Daily, we are bombarded with news and images of the horrible suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza.
To see the levelled buildings, the dead and injured, the "thousand-yard stare" of those who have been in the thick of war — all these have had an effect on us.
Who in their right mind would not be affected by such things, where the innocent suffer?
Whether you support the Israelis or the Palestinians, surely the sight of innocents suffering should stir feelings of pity.
In Malaysia, it is safe to say that the vast majority of people — Muslim or otherwise, agnostic or atheist — support the Palestinians, long driven out of their lands and, in the case of Gazans, crammed into a narrow strip of land.
Those who do not are unlikely to have chosen a side.
The many demonstrations and rallies since the beginning of the conflict between Israel and Palestine prove this. Tensions are running high and this has spilled over even into the lower house of Parliament.
Words such as as kafir (infidel), Zionist and Yahudi (Jew) were creeping into the vocabulary of our parliamentarians, as the august house became, well, not so august, though not for the first time.
The difference here is that events in Gaza gave it an extra sting.
This was likely what prompted Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Johari Abdul to ban the use of such words.
These statements, he said, could make things worse by touching on sensitivities, leading to our harmony being harmed.
Johari cited Standing Order 36(10)(C), which states that it is wrong to use words that would cause feelings of hurt or enmity between one race and another in Malaysia.
He reminded parliamentarians to maintain decorum and prioritise national issues instead of using the Dewan Rakyat as a platform for politicking. He warned them that he would take action, too.
Indeed, members of parliament are held at a higher level when it comes to everything, especially so when they speak in the Dewan Rakyat. They are expected to maintain decorum as they represent the highest level of the legislative branch of government.
That is not to say that there have not been breaches of decorum in the past, when "unparliamentary" words were used. Parliamentarians, after all, are only human.
We are just thankful that our MPs do not stoop to the level of their counterparts in other countries, who have been known to engage in brawls, including throwing chairs, though the latter could possibly be because those comfortable-looking chairs our parliamentarians sit on (with some seen snoozing) also look too heavy to even lift.
Yet, one former minister has taken Johari to task for the ban, which she called an "unfair move" as it blocked MPs' freedom of speech.
Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin said such words were not deemed offensive, citing especially the word kafir.
After all, that word, she argues, can be found in the Quran and the hadiths, adding that it only became an issue because many MPs lack understanding of the word.
It is merely an Arabic word, she said, used to refer to "non-believers", meaning non-Muslims.
Zuraida, however, is missing the point. The situation the Gazans find themselves in means that the context in which these words are used has extra bite.
Using just those three words (and there are probably others) can imply that the MP, or anyone else for that matter, to whom the words were aimed is a supporter of the Israelis.
The argument that the words are used elsewhere and do not mean anything, therefore, makes no sense.
Let us take, for example, the word "leak". It is a common word used to describe a variety of things.
Yet, one of the most notorious examples of a breach of decorum in terms of what is said in Parliament happened in 2007 because of that word, when Kinabatangan MP Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin alluded to a woman's menstrual cycle when talking about the leaky ceiling in Parliament.
"Where is the leak? Batu Gajah (female MP Fong Po Kuan) also leaks every month," he said, leading to an uproar (and rightly so).
The key here is context, and Zuraida should keep this in mind. The power of words is such that even the most innocuous can be used as a knife that cuts deep.
The writer is NST news editor
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times