com/ Please.
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Wednesday March 2, 2011
Ignorance giving rise to discrimination
Musings
By MARINA MAHATHIR


Much of the tension that we experience today is because of the mistrust we have for one another and also because those who have more cannot find it in their hearts to be fair to those who do not have as much.

IN THE women’s rights work that I do, the foundation of my colleagues’ and my belief regarding our rights is that there can be no justice without equality.

Where that applies to women, it’s called feminism, but it can equally apply to any oppressed group we know of.

Basically, we cannot be just to anyone if we don’t think of them as our equals.

If we don’t think some people are equal because of their sex, class, race, religion, sexual orientation, nationality, ability or age, then it would be very hard to be truly just to them.

We find it hard to compare them to ourselves, and, therefore, as deserving as ourselves of whatever rights and opportunities there are.

This is sometimes why we are in awe when people “cross barriers” to help someone outside their usual circles, like when Princess Diana visited people with HIV. It was just so unusual, that it proved the rule.

Hence, we are neglectful of people who are different from us, or worse, discriminatory. Often this comes from ignorance.

There are some of us who grow up simply unable to fathom lives different from ours. But it can also be willful and deliberate.

Much of the tension that we are experiencing today is because of the mistrust we have for one another, because those of us who have more cannot find it in our hearts to be fair and just to those who do not have as much.

Worse still, we find ways to justify why we have to behave that way.

We have come to a point in our nation’s life where we really have to think about where we are headed.

Are we going to perpetually think of ourselves as so exceptional and different from everyone else that we don’t have to meet normal human standards?

Do we have to be so defensive that we only see what we want and are blind to any other point of view?

Today, I read about some people who objected when a non-Muslim began his speech with the traditional Muslim greeting of peace.

Apparently, this was considered offensive because it was sensitive.

Honestly, this is the sort of thing that makes me want to give up on this country, that there are idiots who have the temerity to call themselves leaders at all.

As any child knows, assalamualaikum means “peace be with you”.

It is the most benign and civil of greetings, welcoming and warm.

If meant sincerely, it means that you have come in peace and wish to conduct yourself in a peaceful way.

In the Arab world, everybody uses this greeting. They certainly never, as Malaysians did at one time, differentiate between who they could say it to, and whom they couldn’t.

It is not a greeting patented by Muslims or owned by God.

So, intelligent right-thinking Mus­lims should be very welcoming when a non-Muslim uses it because it means they have come in peace. And you can hold them to that.

So why make war out of it? How come when President Barack Obama used the same greeting when he went to Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world, nobody objected?

Why, if he went to Penang and did the same thing, no doubt there would be appreciative applause and pleased shuffling, too.

I don’t know what world we live in that we think we are so special that nobody can hold a candle to us.

We look in distaste when Arabs protest, but when we see that it’s peaceful, we say that they must be mature people, unlike we here who are so incapable of protesting peacefully that we need to be censured before we even step out of our homes.

Students and young people around the Arab region are liberating their countries from tyranny and oppression, and ours are deemed too untrustworthy to even talk about politics.

The image we seemingly want to present to the world is one of gross intolerance of anything that doesn’t fit into the small narrow hole we call Malaysian.

At the same time, we seem to be proud of our immaturity. Do we actually tell foreigners that our students are too immature to be trusted to discuss politics? And we’re proud of it?

How do we explain to puzzled foreigners, including Arabs who actually speak the language, that we think some of their words are exclusive to us only?

Right now, the coolest nationality to be is Egyptian. It means young, democratic, inclusive and free.

In Wisconsin, where people are protesting against a state government that is taking away their union rights, there are signs that say “Fight like an Egyptian”. Imagine that.

When will the rest of the world want to be Malaysian?

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Let’s adore our beloveds daily

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IMPORTANT MESSAGE FOR ALL
The articles are captured from the original writer, MsMarina (with her permission). SambalBelacan is just compiling articles to make easier to find. Any comments received will remain un-respond because it's not mine.Reach her at her very own blog at http://rantingsbymm.blogspot.com/ Please.
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Wednesday February 16, 2011
Let’s adore our beloveds daily
MUSINGS
By MARINA MAHATHIR


Unless prompted, most of us forget about romance in our lives. Everybody needs some, and there is no need to restrict it to only a certain day in the year.

