Heart Talk Let’s have a New Year Truce
If only for a day – and at least online – we should learn from the 1914 Christmas Truce, which showed how humanity can prevail even in our darkest moments.
THE story of the Christmas Truce between the German soldiers and the allied forces during World War One is indeed an amazing one. Currently making its round as a wish for this festive season on social media, the act of the soldiers shows how a sense of humanity could transcend even severe enmity.
Briefly, this 1914 story is about how late on Christmas Eve, the men of the British Expeditionary Forces heard the German troops in the trenches opposite them singing carols and saw lanterns and small fir trees going up along their trenches. This was apparently followed by shouts of Christmas wishes across the trenches.
The next morning, after a self-imposed truce, British and German soldiers met in No Man’s Land and exchanged Christmas gifts. They then proceeded to play a match of football. Although this legendary Christmas truce was apparently not observed at every point of the Western Front, this one moment was enough to remind us how the true sense of humanity can prevail even in the darkest hour.
Juxtapose this scene with what happened in multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural Malaysia on Christmas Day, and you will wonder whether our beloved nation can ever achieve the one Malaysia dream. The Youth leader of PAS, which rules Kelantan and Terengganu with the Islamist party aspiring to take over at the federal level, warned Muslims not to be part of any Christmas celebrations. Effectively, this meant Muslims were also told not to go to any open houses or wish their Christian friends for the occasion.
Coming from none other than PAS president Haji Hadi Awang’s son himself, Muhammad Khalil, the message drove the point that any religion other than Islam is wrong. He chose to show such disrespect to his fellow Malaysians by uttering this despite the party having Christians and Hindus in its ranks.
On Christmas Day, there was also a group of Muslim NGOs who held a large rally to demand the resignation of two Indian ministers on the basis of their ridiculous claim that these ministers were behind the recent temple riots in Subang Jaya. Not only that, they used a highly derogatory Tamil word on one minister three times and warned that they would set fire to a police station if their demands were not met in 40 days.
They have obviously hijacked the unfortunate death of fireman Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim in the temple riots – allegedly caused by Malay and Indian thugs in the first place, not the 99.99% innocent Indians and Malays who have chosen to co-exist in harmony in a nation they call their own.
Such incendiary and absolutely seditious remarks being made openly are akin to thumbing their noses at the Home Minister and the police.
Who are these people?
Obviously these groups are being backed by politicians and individuals who are in serious trouble after they lost in the last general election. They are pro-PAS and Umno NGOs who are openly threatening to burn Malaysia down, so to speak.
The racial vitriol that is being spewed on social media of late is leaving nothing to anyone’s imagination. Most, apparently, have forgotten every race’s contributions to the nation that we have so selflessly built over the last century. Suddenly, some of us do not seem to mean anything any more to these detractors despite being major taxpayers.
That, my friends, only appears to be the scenario on social media. To be honest, race relations elsewhere appear to be near normal. Except for the nasty bigoted politicians and their lackeys, most Malaysians are still courteous, with some going out of their way to be patient and helpful to others irrespective of their race or religion.
For example, a Malay police sergeant at the Subang airport actually greeted me with a smile and chatted about how he does exercises while going about his sedentary duties. It was heartwarming indeed, especially after reading the nasty racist posts on social media that seem to imply that our different communities simply hate each other.
Then there was the unfortunate minor car accident that I was involved in with a vehicle driven by a young Malay gentleman two weeks ago. I read somewhere that this was not the time for any Indian or Chinese to be involved with any vehicle driven by Malays, given the tension prevailing from the temple riots and Adib’s death.
While I had expected other Malays to rally around the driver based on what I had been reading in the past, it was very far from that. Of course, we had a small argument on who was in the wrong before deciding to lodge police reports and leaving the scene after exchanging telephone numbers in a civil manner.
But what came next shocked me. A Malay bystander came up to me and said: “Uncle, don’t worry. It is not your fault. It’s the other guy’s mistake.”
The following morning, the driver and I had a short Whatsapp exchange apologising Christmas Truce football match was the stuff of legends and has been re-enacted countless times in honour of the human spirit.
to each other.
Another heartwarming act that needs to be documented here is the effort by my St Mark’s Secondary School’s old boys chat group to raise some funds to help the poor students and other charities in Butterworth, where the school is located.
Although it was mainly for a Tamil school and a Muslim orphanage, the donations came pouring in from members of all races. The Malays, Chinese and Indian members rallied to a Malaysian cause, not a race or religion-based help.
Thank you Ghaus, Khalil, Mohd Ismail and Hardi Harban for rising to the occasion when it mattered most. You guys chose to show that we are all true Malaysians and not closet racists like most politicians. It is important to single out my Malay mates to show that most of them do not subscribe to the racist rants and rhetoric being vomited by the bigots.
These incidents taking place during a tense period made me realise that all that is being said on social media is not what most Malaysians are feeling or experiencing. Generally, all they want is for the new government to get the corrupt Malaysians to book and carry on with the business of steering the nation back to where it ought to be.
In school, I was taught by Malay, Chinese and Indian teachers. And so were all of you. It is the same now. My wife and her other non-Malay teacher colleagues took a personal interest in Malay students, some of whom they helped financially after finding out they came from broken families. Race was the furthest thing from their minds when it came to humanity.
I wonder if Umno Youth’s Wan Muhammad Azri Wan Deris, better known as “Papagomo”, had non-Malays teaching him while he was in school. His recent posts on social media smack of so much racism and hate speech that you begin to wonder if he knows what is right from wrong.
We must worry for all Malaysians when they suffer or are in need of help. Indians must worry for the Malay poor and needy, the Chinese for an Indian or Malay, and Malays for the others. I feel this must be nurtured in young minds by their parents because if we leave this to the politicians, we are doomed.
Many may not know how many Hindus and Christians had prayed hard for Adib when he was in the intensive care unit. Most Malaysians did, believe me.
Let us all welcome 2019 with a New Year Truce. For the blind patriots of politicians and political parties that are screaming for violence, it is time to take stock of where you want your nation to go.
If we do not do this, Malaysia is indeed headed for a volatile split down the middle – with Malays on one side and the non-Malays on the other.