The month of Syawal came 6 days ago. The celebrations continue. The young 'uns are determined that the 30 days of fasting is balanced with at least 30 days of feasting. Ah, to be young and single-minded!
The first of Syawal went the usual way, with the morning Eid il Fitri prayers at our surau ( I'm chairman, still ) followed with the lemang, rendang, kueh-mueh etc everybody contributed. In fact everything started the night before when we went around for the "takbir" from house to house. We broke up by street groupings, otherwise we'd have to do about 200 house. This year our group had 2 new additions - Adik & Calit. We did 10 houses and finished the last one before midnight.
After the Eid il Fitri prayers we were back in the house, and the children and those with their own brood came around for "salam Raya" and exchanges of money packets. My wife and I stayed home, but the rest went to their uncles' houses nearby.
For one whole month I kept clear of all political and similiar news, so now I was catching up with all the news breaks and the sensational stories that the local media carry. My word ! - the multiple murders, the racial mudslinging, the UMNO internal quarrels, and the natural disasters in and out of the country !
The multiple murders remind me of the murder of the Pahang State Assemblyman by Mona Fendi and her men many years ago. It was said that Mona wouldn't have committed so brazen a murder if not for the fact that she'd done it at least once before in Klang. Because it involved a nonentity, the first case didn't attract public attention, and she found that "this is easy, and I can do this again".
Similiarly this Susilawati case appears to me, after the additional facts reported, that it's a case of "I'd gotten away with it easily before, I can do this again", also.
A few celebrity UMNO leaders are condemning PERKASA, while other leaders, including its President, are not quite taking similiar lines. It's not helpful to the majority of ordinary members who have shown sympathy to the message that PERKASA is carrying, one that everybody thought UMNO itself should be carrying. There's confusion, and that's no good for Najib. PERKASA, like DONG ZONG and the banned HINDRAF, is an NGO, not a political party. But the movement is clearly politically motivated, and what's implicated cannot be ignored. Notwithstanding the rights of the Chinese and the Indians, the special rights of the Malays, already ensconsed in the Federal Constitution , are the vital mainstays of a racially stable Malaysia , which in turn is a prerequisite for the future of this country as an economic entity of any worth. I don't think the Malays will negotiate from any other starting point.
The BN-concocted formula for at least a superficial peaceful multi-racial political co-existence is being dismantled by the forces that were unleashed by the glaring weaknesses of the Dollah regime. Fortunately, that incredibly confused leadership was cut short, but the damage was already done. The lid to the pandora box was opened. An alternative formula to civility has to be found, and real quick, or you can say good bye to "1 Malaysia" and whatever good that that still not totally accepted slogan was meant to achieve.
Najib says he's very proud of the groundwork of nation-building laid by his father, and rightly so. And this country owes a great deal to the man for the high road that it has taken. But Najib has to be very careful, so that he doesn't become tragically the son who buries the noble work of the famously tireless father.
Najib has to listen to the right advice, and to steer away from the politics of the insidious. The good and tested leaders are still around, and good and tested ideas need not be wasted by casting aside for new and untested ones, just so that a new "look" is achieved. Changing politics need not mean changing political values, like changing shirts. The wisdom of the ages and of wise men past is not nullified just because a new turn of phrase and a new voice has been found. Soothsayers and sychophants are the bane of leadership.
Least of all, but no less harmful, Najib shouldn't get distracted by personal vendattas, and dissuaded by petty acrimony around him.
We rejoice in our good health and fortune. But we should appreciate life more when we hear many others, far away, who are less fortunate. They suffer from hunger and ill-health because of the frailty of their state economy, and the fury of their climate and weather, and we should feel sorry.
So, in the spirit of the Celebration of the Grace, we should pray for compassion for mankind.
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