WE often bemoan the intense politicking between our political parties where neither side will ever agree with whatever the other side says.

But occasionally there is bi-partisan cooperation on issues. Unsurprisingly they cooperate on sin. Or, anti-sin if you like.

Recently, the Youth wing of PAS announced that Muslims should not celebrate Valentine’s Day and instead lead a sin-free life.

Not long after, the government department Jakim announced that it would launch an anti-Valentine’s Day campaign to persuade Muslims to lead a life sans sin.

First of all, wouldn’t it be nice if we could all lead lives without any sin at all? Why, this would obviate the need for Judgment Day, and even heaven and hell.

We would all live our lives never telling a single lie, never betraying friends and family, never asking for payola or paying off anyone to get something.

I don’t recall ever a time in history where people lived in such bliss but I suppose we should not stop hoping.

Secondly, there are certainly 365 days a year (less in a Muslim year) to both commit sins or not to, so it hardly seems efficient to concentrate so much time, energy and effort on just one.

Why, if I were a smart sinner, I’d just postpone my romantic dinner with my husband by one day. Although I still don’t understand why going on a date with my husband should be considered a sin. I thought that was why I signed on the dotted line.

Isn’t that why we encourage young girls to sign up for marriage, so that they would stop sinning, the little hussies? So the dating would become kosher?

I do agree, however, that we should not focus all our passion on our loved one (or several) on just one day in a year.

We should instead spread it out so that our beloveds feel adored every day. That is, if they don’t feel smothered instead.

Perhaps our problem is that, unless prompted, most of us forget about romance in our lives. Everybody needs some, and why restrict it to certain days in the year?

Instead of having an anti-Valentine’s Day campaign, I propose that Jakim (and PAS, too, if they’d like to) do a year-long one on love.

The campaign could have some catchy name, like “How Do I love Thee, Let Me Count the Ways” (and there should be at least 365 romantic ideas). Or, “What’s Love Got To Do With It? Romancing the Halal Way.”

Or, in tune with our current government slogan, “1Love.” This however might be problematic for those who may have more than one beloved in their lives.

But campaign slogans may not be enough, especially when people don’t understand what they actually stand for. What we therefore need are role models. People whom everyone can look up to as fine examples of perfect halal sin-free love.

In this case, who would be better suited for these roles than our religious leaders themselves?

Presumably they all have wives they love. Therefore they should lead these campaigns by giving talks on how they express their love for their wives.

Every single day, of course. It would be instructive for the rest of us, not to mention rivetting.

I’d love to know how PAS youth make their women feel special. Do they compliment them on their looks, or on their cooking skills? For those with wives who work outside the home, do they take them out for a celebratory meal (and thus give them a day off from the kitchen) when they get promoted?

How do Jakim officers fete their wives? On birthdays and anniversaries, what do they give their lovies? Since sexiness by one’s spouse is very much allowed, do they shop the Victoria’s Secret catalogue for risqué undies? Apparently it’s well documented that apart from diamond rings, sexy undies always work.

Lest anyone think I’m mocking anyone, I am dead serious. You can’t take away a fun activity like Valentine’s Day without giving a suitable alternative.

It is simply not enough to say that since Valentine’s Day leads to sin, you must just do something unsinful. There needs to be more pro-active ideas than that.

Give examples of unsinful things a loving couple could get up to, especially if they are married. What would be suitable replacements for a bouquet of roses, a box of chocolates or a teddy bear, for example? And where would be good dinner venues, those with presumably bright lights and religious music?

And what advice would they give on how to douse passions that such evenings might arouse?

All of us long-time marrieds are waiting with bated breath. After all we want to go to heaven, too.

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Winds of change beckon in Egypt

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IMPORTANT MESSAGE FOR ALL
The articles are captured from the original writer, MsMarina (with her permission). SambalBelacan is just compiling articles to make easier to find. Any comments received will remain un-respond because it's not mine.Reach her at her very own blog at http://rantingsbymm.blogspot.com/ Please.
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Wednesday February 2, 2011
Winds of change beckon in Egypt
MUSINGS
By MARINA MAHATHIR


It started in Tunisia and has now spread to Egypt. People are revolting against longstanding leaders who have ruled with iron fists and lived in opulence while the masses suffer with soaring unemployment and a rising cost of living.

