Everyone Wants To Be a Hero

Since the recent national outburst over the usage of the word ''Allah" for non-Muslims, many opportunistic individuals especially politicians decided to take this golden opportunity to be a hero despite the fact that their action was damaging to the state of security of our nation.

UMNO via one of it's wings decided to host a nationwide protest in mosques and so on to protest this decision, why not, this is the time for the party to show it's core supporter, the Malays,who are mainly Muslims who is the true defender of Islam, not PAS who is working for DAP to undermine Malays and Islam, UMNO is the one, true defender of Malay interests which includes the position of Islam in this country.

Their action was no surprise to me, as they are expected to do so as that is their official stand is that the word ''Allah" can only be use for Muslims as not doing so may cause confusion among Muslims and being a political party that UMNO is, of course they must show how they are willing to fight for their stand.

However what came as a surprise was the spat between PKR Kulim MP Zuklifle Nordin and PAS Shah Alam MP over the issue, more so the action of Zuklifle who went against the party's official stand which the word''Allah'' can be used but must not be misused, not to mention the official stand of Pakatan Rakyat as a whole. He wants to show he is a hero so much that he actually made a police report against his Pakatan comrade despite the many reports already been made by some NGO's, despite the fact that his action went against the coalition common framework policy that strive for unity when it comes to support of such issue.

Pakatan Rakyat lawmakers must strive to be a team player, not only inter-party but at the same time intra-party between it's coalition partners. This was Barisan Nasional strenght. One must remember how with the spirit of give and take, UMNO sat down with MCA and MIC to form this beloved nation of ours despite the political rhetoric such as Ketuanan Melayu and so on.

Therefore it is wise for Pakatan to adopt such practice, although this fact seems obvious to the top leadership to a certain extent, it remains illusive among grassroots members, thus this must be incultivated among the grassroots members so that the cohesiveness of the coalition can be accomplished.

Back to the being a hero part of the equation, the ''heroic" act of some lead to the burning of places of worship in many parts of this country that threatens peace and stability of this nation. The right course of action may not be heroic, but it is the right one that is to remain calm and propagate the use of reason and inclusive debate to achieve a consensus as only by doing that the nation can remain peaceful at the physical and emotional level.

In conclusion, Malaysians must resist the temptation to be a hero. Let the experts decide on the issue as only by doing so can we arrive at the right decision and not the emotional one while rejecting extremist behaviours in any form that can undermine the harmony of the various races in this country so that we can all live peacefully and bury the racial and religious ghost that have been haunting us that is worsening the polarisation of the people of Malaysia so that we can return back to the golden days in terms of race relations pre- May 13. Doing so with no doubt will benefit all of us, irrespective of race and religion. That is the real heroic thing to do.