WE forget so easily. May 13 is just 49 years old. Just over a generation ago. Yet some of us allow our minds to be poisoned by hatred for the other. We thought “othering” was a white man’s burden. Not so.
So long as we have leaders who are determined to chain ordinary people with mind-forged manacles of hatred, we — so proudly Asian — will become carriers of the white man’s disease.
The situation is so fragile that no less than the Acting Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah, had to come forward with a regal warning.
Speaking at Universiti Sultan Azlan Shah’s 11th convocation in Kuala Kangsar on Saturday, he said: “ Malaysia has all the components that can stir a conflict, but the past leaders chose not to be in conflict.” Sultan Nazrin’s warning comes hot on the heels of a riot at a temple in Putra Heights, Subang Jaya, last Monday where the tinderbox that Malaysia sometimes is was on full display.
Yes, our past leaders have left us a lesson of love. The current and future leaders must continue to pass that lesson unadulterated to the present and future generations of Malaysians.
Otherwise hatred will fester as does an old wound. One May 13 is one too many. Carnage is costly. We have too many examples in the world where dreams turn into nightmares.
Afghanistan — the land of the Pashtuns — is damaged and divided by rivalries. Syria, too, is ravaged beyond recognition. With their parents killed, Syrian child migrants are forced to search for their dreams far from their home. Yemen is another sad tale of humanity in crisis.
The Independent newspaper of the United Kingdom on Oct 25 quoted the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, an independent group that studies conflicts, as saying that 56,000 civilians and combatants have been killed between January 2016 and October this year. Closer home, is Myanmar’s genocide of the Rohingya.
Before the conflict in 2016, there were one million Rohingya in Myanmar. More than 700,000 have since been driven to Bangladesh. Many have migrated elsewhere to escape the atrocities at home. India is not spared from hatred for the minorities either. Europe, the land where “othering” perhaps began, is seeing a revival. Malaysia must not become these.
The common element is the poison of “othering”, either in terms of race or religion. Some politicians fan these two elements of hatred instead of helping to calm agitated minds.
They either knowingly or otherwise kindle the flame of conflict. The conflicts elsewhere and our very own May 13 riots must be constantly kept in mind. If we do not, we will slip, slide into mayhem.
We are a nation of plenty. There is enough for 32 million Malaysians and more. Malaysia is a blessed land. There is wealth in the forest, there are riches in the rivers and black gold in the ocean bed. Barring greed, there is more than enough for all. Provided we are not at each other’s throats. For if we surrender to hatred, there will not be peace.