WHOEVER said the Year of the Rabbit would be a gentle one?

In Tunisia, a small act of desperation literally sparked off historic changes.

A young man called Mohamad Bouazizi, educated but only able to earn a living selling fruit and vegetables at an illegal stall, set himself on fire after the authorities confiscated it.

Mohamad symbolised all the young and disenfranchised in Tunisia, frustrated by the huge gap between them and the extremely wealthy elite, and thus sparked large protests.

In less than a month, the much-hated President and his family were out and Tunisia is now in the throes of transition to a new government, the shape of which nobody quite knows yet.

Whatever it becomes, Tunisia’s people revolt had inspired others.

Smaller protests started to spring up in Algeria, Jordan and Yemen.

And then Egypt, with the largest population in the Middle East – 80 million, suddenly caught fire.

We have to realise that people don’t revolt just to be trendy. The Middle East has been ripe for this for a long time.

Long-standing leaders rule them with iron hands, rigging votes as well as disallowing their people of much freedom.

Some use religion as the basis for such repression.

But such leaders can slowly go blind and deaf.

Many of them fail to notice that their population, which comprise the younger generation mostly, are the ones who are facing a desperate unemployment situation.

According to the International Labour Organisation, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has the worst unemployment problem in the world.

In Egypt, 58% of the population is under 25 years old.

In 2003 it had the highest unemployment rate in the world, at 25.6%, and there is an additional 500,000 unemployed each year.

Across the Arab world, the unemployment rate stands at 20%.

This translates to 22 million people, out of which 60% are youth.

Much of this unemployment is attributed to the failure of most Arab countries to link education to the needs of the job market.

As we can see from the events in Egypt right now, nothing could be more dangerous for leaders than to educate young people for jobs that do not exist.

Couple that with a failing economy which depletes people’s already low standards of living and a refusal to address those issues, then you provide kindling dry enough to be set alight with any match.

And it doesn’t even have to be an internal one.

This should be a lesson for leaders everywhere.

More than anything, people’s dignity and self-respect is important.

In this light, a job and the ability to provide for one’s family is part of that personal dignity.

When people are unemployed, it is not because they are lazy and choosy.

It is because there are no jobs or none that matches their educational attainments.

How humiliating it is to be forced, like Mohamad Bouazizi, to take a job selling vegetables in a market when you are an educated person.

But only leaders who are willing to listen to people will understand the need for such dignity.

If at the same time, a leader is seen as not only unwilling to listen but also greedy and corrupt, living in unashamed opulence as Tunisia’s former President and his wife did while his people had so little, then there will come a time when the patience of the people will run out.

Malaysians may shake their heads at the riots in Egypt.

But it has to be understood that the desperation and frustration of Egyptians far exceeds anything we have ever known.

And after brutal repression all these years, to go out on the streets to demand a return of their dignity is an act of courage which we rarely have to show.

Egyptians and their Arab counterparts are not scared of dying to gain freedom.

That is what’s frightening every single leader across the region now.

Especially since even the police and army, crucial to maintaining power, are also rebelling.

I am appalled at the silence on our side at this historic moment, apart from ensuring our students are safe.

Indeed, most world leaders have been caught off-guard and dumbfounded by this.

Some big powers are even trying to hedge their bets, not quite supporting their old friends while trying to encourage the people’s revolt.

After all, they had been supporting undemocratic regimes and now democracy has a chance to bloom without their help at all.

And the countries they have invaded for the sake of “democracy” are not doing that well either.

We should watch closely this historic moment in the MENA and learn the many lessons from there.

And let us never think that such a revolution can’t happen here.

