From: "yeap cheng liang" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
A Christian guide on how to
love Mahathir
Wan Kain Wan
Dec 26: RM200 million was spent on the
Putrajaya Maharajah's Palace to show
everybody (especially the hated, yet
subconsciously worshiped, West) how
great and First World we are. Yet in
self-confident Britain, all Tony Blair has is
a humble 10 Downing Street terrace
house.
When Malaysians ask the government to
reduce the sky-high price of houses by
providing cheap land and other subsidies,
or to provide free university education, the
standard reply is that "We are a poor Third
World country. We cannot afford these
kind of luxuries. Anyway, if we become a
socialist welfare state of hand-outs,
people will become lazy."
Of course, the Prime Minister's son was
bailed out of his business difficulties with
RM1 billion of our Petronas money. But
that's because we prefer to practise
socialism for the rich - the guys who slog
it out on the golf course so that
mega-contracts will be handed out to
them.
The idea of God being interested in
economic justice is reinforced by Ronald
Sider in his book
"Rich Christians In An Age Of Hunger".
"The explosive message of the prophets is
that God destroyed Israel because the
poor were
mistreated," underlines Sider.
He describes the condition of Israel in the
middle of the eighth century BC as a time
of economic
prosperity unknown since Solomon's time.
Yet God sent the prophet Amos to
announce that Israel would be destroyed,
not only because of their idolatry, but also
because the rich "trample the head of the
poor into the dust of the earth." (Amos
2:7). Amos saw that the affluent lifestyle
of the rich was built on the oppression of
the poor (6:1-7) and that even in the
courts the poor had no hope because the
rich had bribed the judges. (5:10-15)
(sounds familiar?)
Yet Christians are called upon to love their
neighbour as themselves, and that
includes Dr Mahathir. Ah, God worketh in
mysterious ways. You tend to become
what you hate. The communists of China,
in their fight for justice, were so busy
projecting hatred on the system that they
eventually turned this hatred upon each
other once in power.
And, as everyone knows, Dr Mahathir
hates the double-talking and bullying of
the West.... So love. But love wisely. God
has called upon Christians to be as shrewd
as serpents but as harmless as doves. To
be worldly wise, to take an active interest
in our country's affairs yet to rise above
selfish, self-enriching politics and instead
serve our neighbours humbly.
Indeed, scripture enjoins us to be in the
world but not of the world. To pray for Dr
Mahathir's
well-being, but not to gloss over his sins.
Love the sinner, hate the sin.
Some churches have been praying in
general terms for the country's leadership
to have wisdom and for the country to be
peaceful. This is a great first step.
But let's pause and think for a moment
here. If a pregnant unmarried schoolgirl
were to walk into
church, would Christians start getting
really uptight and uneasy? Chances are,
they would pray that she repents of her
sins. Evangelicals might pray that the Lord
will bind the spirit of lust in her. How
about politicians who might have leaned
upon judges to automatically blurt out
"irrelevant evidence" every 30 seconds?
Might they not need similar prayers for
repentance too?
Babylon Christians?
What is even more curious is that when
Umno corruption is discussed some
Christians get impatient: "Aiya, why are
you so negative? Why can't you see the
good that the government has done?"
But mention the magic word "PAS" and
instantly, they become a well-spring of
eloquence on the
"dangers" of an Islamic state and the
"barbarities" of syariah law. Why do
sincere, devout Christians have this
knee-jerk fear of Islam when its strict
moral codes are really not that much
different from those of Orthodox Judaism?
Are we so deeply influenced by the
Western media that we subconsciously
believe Christians should be pro-Western
and pro-Israel but anti-Islam in bias?
The world-view of PAS may be different,
but at least they are serious about their
religion. Do we
prefer to deal with serious worshipers of
Allah the Almighty or do we prefer serious
worshipers of Mammon and the Almighty
Ringgit? If we ourselves do not want
lukewarm Christians, why do we seem to
prefer corrupt lukewarm Muslims? Or are
we, in actual fact, more worldly than
Christian?
Is it un-Christian if the BA (the Barisan
Alternatif which includes secular parties
like DAP,
KeADILan and PRM) wants to restore local
council elections? So that the next time
the municipal council wants to approve a
condo project in your housing estate's
playing field, they might think twice for
fear of losing their elected seats?
Is it un-Christian if the BA wants to curb
sexy advertisements, GRO-laden girlie
bars, Ecstasy
pill-popping discos and gambling (which
has destroyed many families)? Or are we
more Babylon-ish than we care to admit
when we subconsciously want these
"freedoms" to continue? Is it un-Christian
when the BA wants to revamp the Sedition
Act so that people like Lim Guan Eng do
not get jailed after speaking up for 15
year-old rape victims?
At least the opposition has laid down very
concrete proposals on how to clean up the
country. In any intelligent country, we'd be
debating these proposals instead of
having "he has a headache"
advertisements shoved down our throats
everyday. Then of course there was
Norhayati Md Yusof, now 20 years old, who
suddenly "woke up" and realised after five
years that she had not been raped by the
former Malacca Chief Minister.
Congratulations to the mainstream media,
for it has managed to brainwash us into
thinking that thiselection is all about an
Islamic state!
To be sure, there will be some policies of
PAS which Christians will not agree with. It
is time for
serious dialogue and engagement rather
than just burying our heads ostrich-like
with a cop-out phrase such as "aiya, this
is just a Malay issue-lah. Just let me
watch my six o'clock Cantonese serial-lah".
Just for the record, when PAS came to
power in Kelantan, it passed quite a few
non-Muslim
applications for worship sites which had
been stymied by the previous Umno state
government - including two huge statues
of the Sitting Buddha and the Standing
Buddha. And now the new Terengganu
state government has allowed pigs to be
bred in the state - something previously
banned by Umno.
As for hard-headed political analysis, we
have to recognise that increasing Muslim
revivalism is a sure fact. Even Umno will
be forced to adopt a more Islamic facade
(say, by building the world's biggest
mosque and banning pig farming in Negeri
Sembilan) while it remains corrupt inside.
Now is the time, when the future is being
shaped, to begin negotiating. To start
building bridges as
junior partners rather than as rank
outsiders three elections later. Hey, after
all, Indonesia now has an ulama President
- something unthinkable just two years
ago.
Yes, there have been past grievances.
Christians have been discriminated against
(note: by Umno) on the question of church
sites and burial grounds. And there is still
the whole sore area of special rights and
quotas for Mahathirputras, Umnoputras
and, lastly, ordinary bumiputras (which
includes Christian Kadazans and Ibans).
Many Muslims have supported policies
which have been less than fair. But now,
due to the shock of the Anwar Ibrahim
affair, the scales have dropped from their
eyes and there has been a mass
awakening to the gross injustices in the
system.
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