Urgent need for peacebuilders council
IT is indeed a welcome move by civil society organisations to launch a #MZB365 campaign to encourage the practice of forgiveness yearround. It will be a great leap forward if this campaign is complemented by the formation of a National Peacebuilders Council to dampen the surging tide of fear-mongering religious nationalism igniting violence across the world.
Fear-mongering hinges on the notion that minorities present a threat. Slights and perceived threats to one’s ethnic or religious community are sensationalised to provoke violent defensive reactions. Such viciousness has taken firm hold in three large regions of the world, setting at least 33 nations ablaze.
In our country, incidents upon which the law enforcers have already taken stern action continue to be sensationalised despite top-level authorities issuing strong admonitions.
Nusantara Academy Strategic Research political analyst Prof Dr Azmi Hassan, in calling for an end to boycotts of certain businesses, said to theSun on March 29: “The satisfaction felt by those participating in boycotts stems from a sense of having taken action, although it harms Malaysians, especially the majority of workers in the businesses who are (locals). Those calling for boycotts often disregard the repercussions, such as the possibility of Malaysians losing their jobs.”
Azmi lamented: “What was once a sporadic occurrence has now become a common affair. Boycotts are now being called each time someone feels offended or wants to prove a point. But it is crucial to realise that such calls are no longer driven by geopolitical concerns, but by issues of race and religion.”
Also speaking to theSun on March 29, International Islamic University Malaysia Department of Quran and Sunnah Studies senior lecturer Dr Abu Hafiz Salleh Huddin said the call for boycotts at every dissatisfaction has gone beyond reasonable bounds and contradicts Islamic teachings.
“People must be moderate even in a state of anger. Similarly, any call for a boycott should avoid worsening inter-racial tensions in the country. Instead, efforts should be made to promote peaceful resolutions where conflicts arise.”
It is heartening to note that the Machang Member of Parliament and youth chief of the Malay-based political party Bersatu, Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Kamal, has called on his fellow Muslims to refrain from succumbing to paranoia. “This is getting ridiculous. Our actions need to be based on facts and not blind emotions,” he said.
A National Peacebuilders Council, comprising of individuals who are dedicated to heeding the King’s call to build unity, should focus on spreading multiethnic, multicultural and multifaith understanding. The council must develop effective content to outdo the surge of harmful social media postings.
On April 7, Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching disclosed that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, in collaboration with social media platforms, removed 1,454 contents touching on issues of race, religion and royalty between January and March this year. Of the total, hate speech related to religion was the highest (727), followed by racial issues (588) and the royal institution (139).
What is the danger of manipulating emotions through identity politics, inflammatory rhetoric and incendiary social media postings?
The consequence is that it eventually splits the population of a country. The link between provocative rhetoric and violent outbursts is a well-established psychological fact. America, which claims to be the world’s most democratic nation, has already experienced the vicious effects.
Donald Trump made fiery emotionladen speeches after losing the 2020 presidential elections. He was indicted for inciting a deadly riot at the Capitol building in Washington that caused US$2.7 billion (RM12.9 billion) in estimated costs. Five people, including
a police officer, died. Religious nationalism was “the central driving force” of the assault, according to an expert testimony to Congress.
Fear-mongering religious nationalist activism is spreading around the world as an increasing number of politicians are learning that the surest way to win elections and gain the power to rule is to project themselves as defenders and champions of the faith they subscribe to if that is their nation’s dominant religion. The four biggest world religions are being misused this way in a string of countries.
This is a pathway to colossal disaster as excessive religious nationalism that induces violence is destroying almost all the countries in the Indian subcontinent and the African equatorial belt.
Modern-day religious violence started with Pakistan. Founding father Mohammad Ali Jinnah spoke in 1947 of the need to govern the nation on principles of inclusiveness, impartiality, rule of law, social equality, egalitarianism, harmony, justice and absolute civil supremacy. However, what emerged in the early 1950s and soon became solidified was entirely divergent from Jinnah’s vision.
Radical clerics swept into power and the slightest perceived threat – real or imagined was met with attacks and the burning of establishments owned by minority groups. Jinnah’s vision was killed in its formative phases and the character of Pakistan changed.
Let us move on to Sri Lanka where a
“A National Peacebuilders Council, comprising of individuals who are dedicated to heeding the King’s call to build unity, should focus on spreading multiethnic, multicultural and multifaith understanding.
siege mentality has long gripped the Buddhist majority. Lukman Harees wrote in the Colombo Telegraph in 2019 that the Sinhala-Buddhist hardline argument is that the island of Sri Lanka is “theirs” and the ethnic and religious minorities are “guests”.
Riding on the Sinhala-Buddhist community’s socioeconomic grievances combined with a strong fear that Buddhism is under siege by other religions, radical nationalist Buddhist groups gained a firm foothold in Sri Lanka’s political scene and buried the ideal of a more inclusive society.
The New York Times wrote in 2018: “Sri Lanka’s long and tragic civil war (1983-2009), for example, involved a great deal of specifically Buddhist nationalism on the part of a Sinhalese majority resentful of the presence of Tamil Hindus in what the former took to be the last bastion of true Buddhism.”
The hardening of religious identities is destroying compassion for minorities in an increasing number of countries. We must prevent Malaysia from becoming an outcrop in a global tide of fearmongering religious nationalism.
It is a “huge scandal” that religious denomination is a badge of conflict, said Ireland’s most senior Catholic cleric Archbishop Eamon Martin last year.
The worst consequences of violenceinducing religious nationalism have befallen Africa, with 28 countries across the Great Lakes, Central Africa, Horn of Africa and West Africa having experienced riotous killings, civil wars and invasions brought about by a scorching combination of ethnic tensions, religious intolerance, jihadist attacks, militia activities, banditry and divisive politics. No politician should let our country go down this slippery road even at the cost of losing an election.