As MENA leaders are finding, never be foolish enough to say never.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

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Resolutions for one and all

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IMPORTANT MESSAGE FOR ALL
The articles are captured from the original writer, MsMarina (with her permission). SambalBelacan is just compiling articles to make easier to find. Any comments received will remain un-respond because it's not mine.Reach her at her very own blog at http://rantingsbymm.blogspot.com/ Please.
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Wednesday January 5, 2011
Resolutions for one and all
MUSINGS By MARINA MAHATHIR
newsdesk@thestar.com.my


Malaysians from the famous to the not so famous and the man in the street ought to resolve this year to making the country be a better place for all. Here are some suggestions.

IT’S the New Year and, as with convention, we should really make resolutions, even though the chances of keeping them are slim.

I get more half-hearted about making them each year although my list nowadays tends to be short and realistic, with a 50% chance of being kept.

I do however like to indulge in making lists for other people.

For my children, I wish they would resolve to work harder at school and be tidier. For my colleagues and friends, I wish that they (and I) could brush aside small problems and concentrate on the big ones.

Needless to say, I can’t help but wish for resolutions from our various public figures, particularly those in government. Here’s a list, in no particular order.

I wish that our Government would resolve to:

1. Slap down rather than merely slapping the wrists of those public figures and politicians who misbehave. Just say “that’s nonsense and we won’t stand for it!” rather than the wishy-washy “we must investigate” reaction. Or worse still, complete silence.

2. Stop twisting words in order to spin what’s wrong into what’s right.

3. Stop using simpering journalists to interview politicians because they do a great job of convincing the public that both they and their interviewees are nothing but idiots.

4. Stop demonising people who are critical and calling them traitors when they probably love their country more than most.

5. Stop being afraid of those who think that getting ahead means getting handouts for everything in the belief that this will let them stand tall.

6. Do the right thing even when it may make them unpopular for a while. Ban plastic bags. Push for safer sex. Outlaw child marriages.

7. Remind some people that they are paid by taxpayers to do their job and that does not entitle them to act as if they are God’s representatives on earth.

8. In fact, I truly wish we could just forget about having to use taxpayers’ money to pay anyone who is likely to believe they are God’s representatives on earth.

9. Allow more consultation with people on the ground who know what communities need for their own development. Maybe have a policy that ensures that absolutely nobody is marginalised for any reason.

10. Overhaul the entire education system to make it more open, democratic, and at par with the best in the world. And completely eradicate politics from it.

11. Make sports and the arts as important as economic development because we need to have a country with soul.

12. Ban the habit of giving titles to sports, arts and entertainment figures until they’re at least 50 or have had significant achievements in their field for a number of years. Roger Federer has been No 1 in the tennis world for a record-breaking 237 weeks and the Swiss government still hasn’t made him a Datuk.

I wish politicians would resolve to:

1. Stop politicking and concede that sometimes the other side can be right.

2. Work together more on issues that affect everyone. Australia’s successful HIV programme worked well because from the very beginning, the government and opposition decided it was a bipartisan issue.

3. Be more self-reflective. And breathe before they say anything.

4. Get rid of sexism everywhere it is found, especially in political parties, in Parliament and State Assemblies and in general commentary.

5. Come out and unequivocally condemn violence against women, no ifs, no buts.

6. Publicly shake the hand of an HIV-positive adult.

I wish the police would resolve to:

1. Ticket every single person who double and triple park on Fridays and not excuse them just because they are apparently communing with God. Or, watching football.

2. Stop finding parangs in the cars of every single person who accuses them of wrongdoing.

3. Stop shrugging their shoulders every time someone complains of their bags being snatched, laptops stolen etc. Police reports aren’t just for claiming insurance or getting new ICs done.

I wish Malaysians in general would:

1. Use their car signal lights for a change

2. Queue

3. Park in the right places, dead straight and not encroach onto empty spots.

4. Not double and triple park in front of mosques on Fridays and think that God is OK with it.

5. Stop waiting for someone else to do something

6. Stop putting down people who do something

7. Stop reading so much gossip and trash. It really doesn’t reflect well on us.

8. Stop believing everything they read. Just because it’s on the Internet really doesn’t make it truer.

9. Register to vote if they haven’t yet.

10. Remember that their votes are valuable and should not be given away on empty promises.

Happy 2011, folks!

