It looks like Umno Youth is happily hogging the news cycle about a store chain selling socks with the word “Allah” patterned on them. They see this as a grave offence against Muslims, and are going nuts about the matter.
Of course, they aren’t the only defenders fighting for the dignity of race and religion. Other assorted characters also get into the act, each trying to outdo, or perhaps just outshout, the other. This is how these things go.
Fair enough. Those who manufactured the socks were certainly being disrespectful to Islam. Being mean or insulting about another person’s faith and belief – whether it’s Islam or any other religion – is wrong, so I share the unhappiness being felt here.
However, the part about putting the blame squarely on the retail chain where the socks were found and demanding ridiculous acts of apologies – now that’s political theatre through and through.
But hey, that’s what Malaysia is like nowadays.
Back to Umno Youth. I’ve always wondered why our political parties have different classes, or wings, of membership. The two best known are the Youth and Women wings. There may be others though – a Charged But Not Convicted wing? Is there a Convicted But Almost Pardoned wing?
Whichever wing it is, it has no shortage of members, even as it perpetuates the strata and hierarchies so beloved by our feudal society.
I used to be a member of Umno, perhaps even in their Youth wing. Decades ago, my parents registered and paid for my membership. I’m sure that’s lapsed, unless I was a life member on account of my winning smile and my parents’ generosity.
But right now, I’m a jilted ex of Umno. Our divorce was acrimonious, even if it was one-sided. I’ve never forgiven them for betraying the Malays with their racist and thieving ways. If I’m somehow still on their membership register, please take my name off forthwith.
Back to the various wings. In many human endeavours, youths lead the way. Einstein gave us e=mc2 when he was 25. Alexander the Great conquered much of the known world in his twenties. And then there’s Steve Jobs and the rest of his ilk.
Given the youths’ stake in the future – they’ll be inheriting the earth after us oldies are gone, after all – they should be the ones pushing the envelope with bold new ideas and energy. They should be chomping at the bit to take over things from the geriatrics who’re messing up our society nowadays.
But that’s not how it works. They instead willingly act as their party’s attack dogs – if you, and they, can pardon that rather unfortunate association. They happily run around doing silly things on behalf of their elders.
I guess that’s how they prove their mettle to take on adult roles later when they’re older. However, older is a very relative term, given some of the leaders in the youth wings are already geriatrics themselves.
Hence the many dramas and tragedies and even comedies involving these “youths”, such as the current ones involving Umno Youth and the offending socks.
I keep hoping the current Umno will be replaced by a new Umno – an Umno Baru, or perhaps Umno Baru Baru, given there was already an Umno Baru earlier. A party that harks back to its original founding principles, and not just a vehicle for a bunch of dubious characters.
That hasn’t quite happened, and probably never will if the desperation of the old geezers clinging on to power is any indication.
But the current episode, happening so soon after another bit of political theatre, the latest Bumiputera Economic Congress, shows the hopelessness of today’s Malay politics.
Everything is about scoring a few emotional points for Umno to stem their declining relevance, rather than solving real problems facing the race.
It used to be simple enough, if rather venal, turning everything into racial issues. We’re after all a country run on race-based politics, and it’s easy to see everything through race filters.
But they’ve added something else that makes race politics work even better – Islam. Take any issue, turn it racial, then ladle generous dollops of Islam on it, and viola! You’ve just set something aflame that’ll have political payoffs.
Islam in Malaysia has the advantage of being a free pass. It’s a “sensitive” matter, and everybody thinks twice before pointing fingers at those invoking Islam.
We have “pure” Islamic religious parties, and we have semi-religious Islamic parties, all fighting to champion the Malay cause. But regardless of their claim they’re all just Malay nationalist parties trying to out-ultra each other.
What they all have in common is that looking at them no non-Muslim would feel moved to come closer to Islam. Given that Islam is not just about rituals and more about living an exemplary life, you could seriously question just how exemplary these people are.
So, this current issue about socks is a godsend (may God forgive me for this association) for them. They can work the outrage whilst scoring a few political points along the way.
So, they do what we know they’d do – push things deeper, dial up the temperature higher, polarise society even further, and hope to do what an old Malay proverb says – muddy the water, then throw in the nets to catch the fish.
Let me offer you a way to see this matter that is perhaps more Islamic.
The fact that the offending socks are in the chain’s stores is clearly an accident. If anybody is familiar with how big retail businesses work, they’d know speed and volume are the most important factors to lower costs and maximise profits, especially in the extremely competitive, low margin retail sectors. Mistakes happen.
If, when pointed out, they put things right by accepting responsibility, apologising and taking steps to ensure such things don’t happen again, that should be the end of it.
That’s what Islam, guided by compassion and decency, would want us to do. Muslims then would clearly be seen as compassionate people worthy of emulating, and that would certainly open many hearts towards it.
But that’s not what political Islam does. It’ll squeeze all the possible outrage, often using the cover of Islam being the official religion of the country and hence a cudgel to bash others on their head with.
It’ll calculate whether accepting an apology to all Muslims is sufficient, or whether prolonging and inflaming things would be more beneficial. It’ll then make its choice based on such political calculations, and milk it for whatever it’s worth.
And the bulk of the Muslims, who’ve been conditioned to be unquestioning on what their leaders – even the “young” ones – say will just go along.
If there is a boycott of these stores, it will cut off many Malays from a cheap supply of sundry goods, including food on their table. It’ll also cheapen the meaning of boycotts, especially in such times as the current where it really does have a role to play to prevent injustice against Muslims elsewhere.
It won’t affect the elites, even if they’re mere “youths”, as these individuals won’t be caught dead doing their sundry shopping at such places anyway.
And this will also just take us further along the path where Islam is seen as a severe, angry, unforgiving religion, one that’s unwelcoming to anybody else who’s not born into it.
That’s not what Islam is about.
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The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.
