As if Malaysia hasn't got enough problems on its hands with two of its big shots going at each other in public (actually, its one going at the other, who has been rather, though characteristically, quiet, perhaps till now), Malaysia has to contend with its auxiliary religious police who are running amok while the elephants battle each other. Like the saying goes, when two elephants fight, the mouse gets up to mischief.The first mischief is the religious police conducting witch-hunts for Muslim couples committing 'khalwat' or close-proximity. There now seems to be two laws in the land, the civil law and the religious laws. What is frightening is that the religious law is an authority to itself, seemingly untouchable by the more established civil law. In a boo-boo of embarrassing proportions, it was reported that one such religious police squad barged into the home of an elderly American couple intending to charge them for khalwat. It seems that catching the couple at their age for committing the close-proximity sin is decades too late. But this is lost on the fervent religious police, who can think of nothing but to enforce the Prophet's teachings. This poor couple had intended to get a permanent house in Langkawi, where the incident took place. Now those plans are dead. 'Malaysia - truly Asia' now has a sinister ring to it.
As if this were not enough, we hear that Malaysia has also set up an authority, primed by some government minister/department, to suss out people who mix Bahasa-Melayu with English in their speech (and most likely, written too). Call Bahasa Rojak, Malay language purists are now on a crusade to cleanse the language of Malaysia to its purest form.
Now, any linguist worth his salt will tell you that there is no such thing as a 'pure' language - only purely stupid purists. I used to hear Malaysia Ministers, Dr Mahathir included, mixing Bahasa Melayu and English in their speeches and recorded conversations, and appearing proud of it. Of course, they are not the only ones. actors and actresses in made-in-Malaysia Malay movies also do the same, so much so that I was beginning to get used to this lingua innovation as an accepted part of the way Malaysians are going to speak.
Apparently somebody thinks otherwise, and so we now have, besides the religious police, also the language police running around to prey on Rojak speakers, providing some intermittent amusement while the two elephants plan their next moves.
Well, that's not all, really. There is also the case of those lies, damned lies and statistics. I wonder what Malaysian leaders will pull out of the rabbit's hat next? Look at it another way, even if the leaders are not doing their jobs (and I an not implying that they aren't), at least they are providing a seemingly endless stream of comic relief.
See also: http://undurlah.blogspot.com/2006/04/beware-vice-squad.html
Image source: http://www.elephantvoices.org/albums/
9 comments:
Interesting blog.
Pure Bahasa Melayu??? rubbish. it does not exist. the language itself can be called as "bahasa pinjaman" with lots of words being borrowed from English, Chinese, Sanskrit, Tamil, Hindi, Arabic, Portugese, Dutch etc etc.... so how are they gonna say what is pure malay language?
1. Religious police: No matter how tasteless they actions were, they need to be allowed to explain and perhap defend their actions. You need to be fair and hear from all sides of the story.
2. Bahasa Rojak: I don't think you understand the real issue hear. The concern is the emergence of 'Malay' words like 'bajet' 'tren' and a significant number of malay-ised version of english words which is really hurting the language. 'Pencen' is fine but many ppl would not accept 'standard' malay with words such as those!
agreed. we used to say 'belanjawan' which is good enuff and already accepted but now we use 'bajet'. bola sepak now becomes futbol. bola bcomes bol. next thing we know, kaki will no longer be used replaced by fut.
"Eh, fut I sakit la hari ni."
memang laa tak patut org2 pencegah maksiat tu buat gitu. tapi kau ni BIAS sgt laa... kau anti sangat kat diorang. abis, kau nak tgk anak malaysia buat maksiat! kau nak tgk byk org kena AIDS! kau nak tengok Tuhan turun bala! Kau ni Melayu Islam ka? mungkin approach diorang kena tuka la kena gi kursus supaya lebih berhikmah dan lebih berdiplomasi tapi keje2 mencegah maksiat tu wajib! ni kau berat sebelah macam anti sgt dgn org2 tu.
I think you shouldn't be too one-sided lah. Though I'm not exactly supportive of them moral police, you should hear their side of the story.
I can understand it if people are defensive about their language. Its the same with Chinese too. But I suppose I am looking at things from the English speaking world. English is an international language and I have grown used to the many twists and turns in the language that I feel that changes in language is but a common occurrence. Well, that does not seem to apply to languages not owned by the rest of the world. I apologise for having stepped on sensitive toes here. As for the moral police, well, I stand my ground. Nobody is morally superior. To think so and act so shows up one's bigotry and arrogance. This I cannot accept.
moral policing does not necessarily mean that those ppl are better. total freedom means chaos. would you allow consesual sex openly performed in broad daylight by a group of ppl on the streets in front of ur children?? how would u feel if HIV+ affects 80% of ur countrymen due to the argument that it's their business to be promiscous bcoz it's their basic right and they did not break any rules or law???
The assumptions that the morality police must have is that there must be certain set standard of behaviour against which they are policing. Who sets this standard? Are these universal standards in that they apply to all races, religions and cultures? If not, then who and what can be used to identify the people over which these standards can be applied? The colour of one's skin, the language spoken? Not all Malays need be Muslims, not all Malay-speaking people are Muslim. Many Chinese are Muslims.
So how? Ultimately, as has happened, the whole identification process becomes arbitrary, and you have ridiculous things like the Langkawi incident happening. I agree that the extreme opposite is not acceptable either, but in that case, societal disapproval will be more than sufficient to drive those sexually deviant behaviour indoors. For example, in a society that frowns on homosexuality, you will not see such behaviour exhibited openly in public.
What one does in the privacy of their own homes, short of abuse and murder, is not of concern to us. Otherwise, where will moral policing stop? What privacy has anybody got left? What a couple does in their own bedroom, how they do it, what they do it with, whom they do it to, where they do it to, and when they do it, is really none our business, AIDS or no AIDS. We can only trust that people generally have an innate sense of self-preservation to avoid certain types of self-destructive behaviour.
Hey there, I think human beings have the tendency to follow their hearts (read lust) to the extent of detroying their own selves.
Though the approach and basis needs a lot of thinking and rethinking, the still need to be some form of control over certain behaviour.
Muslims has a comprehensive code as a way of life. These codes are not meant to make life difficult, but to ensure harmony and to enhance human civilisation (hadharah).
Langkawi incident, a the recent incident are isolated incidences.
Remember a some people critisized the Kelantan's govt move to segregate men and women in public places? They possibly are/were not aware of similar practices not only in developing countries, but also in Japan!! Even in the Philippines quite recently they wanted to implement something similar. But they need some time for the system to mature of course.
Bottomline, there need to be some form of monitoring, perhaps the religious dept should stress on focusing in advising ppl, on being ppl-friendly, not being rude and having a holier-than-thou attitude but nevertheless, some form of policing still is needed.
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