As little boys, we were all naughty; in one way
or other. Often, after one throws a stone that breaks glass, what is the
point of saying we had no intention to break the glass. We did;
regardless of purity of intentions.
Therefore, I find the attorney-general’s (AG) statement that there was
no intentionality for wrong-doing in the Perkasa leader’s statement more
telling about the AG and his way of thinking than whether the leader
did in fact mean to burn the Malay Bibles. The AG is merely imputing
intentions of another.
Intentionality in Organisational Behaviour is a complex subject of
serious study. In fact, my professor of public administration, Dr
Michael Harmon, wrote two books on this subject. One is called ‘Action
Theory’ and the other is called ‘Organizational Theory for Public
Administration’. Both are excellent and should be made compulsory
reading for all those who want and intent to join public services; both
policy people and execution people.
If the AG is politically neutral he would not have expressed his views
about this matter without explicit evidence which leads to that
conclusion. But, now it seems that he has assumed the role of
pseudo-investigator, evidence evaluator, and judge about the prosecution
probabilities.
If,
in fact there was a police investigation about his statement, then the
AG must reveal the actual evidence of the tape-recording, and/or actual
speech with the real text to prove there was no evidence of
intentionality to actually burn Bibles.
He must prove that it was only conjecture about the real feelings of
Malay Muslims (and, mind you, not Arab Muslims) and their intentions,
and if such Malay Bibles were in fact distributed with ‘Allah’ in the
text to refer to God Almighty; that is, the God of Abraham, Isaac
(Ishmael) and Jacob.
The actual context of the statement is what can help us resolve this
matter; not the AG’s opinion or even any sultan’s opinion. And, as with
the recent Cameron Highlands case, there is no point for that sultan to
lose his temper and show anger, after the horses have bolted the stable,
so to say. Why not present the evidence about who is doing all this
illegal logging; then, we will all know the truth.
Truth will set us free
I am a very big truth bug. I want to know the truth about any matter and
will not stop my pursuit until I know the truth about whatever the
matter, and however small it is. A colleague of mine at the
International Trade and Industry Ministry (Miti) once told me, “Just let
sleeping dogs lie; do not bug truth and truth will not bug you!” Wrong.
I believe that truth will set us free. At least that is what the bible
promises and I have experienced. Truth has that freeing value; and it is
an existential feeling about all matters in life, whether past,
present, or future issues. Christians believe Jesus is the way, the
truth, and the life. That is either a fact, and therefore true; or a lie
and therefore not true.
Truth matters in all of life, and therefore we have to hold all public
personalities to these truths that matter. No goon can be allowed to say
that he can burn the Bible, regardless of whether it is a Malay,
Arabic, or English bible and get away with such ‘irreverent language,
without even a basic reprimand’.
Even if it was not a threat; one has to view the burning any religious
books as sacrilegious; premised upon our Rukunegara. Instead, we get a
skewed-eyed AG who cannot distinguish between lies and truth.
Let me make my point in even more strident terms so that the goons can
understand. If ‘Allah’ is the one and only true word for God; and the
Arabs have been using this word for God since the times before Islam,
and the Prophet; how can 21st Century Melayus suddenly claim this
pre-Arabic and pre-Islamic word for God and reduce it now into a Malay
word, and to be used only by Malays in Melayusia.
It is when this is done that I argue that we are not living in Melayusia
but Malaysia. Those who want to live in Melayusia should maybe move to
any geography wherein the Malay-Muslim version of all interpretation
about life and living become a worldview of life and for life. Then,
even the guillotine can be freely used because then we become ‘katak
dibawah tempurung’.
The roof of that worldview is only the top of the coconut shell and
nothing else really matters; including all other objective truths. But
then we forget that even our God is reduced to the coconut shell’s
greatness with its sky. One can really understand all this through a
movie; please go and watch ‘The God’s must be crazy!’
Negaraku; tanah tumpahnya darahku?
We are Royal Military College (RMC) Old Puteras! Next year, my intake
from 1965 celebrates our golden anniversary of 50 years of friendship.
We are a multi-ethnic group of Old Puteras (OPs) who were about 100 in
our year of intake. Three of us were even Singaporeans; the only three
from Singapore ever, because in that year, too, Singapore left to become
a nation-state. They too celebrate 50 next year!
RMC
trained us to salute the flag of the Federation; and we did this every
weekend at parade. We were taught to live, fight, and die for the flag.
In our time, we had free choice as to what we wanted to do after we left
the F/RMC, whether after two or four years.
Not many of us actually joined the Armed Forces of Malaysia and fought
for this nation-state? To my count, not more than 10. Does that mean,
the others were not “shedding blood” for our nation-state, as implied
within our song; our national anthem? Not really.
It was a metaphorical way of saying that we must always find ways to put
the national interest over and above one’s personal, or private, or
communal interest. Then we are trained to become an officer and a
gentleman as we were; never otherwise. If we cannot do this objectively
and truthfully; we are still only kampung boys and must simply admit
that.
Negara-Ku; the movement of Rakyat Malaysia
When Sarawak did not permit entry of Ambiga Sreenevasan into their
state, it was an insult to the meaning of Malaysian-ness. If the
peninsular Malayans cannot sing and mean the same words as did the
Sabahans and Sarawakians; then we are not yet one country.
That is why we are arguing for a movement of people groups to sing and
understand our song all over again; but, without a narrower worldviews
being propagated by the weaker ethnicities of Malaysians; defined by
their emotional view of what is this nation-state we call Malaysia.
Negara-Ku is a peoples’ movement to reclaim this land from our
politicians and narrow minded bigots who think that only their worldview
defines all truths that matter. They even redefine the federal
constitution and the Rukunegara as the starting foundations of who we
are and can become. Let us become a Negara-Ku; a jointly shared
community of personal visions of/for what our land of promise can
become, if we all can reclaim it; each in our small way.
KJ JOHN was in public service for 29 years. The views expressed here are
his personal views and not those of any institution he is involved
with. Write to him at
kjjohn@ohmsi.net with any feedback or views.
