‘Moderate’ is the new ‘Extreme’?

Malaysia has always been a moderate country. I mean, how much more moderate can you be? If we all agree that Saudi or Pakistan is extreme in terms of religious practice, then we must agree that Malaysia is a moderate Islamic country.

There is no such thing as ‘honour-killing’ in Malaysia. We don’t force our Muslim ladies to cover up from head to toe. The Muslims can always go on a date or to a party like everybody else – men or women.

However, the line is drawn just up to dating and partying. It is wrong for Muslim unwed couples to meet up in isolate places and they certainly are not allowed to live together.

Gays, lesbians and transgenders are wrong as according to the Law and could be punished and forced to live a straight life.

To be frank, I see this as ‘fair-enough’.

Malaysians are allowed to a certain extend of freedom but are still bound by the Law of God. Christians are made of the same Law too, so there should not be any problem at all in abiding this simple natural law. This is why I believe that Malaysia is the best place to raise kids. We are free to watch Sex in The City series without the ‘sex’ scenes that may embarrass us while watching with the kids. We don’t have to be overly protective as to what the kids watch on TV or the cinemas as everything has been ensured to be ‘adequately’ appropriate.

Somehow, all of the sudden, some people today seem to start thinking that our moderate living is not good enough. They tend to push the line of moderation, thus, unbalancing the ‘cans’ and the ‘cannots’. According to them, there shouldn’t be any ‘cannots’. Every human must be allowed to do anything they like because it is their rights. The Law of God must not bypass their needs and their wants – their lusts.

Suddenly, liberation is the new moderation and ‘moderate’ is the new extreme.

Now, we must not confuse between liberation and moderation.

Not letting the Christians use the word ‘Allah’ in the replace of ‘Father’ in the bible is not an act of defying moderation. For all I know, Christians don’t need to use the word ‘Allah’ in order for their prayers to be accepted. In fact, they don’t really use it except for some quarters who want to pick a fight with the Muslims. And these people don’t use the word ‘Allah’ when they are praying at home when nobody’s listening. Believe me, I know.

True Christians won’t pick a fight with anybody. Therefore, I feel sick in the stomach to see Lim Guan Eng or Hannah Yeoh ‘preaching’ about how to be good Muslims! I mean, why don’t they start by trying to be good Christians instead and not create tension in the country?

One more thing, the ‘jawi’ writings on signboards are not a sign of extremism but it is part of the country’s history. So, never let the Chinese tells you otherwise.

On the other hand, the Chinese writings on signboards are totally unnecessary as it doesn’t originate from any part of Malaysian history except that it came with the Chinese immigrants back during the days of Hai San and Ghee Hin.

I cannot read Chinese, so Chinese writings on signboards mean nothing to me but pure racism. It shows how the Chinese community is totally out of touch with reality. Well, it is about time they accept that they are not in Hong Kong or China but in Malaysia – the land the Malays so generously shared with them and the rest of us.

What I’m trying to say here is that since May 13, 1969, Malaysia has never been in so much tension until some quarters decided to bark that the kind of ‘moderation’ which Malaysia has been practicing, has expired.

Let me re-iterate that ‘liberation is not moderation’ and we should never get mixed up or confused by their deafening annoying bark.

The truth is, Malaysia has always been a perfect model of true moderate muslim country to the extent that we don’t have to declare to the world that we are moderate. The world knows.

It is when we started to announce it that we open ourselves to scrutiny and debate.

There is no need for Malaysia to redefine, reaffirm or renew our slogan of moderation, we just need to stand on it, proudly.

Rags to Riches, Riches to Rotten

Many believe that you only get to be wealthy if you already come from a wealthy family. Many also believe that if you don’t come from a wealthy family, the only way to get rich is the wrong way.

The truth is, our people refuse to believe that hard-work and faith can really turn rags to riches.

In general, we take the word ‘rich’ as the same meaning with ‘successful’. And admit it or not, many of us believe that the only way to be ‘successful’ is to be involved in corruption.

And yet many had proven that they can beat the odds, like Syed Mokhtar AlBukhary who didn’t finish school because the family couldn’t afford it. He becomes a millionaire through years of hard-work.

There was also the late Tan Sri Lau Gek Poh who had to pawn his wife jewelry to start a business which later turned into a family business that includes dealership of Mercedez Benz and Porche. Of course we have the late Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong who escaped hardship and war in China and worked as carpenter and vegetable farmer before things got better for him and founded Genting.

In the west, they believe that hard-work and great mind or great talent can get you anywhere you want to go. Therefore, they don’t always relate ‘successful’ to ‘corruption’. Corruption might ‘help’, but then, corruption alone won’t get them anywhere.

Just to name a few of rags to riches from the west:- Howard Shultz - a son of a truck driver who managed to get a scholarship that finally led him to a decent job in Xerox. He later bought a coffee-shop called Starbuck and becomes one of the richest men in the world.

Francois Pinault - quit school for being so poor and worked in his family’s timber business before decided to take risk and started buying small businesses. He is now one of the richest men in the world.

Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg are among the ordinary or less than ordinary people who made it huge. Some may not come from the rags, but they all make their billions from their talents, hard-work and great minds - not from corruption.

These successful people, they explore, they discover, they invent, they conquer their fields and own the world. They stand proudly with their brands and marks. They live luxuriously and deserve every penny of it.

In Malaysia, however, people can become as rich by just being corrupt alone.

You don’t believe me? Haven’t you heard that luxurious ‘lifestyle’ is the trend or the ‘in-thing’ in Malaysia today?

Don’t you know that there are Malaysians, including the young ones, who can afford a vacation on luxurious yatch, relaxing on the beach of the Carribean, shopping in Harrods or eats at the finest restaurant in Paris and smoke the finest Cuban cigar? And they don’t even have to have talent or discover anything.

We know that there are Malaysians who had honestly made it to Hollywood. To name a couple who have made it to the top are Michelle Yeoh and Jimmy Choo. Both of them had a humble start from the bottom, had gone through hardships before finally broke the barriers with determination and great talent.

However, apart from these two names, we don’t really know how some other Malaysians get invited into parties with the Stars, mingling with people from the list of Fortune 500, flashing their million dollar mansions and cars – living the lifestyle of the rich and famous. England, Manhattan, Paris is second home to them, not just a vacation destination anymore.

But even with all their ‘success’, we cannot relate their names to any talent, product or business or ideas or invention or discovery or anything at all, that could have put them there.

I mean, how did they get so rich when they haven’t done anything as big that could have caught the attention of the world?

Now, let’s not pretend that we don’t know where they got the money from.

We all know, and the world knows, that these not-so-significant Malaysians got to live the lifestyle of the rich and famous by simply being corrupt. They don’t really do anything to get there, that they might as well print a name card that says ‘Corruptor’.

What is amazing about them is that they don’t have the slightest shame flashing their money and luxurious lifestyle when everybody knows that they don’t deserve a cent of it. They just feel fulfilled by the emptiness of their heads.

Speechless eh? Talk about being corrupt to the bone.

When a person is corrupt and proud of it, it is a sign of a rotten soul. While others turn their lives from rags to riches, these corruptors just turn from riches to rotten. And rotten souls stink. You think people can’t smell it beyond the Armani suit?

When other riches served as inspiration to the world, these rotten souls only serve as a shame to the nation.

And we still believe that we can become a First World Nation in few years to come?