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Diversity is our great wealth

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IMPORTANT MESSAGE FOR ALL
The articles are captured from the original writer, MsMarina (with her permission). SambalBelacan is just compiling articles to make easier to find. Any comments received will remain un-respond because it's not mine.Reach her at her very own blog at http://rantingsbymm.blogspot.com/ Please.
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Wednesday December 22, 2010
Diversity is our great wealth
Musings by MARINA MAHATHIR


Malaysian Muslims need to travel more, even within the Muslim world just to see its diversity. Muslims all over the world have just as many different cultures and traditions as they do similarities.

I was really hoping to end the year on a happier note. But in a very fractious year, there is simply no let-up. The long list of intolerance and human rights abuse continues unabated.

We live in a country of a great diversity. Our people are of many different ethnicities and religions. That is our great wealth and strength and undoubtedly we have managed to live better with that diversity for more than 50 years.

Now, however, diversity is a fact that can’t even be acknowledged.

What does plurality mean? It just means that we are not homogenous, that we have many different streams among our people, whether it’s ethnic makeup, beliefs or opinions.

Being plural is just a statement of fact, not a judgement call on which of these streams are better than the other.

Yet, there are people warning us about the dangers of pluralism, because apparently pluralism makes equal what they believe is not. Where they got this is not stated.

All of us believe that our religion is the best one. But the fact that other religions exist is something we have to accept.

In parts of the world, our religion is not accepted and indeed discriminated against. If we complain about that, is it not hypocritical for us to do the same at home?

In the Quran, God talks about believers and defines them this way: “Believers are only they whose hearts tremble with awe whenever God is mentioned, and whose faith is strengthened whenever His messages are conveyed unto them, and who in their Sustainer place their trust.” (Surah Al-Anfal, Verse 2).

Can we seriously go around and decide who are believers and who are not? And even if we could, can we do anything about it? As God says, “Behold, God lets go. Astray him who will (to go astray), just as He guides unto Himself all who turn unto Him” (Surah Al-R’ad, Verse 27).

Nor does pluralism refer only to us and the other but also within our own communities. How is it we can be so intolerant even of those within our own fold, unless we don’t know our own religion?

“All believers are but brethren. Hence, (whenever they are at odds) make peace between your two brethren, and remain conscious of God, so that you might be graced with His mercy.” (Surah Al-Hujarat, Verse 10).

And yet, our leaders are calling us to hound people whose beliefs differ from ours, even when their roots go back to the same source as ours.

Sometimes, I think Malaysian Muslims need to travel more, even within the Muslim world, just to see its diversity.

Muslims all over the world have just as many different cultures and traditions as they do similarities.

Not everybody does things exactly the way we do it. Yet their core beliefs, what makes them Muslims, are all the same.

So who are we to decide whether they are wrong or not?

More practically speaking, if we insist that Shiites are deviants, then how do we explain the Islamic Republic of Iran and its membership in the OIC? Or is inconsistency simply part of politics?

Not only are we a plural society in terms of race, religion and within religion itself, we are also plural in other ways, including sexuality.

Here again we go against our own core beliefs in order to act out our own prejudices.

If we believe that God determines everything, then surely our sexuality is not a matter of choice either.

Therefore, if we did not choose to be heterosexual, it stands to reason that nobody chose to be homosexual either. In this way, we are equal before the Divine.

How then does this justify the type of savage discrimination that some of us insist must be inflicted against those of minority sexualities?

If we persecute every single gay man, woman and child in this country, would God guarantee that no disaster will ever befall us henceforth?

If I sound frustrated, it is because I am completely tired of the abhorrently arrogant way that those in authority have conducted themselves in the past year.

Somehow supremacist beliefs about just about everything is gaining ground, not just about race and religion but also about gender, sexuality, age, disability and everything else not considered the “norm”.

Those of us who complain about discrimination and abuse become the ones who are branded irreligious.

Did we forget this verse? “O men! Behold, We have created you all out of males and females, and have made you into nations and tribes, so that you might come to know one another”. (Surah Al-Hujarat, Verse 13).

Could there be nothing clearer about a pluralistic world?

Try and have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, everyone!

For enlightenment, do read this http://www.ammanmessage.com/

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