This is a short excerpt from a powerful article titled "Power, politicians and brutality", by Dr Farish A Noor, which was published in The Nut Graph today (bold emphasis mine):
"Southeast Asians tend to adopt a dismissive view of the West. And there are far too many right-wing ethno-nationalist leaders in our part of the world who cannot evolve any further than to continue in their nasty polemics against anything and everything Western.
But let us ask ourselves this simple question, and answer it honestly if we can: Can anyone of us imagine a British politician standing on stage with a weapon in hand? Can anyone imagine a demonstration in Europe against a mosque or a Hindu temple where a pig's or cow's head is dragged out into the streets?
Can we imagine those involved not being arrested on the spot? Can anyone imagine a press conference in any European city where a politician is publicly threatened with rape — and the police do nothing? Perchance, therein lies the difference between us Asians and the so-called secular, decadent, materialistic West."
Perchance we Malaysians have a lot of soul-searching to do?
Please read the entire article here: http://www.thenutgraph.com/power-politicians-brutality
If you like the quality of journalism practiced by The Nut Graph, please consider supporting them. Their investors cannot continue funding them, and they will have to close down if they cannot find adequate support.
As far as I know, the Nut Graph is the only Malaysian news organisation to have published a statement of their journalistic principles, that you can hold them to. If we do not support good journalism when we have it, then we have only ourselves to blame when we are left with the likes of Azmi Anshar and the mainstream media telling us what to think.
Sincerely,
Posts
No need to imagine, violent anti-islam demonstration did happen in Britain
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1205263/Police-arrest-31-demonstration-Islamic-fundamentalism.html
@ anon 3:02 pm,
ReplyDeleteGood of you to bring that to our attention, because it demonstrates the very obvious differences with our cow head incident, and our Malaysian political culture in general. Let's revisit what I wrote:
"Can anyone of us imagine a British politician standing on stage with a weapon in hand? Can anyone imagine a demonstration in Europe against a mosque or a Hindu temple where a pig's or cow's head is dragged out into the streets?
Can we imagine those involved not being arrested on the spot? Can anyone imagine a press conference in any European city where a politician is publicly threatened with rape — and the police do nothing?"
The protesters who claimed to be anti "Islamic extremism" were the so-called "English Defence League". They are the UK version of Pekida and Pewaris: thugs who threaten their fellow (minority) citizens with violence if they do not "toe the line". Just like Pekida, Pewaris and their UMNO inspired friends, the EDL were protesting against a place of worship.
Questions to consider:
1) Even with their disgusting fascist agenda, did the EDL protestors carry the head of any dead animal to insult any religion? No.
2) Did the police stand idly by while the violence went on? No, a "significant number" of people were arrested. The UK police chief would have been sacked for incompetence if he had done that.
3) Did any UK government minister meet/sympathize with the EDL protesters and/or provide support and justification for their actions, like Hishammudin and Mukhriz did? No, the exact opposite happened. John Denham, the UK Communities Minister unequivocally condemned the EDL. This is what he said (extracted from here):
"Right-wing groups who claim to oppose Islamic extremism are trying to provoke violence on Britain's streets, the communities minister has said.
Mr Denham said such right-wing protesters were trying to provoke an "overreaction" from the Asian community.
"Then people blame the people who overreact and the situation gets out of control," he said.
"We know from the recent past that provocation can lead to community division and overreaction unless we nip it in the bud very quickly."
The minister singled out the EDL in particular: "If you look at the types of demonstrations they have organised, the language used and the targets chosen, it looks pretty clear that it's a tactic designed to provoke, to get a response and create violence."
John Denham has so accurately described what Umno/BN are trying to do in Malaysia, with their cow-head protest, Utusan headlines and blogger stories. Any UK minister who did what our Hishamuddin and Mukhriz have done would have been sacked.
4) The group which opposed the EDL were the UAF (Unite Against Fascism). As you can see in the video here, and the report here, the UAF consists of Britons from various communities and religions, even white people. Their chant is "We are black, we are white, together we are dynamite". The UAF Chairman is Ken Livingstone, a white man. These people there fight for what is right regardless of their race, religion etc. In Malaysia, if a person speaks for justice regardless of race, he is called a "pengkhianat bangsa" by our racist politicians and their newspapers.
We in Malaysia too need to fight for what is right and just regardless of our own race, religion, gender, age, selfish interests, etc. For 52 years we have not been able to learn how. I believe that with the "Saya Anak bangsa Malaysia initiative", we can.
Well done. Please provide more such examples, thanks.
mh