Don't Let Them Provoke Us into War

by MarinaM

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

It seems obvious to me that there are some people very unhappy that Malaysians have not started killing each other yet. Instead we are going about our business and getting on with one another as usual. The malls and coffeeshops are full and there are traffic jams as always.

What's more, we are even organising peace initiatives to promote understanding and harmony among ourselves. Last weekend there were several events in KL including Tali Tenang where more than 200 people tied a long string together to symbolise unity and solidarity and walked through Bangsar putting smiles and cheers on the faces of passersby.

These types of events are making some people very unhappy. I'm not going to speculate why they would want us to be out there rioting but I believe they are trying to up the ante with even more provocative acts until some of us will lose our patience.

We should therefore refuse to bend to their wishes. We should refuse to be played around like this. We want peace and we know that can only be achieved through dialogue and discussion with mutual respect all round. These people are intent on making war among us for their own reasons. We should demand that the police catch whoever did this with utmost urgency and charge them immediately, as they should the ones they have caught for previous acts of arson on churches and suraus. We should demand to know why they did this and if so, was this their own idea or were they following orders from someone.

All religious authorities of every faith should condemn these acts of violence. These are grave acts which are sinful in every religion and they should all state that clearly.

We have seen what has happened in other countries where religion has been used to create civil war, to over up the real reasons for the nation's failures. As Malaysians, we should stand united against those who want to pit us against each other.

We will not be fooled, we will stand united.

LINUNDUS …

Christians are peace loving people and are not the type to stoop so low as to indulge such a disgraceful act. It is against the teaching of any religion to desecrate places of worship.

There seems to be a motive behind this and I agree with the writer that “we should demand to know why they did this and if so, was this their own idea or were they following orders from someone”.

Are those irresponsible people trying to provoke until some of us will lose our patience? We pray that it will not come to an explosive stage. We hope that those unhappy people will come to their senses and promote racial harmony and religious tolerance instead.