One straight path with crooked lines

Why do we have two sets of rules for almost everything?

COMMENT

A few weeks ago, I visited my uncle’s kampong. While chit-chatting and catching up, there was a knock at the gate. It was one of his neighbours.

“I am collecting signatures for a petition,” the lady standing at the gate said.

Apparently there is a plan to build a Hindu temple in his village and most of the villagers are not for it. Since there are only three Hindu households in the kampong with a handful of Muslims and a majority of Chinese, the residents’ association has decided to circulate a petition to stop the project.

My uncle and aunt were among the first to put down their signatures. “I don’t think we need a temple in here,” he said.

Having lived in my uncle’s kampong every school break since I was a little girl, I knew very well that his Hindu neighbours have their personal mini temple built behind their houses where they conduct prayers every evening. The sound of bells and the smell of incense has become the norm for neighbours like my uncle.

“I will sign the petition too,” said my cousin brother.

“Are you signing it because it’s a temple and not a mosque?” I asked.

“Of course not. There are two huge temples within a ten-minute drive from here. So why do we need another temple in a place where there are less than five Hindu families?” he answered while putting down his name.

I took the list and browsed the names written. Those objecting were mostly Chinese and Malays. To my surprise, a couple of his Indian neighbours too seem to have signed the petition. Odd. But then these are the people with common sense – people who are able to call a spade a spade.

“I think your decision to sign the petition was made for all the right reasons. But if the petition was to object to a plan to build a mosque in your kampong, will you have signed it too?” I couldn’t help myself from asking.

My cousin brother smiled as he answered, “First of all I don’t think they will ask a Muslim to sign a petition to object to the building of a mosque.”

“Well, they did bring the temple petition to the Hindus, didn’t they? But anyway, lemme repeat, if you were given a petition to stop the building of a mosque in this kampong, what would you do?” I asked again.

There was a long silence.

Please note that there are less than 20 Muslim families in the kampong, compared to more than 100 Chinese families. There is a surau within walking distance, two mosques within a 5-minute drive and a few more within a 10-minute drive and a lot more within a 15-minute drive.

So clearly, an additional mosque is not needed. But while it would take a few seconds for us to say no to the building of a Hindu or Buddhist temple or a church even, would any Muslim voice an objection to the construction of a mosque?

It is so much easier to complain about a cross hanging on a church or images of pigs (or wombats in some cases) in public places. We frown upon the smell of incense and the noisy bell coming from temples. We even get a kick out of querying about the land they are occupying – whether the temple has been given authorisation by the government, that is. And we bitch about pork sellers and bah kut teh stalls in our area.

Yet we ignore the fact that our mosque wakes everyone in our neighbourhood as early as 5 am every single day. We pretend we know nothing about the ceramah agama given on loud speakers on Friday nights and sometimes over the weekends. And we don’t even give it much thought when we triple park on a three lane street at noon on a Friday, do we?

Why the lack of fairness?

We are all human aren’t we?

Why then do we have two sets of rules for almost everything?

Why can’t we have one straight path with no crooked lines?

Why?

Think about it.