Our blood is red
IN the past two weeks, two important incidents occurred that involved our children and which can be important lessons for our nation-building ideas and concerns in the future. The first is the terrible tragedy of the poisonous fumes from a polluted Sungai Kim Kim, and the second is the religious segregation issue in a public school in Sabah.
In this week’s column, I wish to send a strong message about our universal concerns that should override any specific identities made to be a huge problem that could destroy our nation-building efforts. However, before going into the two cases, I would like to relate a personal and private anecdote that has become the title of this article.
About 10 years ago, I suffered from a bleeding stomach that caused me to pass fresh and blackened blood. Luckily I went to a private hospital and was immediately put on medication for seven days, and ‘tied’ to the bed with a medicated drip. On the third day, the doctor ordered four packets of blood to be given to me as I was losing much of my own from the bleeding.
I was still able to sit up and converse, as well as walk about the room towing that medicated drip around. When the first blood packet was delivered and set up to be put into my body I had jokingly asked the doctor, who was a quiet and soft spoken Chinese man, “Doctor, can you tell me if this blood is Chinese, Indian, or Malay?” Since it was my first time being given blood in this manner, I was curious.
As a person who cared not about social, religious or political identities, my question was interesting to me as it has great political and spiritual significance. The doctor smiled and answered carefully that the racial identities of each blood packet was unknown except its designation of O, A, or AB and whatever else. So, after four packets of blood were given to me, I had an interesting revelation! Wow! I thought, what if the four packets of blood that were put into me were from a Chinese, an Indian, a Kadazan, and an Orang Asli? My body was truly Malaysian!
Later on, after a few months when I had gotten better with no trace of antibodies rejecting the blood given, I thought to myself … hmm … if the blood given to me was from someone who drank alcohol, ate daging babi, and was perhaps an LGBT, would that make me less ‘Islamic’ and spoil my chances getting to heaven? If there were a religion that thought such a construct, that blood transfusions may lead to our irreligiosity and cause spiritual conflict, well, I don’t think I want to be with that faith.
It was funny for me to think that the halal industry has taken on such an incredible reception by Muslims to the point of it being a serious economic industry. Recently, I was invited to a gathering with my Chinese friends from Hua Lian and they apologised to me for picking a restaurant that does not have halal certification, but the establishment does serve chicken, beef, and fish. I simply said that’s all right because the Prophet Muhammad and the Companions never needed any certification of that sort in their times. The halal phenomenon seems to pale in comparison to the life-giving blood administered to me when my health condition was in jeopardy.
Now I come to the first of two cases that should serve us to pause and think about our path together in the future of our nation. The Sungai Kim Kim incident was a shocking issue, even to me who has been critical about how this country is being run. Thus far, 2,000 people have sought medical assistance. What if there were 2,000 deaths? What if most of them were our children? I was most relieved when Dr Maszlee took an extreme and decisive precaution to close down the schools as he feared for all our children. I am not sure other ministers would have been so concerned for the wellbeing of our children. Some ministers would wait for 10 deaths and then react.
To people like myself and Maszlee, we go by the philosophy even if there were one death, that would have been too much and completely unacceptable. Both of us also go with the philosophy of all Malaysian children are our children and our parental instinct does not distinguish children of one race or of another.
Sungai Kim Kim should pose not just as an environmental issue but of more fundamental concerns. The pollution was caused by irresponsible capitalists bent on saving money by not treating the chemical waste. Could the company or companies involved belong to one race? However, before Umno or PAS start talking about the evils of non-Muslims in capitalism, we must also ask who are the local authorities supposed to be responsible for the wellbeing of all inhabitants under their jurisdiction? Was it their negligence in monitoring, incompetence of administering, or simply corruption for turning a blind eye?
I still remember the Pahang Bauxute mining issue that turned the whole kampung surrounding the mines into a Martian-like environment. I also remember the death of several children, who fell into the open bauxite ponds. Where were the authorities and who were the mine operators? Malaysians, and particularly Muslims, must see that there are more serious and fundamental issues other than religious identities at stake for the wellbeing of our children. Corruption is a common disease and our health, wellbeing, and children’s safety concern all of us regardless of race or faith or political affiliations.
Our blood is still red. It does not change just because we are Muslims, Christians, or Hindus and others. Our concerns and problems are basically the same.
The second issue I want to highlight is the segregation affair in a public school in Sabah. It was reported that a head teacher had segregated the classrooms into Muslims and non-Muslims. The Sabah nation was in an uproar and again, Minister Maszlee was blamed. I do not understand why Malaysians like to react in this fashion. Is everything about education the minister’s fault? The minister hasn’t even blown a candle off his first year anniversary ministerial cake and he is blamed for the last 30 years of Barisan Nasional faults in education.
It was most fortunate that we had Dr Kassim going in to resolve the issue. I wish that we have more education administrators like Dr Kassim in Semenanjung, who clearly understand the concept of racial integration and nation-building outweighing any logistical or religious concerns in educating our children. Dr Maszlee had outlined his ministry’s vision and direction and it is up to the resourcefulness of teachers and administrators like Dr Kassim to realise that vision in their own empowered manner. If we had allowed such segregation, that would spell the end of the idea and ideals of Malaysia.
In Semenanjung, the practice of putting a few classes where there are only Muslim students is given the excuse that these pupils take a special line in religion and Arabic. When one of my daughters was selected for this option, which was reserved for the brightest Malay students, I was unaware of the segregation until midway. I thought that she was in a mixed class and had to go to another classroom for her Arabic and other religious subjects. When I found out that she was in a Malay-only class, I immediately requested a change to a mixed class.
Both the teachers and also my wife were extremely unhappy and in disagreement with me. Both wanted prim and proper tudung-clad pupils praying five times a day. Well, I too wanted that but not at the expense of her not making friends with other races and cultures. I had my way finally and all my children grew up not looking upon others by way of race or religious affiliations in a narrow religious or social construct.
Many Malaysians expect Dr Maszlee to put an end to this by way of a ministerial decree. Sorry guys, but it is not as easy as that. In Semenanjung, what was easily resolved in Sabah is completely the opposite and can blow into a political explosion. It will take time for Malay teachers and head teachers to reacquire ideas and ideals of nation-building as part of a higher spiritual construct rather than the religious identity preserving one.
After 30 years of narrow ‘Islamic’ indoctrination by narrow-minded clerics, themselves unschooled in nationbuilding ideals, Muslims in Malaysia have yet to undergo a transformation of Pakatan Harapan’s Rahmatan lil alamin spiritual construct that does not distinguish religiosity from the ideals of nation-building. Thus, regardless of race or religious faiths and identities, our children must face life in a multi-coloured world and segregating them would deny ‘life-giving blood’ that would nurture their growth and development.
Finally, for all our socalled ‘champions’ of race or religion, our blood is still red and our children need a secure fundamental and universal ‘care package’ that would see to their future. What if our children were lying in a hospital bed and we deny life-giving blood on the basis of race or religion? Would we bear to see their suffering? Please ask that question before you shout ‘jihad’ in front of a mosque.