Bridging the Gap - Tricia Yeoh

In light of all that’s been happening recently, the numerous comments (both wise and ridiculously silly) that have emerged out of the church incident (where JAIS ‘raided’ or ‘inspected’ the church premises) made me exasperated and wishing more than ever that we had more avenues to bridge the ever-widening gap between these polar communities we are observing in Malaysia. Just my ittie bittie contribution to the discourse, published last Friday in theSun. Enjoy! 

Bridging the Gap - Tricia Yeoh 

THOMAS Friedman in his 2005 book The World is Flat predicted that with the advent of technology the world would become a level playing field in an increasingly globalised environment. In such a wired world, there would be greater access to and a flourishing exchange of information and ideas.

Initially, this was thought to have brought upon cultural and socio-economic uniformity in various aspects. Six years later, we know the reality: how globalisation has not brought people together but has in fact shown up the fissures that existed in society – and then drawn these separate poles slowly but surely apart.

Few leaders are willing to say this as it is politically incorrect, but this is true also – and more deeply so – of Malaysia. These deep divisions exist when it comes to ethnicity, class, language, geography (imbalanced development between the different states), and as we have experienced intensely of late, religion.

Religion has always been considered somewhat sensitive and something people refrain from discussing openly. One can recount the cases of Moorthy, Revathi, Lina Joy, the Allah issue, church-burning, cow-head demonstration, and other recent events, with shaking heads as we observe the descent of reason.

And yet, religion ought to be the very bastion of democratic principles, should it not? At the Islamic Renaissance Front’s forum on “Reappraising Liberty and Democracy”, speakers and participants contemplated how religion is foundational to democracy, the elements of which include liberty, freedom of speech, expression, religion and association.

Of course, one speaker admitted that the threat to liberty and democracy does not necessarily come from the people – faith practitioners – but from the state and institutions. This is an important insight, since we are acutely aware of how the state plays a prominent role in guiding the practice of religion in this country. And how exactly has the state governed faith?

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life’s “Rising restrictions on religion report” showed that restrictions on religious beliefs and practices rose between 2006 and 2009 in 23 of the world’s 198 countries. Malaysia was one of the 10 countries cited as having “very high government restrictions” as of mid-2009, ranking the 7th highest among the top 5% countries with very high restrictions.

Only two countries made it into the “very high” category of “Countries with substantial increases in government restrictions”: Egypt and Malaysia. Some of these restrictions include references to government monitors of Muslim groups that are considered unorthodox, and these deviants being sent to religious rehabilitation centres.

It seems almost impossible now to bridge the gaping divide between what people perceive as polar opposites. Note that it is not just inter-religious but intra-religious divisions that exist. Efforts have been made through the years at bringing people together from different faith communities, largely driven by civil society.

The Malaysian Interfaith Network, the Inter-faith Spiritual Fellowship, and the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism are such examples. But there are also failures to speak of. The Inter-Faith Commission of 2006 was stillborn due to mistrust of the organisation’s objectives. And most recently, the Prime Minister’s Department struggled and then failed, to set up an interfaith committee.

Without proper avenues to truly learn about each other’s religions, does it come as a surprise then that people have difficulty understanding “the other”? In any debate or misunderstanding, it is most important to listen, observe, be truly conscious of the other person’s motivations and fears.

This is not happening today.

We need to create safe spaces for young Malaysians (and maybe the old too) to share their faith stories. Technology can be harnessed for the right reasons, in uniting people as opposed to creating more silos in our divided polity.

When Nelson Mandela took over in South Africa, he established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission after apartheid, in hopes of resolving conflict from the past.

Malaysia has many unresolved wounds that will one day need healing. But first we have to recognise there are increasing divisions. Then we must be willing to set aside prejudices to start afresh in understanding one another. And then – making use of our critical, thinking minds to separate fact from fiction; reason from political jargon.

It is admittedly a tough nut to crack. But perhaps, instead of policies and laws that create further divisions and drive opposing sides further apart, state apparatuses and institutions (this includes political parties) could pursue single-mindedly the objective of seeing religion as a healing balm, a bridge, a connector. We have to start somewhere. Anywhere.