Flooding, divine crystal-balling and idiocy

Ibrahim Ali says those who oppose unity or come-togetherness /penyatuan are brainless. I fully agree with him on this point. But only up to a point.
Those who support unity without regard to ethical principles, without clear basis are even more brainless. Those who come together blindly without clear directions are even more stupid. Would anyone come together in the commission of a crime, stealing money from the people, pillaging the country’s coffers? Most will say no this kind of come-togetherness.

So I agree with Tok Him, but his statement must be qualified. Also, we can expect some reciprocity on this. The Chinese will say, at least privately, lets unite to ward off Malay hegemony. The Indians will also be told to do likewise because Indians are also non Malays. What do we Malays do then? It will be a mark of social relations maturity  to expect such reciprocity and then react by accommodating such divergent views. But people like Ibrahim Ali will come back and say- only Malays have the preceding right to unite, the others cannot.

Then you have members of the government, who ought to behave statesmanlike and think of national interest, joining the fray and siding with one faction of the community and lending further voice to factionalism.

So the question I ask- can we trust such a government that enforces the rights of one faction over the others? Clearly this is a sign of a government that no longer has credibility. The floods and the knee jerk reaction of the ruling government show they have lost the mandate of heaven.

Let me say at this early stage- a union between PAS and UMNO will only result in the concentration of power and thereafter of wealth-creating resources in the hands of the elite- the top 20% of the Malay community. The rest of us are just cannon fodder. Regarded as digits in the grand scheme of agama , bangsa dan negara. It will be a union between the feudal and bourgeois elements in PAS and UMNO. History has shown us repeatedly how the men of God collude with the aristocratic and the modern day aristocrats in fleecing the common man. Religion will be in the service of the moneyed class.

I know this is entirely a decision that PAS is going to make and we don’t interfere in their domestic decision making, but this caveat ought to be taken into consideration.

Don’t come together if you are motivated by your subjective primal fears and prejudices. What Ibrahim Ali wants to see, has taken place spontaneously without being asked patronizingly by the government. Scores of volunteers came together to help flood victims in Kelantan. Who were these scores of volunteers?

These were people of all races, different religions (Christians, Buddhists, and Hindus) and people of different cultures. China sent money. Singapore I was told by their officers at the Singapore high commission sent money and 3 portable water purification equipment. (I hope these will be returned in good shape by the handlers). Taiwan another chinakui country, sent many things and medical people to Malaysia. But nothing from Ain Arabia in Bukit Bintang. I think the flood victims will relish the chicken and lamb mendi.

So, without being told, or desiring something formal like a political union, people will come together in the commission of good things. People helped out one another when disasters struck. Malays helped Chinese, Chinese helped Malays. The Malaysian Indians too. We don’t ask for your political affiliations when in need. People are only reluctant to team up with UMNO- that’s all.

Talking about stupidity- the severity of the floods in the country especially that in Kelantan, is exceeded only by some of the most stupid and banal statements coming out.

In ancient times, the shaman, the village magician, the holy men will read chicken entrails to interpret the future. Karen Armstrong tells us a story about how in ancient Israel, two goats will be sacrificed; one to the gods and the other to be displayed and villagers will rub the goat as if to transfer all their sial to the goat. The goat will then be released into the wilderness to be eaten by hyenas or lions and the sial from the community which has been transferred to the goat will disappear. In other places, the village shaman, pawang, bomoh, guruji, will read tea leaves.

In Malaysia, the bomoh who claimed to have slapped a ‘cocodile’ will use his long bamboo telescope to decipher the future of Najib and Rosmah. He will proclaim he sees nothing but two people who could not sleep because the Mat Rempits so patronized by Azeez Rahim and hailed as honourable people, have been terrorising the neighbourhood of Jalan Duta. The walls at Najib’s private residence off Jalan Duta which is quite private and secluded, must be made up of thin walls or those blasted Mat Rempits are racing right in front his doorsteps. Maybe Rosmah was trying to get sympathy to cover up her jalan2 joli sana sini escapades.

In Malaysia some ustazs interpret the floods as some divine lessons. The floods in Kelantan were the result of not implementing enough Islam. Does it follow then, in the states that are not overtly Islam or maybe even headed by non-Muslims such as Penang, more Islamic principles have in fact been implemented and therefore suffered less severe flooding or no flooding at all?

Some people interpret the floods in Kelantan as a sign from God that He wants to clean up Kelantan before Hudud is implemented. But I think there are more secular and temporal reasons for the floods- exceptional rain and large volume of water that cannot be contained by trees and forests because these have been depleted, low investments in drainage maintenance, clogged up rivers or plain carelessness by the government. Can we make things less complicated and make explanations less concealed?

But the best lesson read from the floods must have come from UMNO. UMNO’s wise men are saying, the floods clearly show that Malays must unite. The floods have shown that UMNO can cooperate with PAS and that cooperation must be taken up the next level. The ‘reading’ of course ignored that help came also from non-Malays and other Malays who are not UMNO. So why is the union desired is one that is between UMNO and PAS- why not PAS and PKR or for that matter, why isn’t national unity promoted? Why is only Malay unity promoted and that too will be confined to UMNO and PAS?

The floods in Kelantan and in other parts of the country should not be used to conceal human weaknesses and incompetence. Nor should they be used as opportunities of divine interpretation. If that is the case, there are so many possibilities. What if the floods in Kelantan are read as God’s wrath on the Kelantan government for trying to play God in implementing hudud or that, it is equally expected some people will interpret this as divine sign of His displeasure at implementing Hudud.

What the floods showed were the actions of an immensely under equipped state government trying to cope with the floods and dealing with the aftermath. It ought to receive unqualified help.

The floods further showed the effects of years of discrimination on the part of the national government in starving the people of Kelantan of much needed funds. The floods showed to us, the effects of a state peopled mostly by Malays held at political ransom by a national government which refused to accept it no longer enjoyed moral legitimacy. It finally showed its underhand and lack of political scruples in demanding for political concessions.

So to answer Ibrahim Ali, only the mental gnomes will desire unprincipled come-togetherness and union.