Rants...

It's a little after lunch time and frankly, I'm still feeling a little discontented. I thought going home and resting would make me feel better. But it did not. Well, okay, I lied. It's always nice to go home and lie down for a bit and watch some TV. My CNN channel is a bit screwed up (the screen kept freezing on me) so I had to resort to AlJazeera.

The conspiracy theory in my head is saying that the US Government is trying to cover up any reports on their economy; hence the 'spoilt CNN channel'. Heh. Yeah. Sure. I bet it was just some technical glitch on our side.

Well anyway, here I am... in the office. Am supposed to read the newspaper but I figured that that could wait.

I do, however, wanna talk about the term "ALLAH". This was because as I was lying down and surfing the Net just now, I read about a teacher who was trying to "educate" the Malay students about the other races.

Firstly, I find it hard to believe that 13-year-old students in Malaysia don't know that other races exist in the country. I mean, didn't the text books talk about Ali, Ah Chong and Muthu these days? (I know during my time, the favorite names were Ali, Ah Chong and Muthu for boys and Aminah (or Siti), Ah Mei and Vasanthi for girls. But oh well.. maybe times have changed and nowadays, all text books only focused on Ali, Ahmad and Osman?)

Secondly, I wonder what is the purpose of the news portal to allow such story. To instill more hate amongst Malaysians? To make us Malaysians feel disgusted that our education system didn't even allow for us to know the main races in the country? (And let's not even get started with the Ibans, Kadazans and the various orang asal tribes - the Jakuns, Mah Meri etc.)

Oops. Here I am, digressing again. (Hahah.. sejak dah tak jadi reporter ni, my train of thought is everywhere...Ooopss..)

Anyway.. back to the term "ALLAH".

Allah, in Arabic means, "The God". It is a combination of Al (the) and Ilah (God). Yes, non-Muslims in the Arabic / Middle East use the word Allah.. but it is more often to relate to the sentence.

Eg: "When the God that you worship, doesn't approve of such things." Now in this context, it doesn't matter which God we are talking about, right? So they do use the word Allah.

BUT, my Arabic teacher cautioned, non-Muslims never refer to Allah as a special noun (kata nama khas).

"Christians especially cannot use Allah to refer to their God.. because they don't have that ONE GOD," he said. "In Islam, it's different. Allah is our God because we believe in only one divinity. Just one. It's the first rule to becoming a Muslim. You profess that there is NO OTHER God, but The God (Allah)."

And somehow.. it doesn't make sense kan? To use Allah (which is an Arabic word) in a Bahasa Melayu sentence, if it doesn't refer to "The God".

I mean, if you look at it this way, why would you want to use the word "Allah" if it was never meant to be a Kata Nama Khas? Why can't you use the word "Tuhan" instead, which is after all, a Malay word referring to "God"?

Well.. I think it's because humans like to complicate things. Humans like to provoke.. Humans like to feel that they are more clever, more superior.

The whole brouhaha about the term "Allah" and how it confuses Muslims. If you ask me, it's the non-Muslims who would be confused.

I have seen prayer scripts in the rural jungles of Sarawak.. which goes something like.. "Kami mohon pada Allah yang memberi kami rezeki etc.." - Those poor people (who are non-Muslims) must be confused why Allah is used instead of Jesus.

I mean, I would be confused if I have to mix my sentences.. like "In shaa Tuhan", instead of "in shaa Allah".. since "in = if" and "shaa = wants" and "Allah" is "The God" for Muslims. (In shaa Allah = If Allah wants it..)

Hmmm.

Of all the "ugly" things that I've been reading over the last few days..

- The US economy is collapsing. Almost a million civil servants now face the possibility of a 'forced unpaid leave'.. (now civil servants in Malaysia yang fikir that their job is secured and they could ambil loan beratus-ratus ribu, please think again ya...)
- There are violent clashes again between Muslims and Buddhists in Myanmar.
- Mufti of Sabah wants to "Melayu-nized" the Muslims (tsk tsk... why must you be MELAYU to be Muslims?)
- The Auditors report says that there a lot of discrepancies amongst the budget utilized by the Ministries in Malaysia. Hmmm. Power corrupts kan. Regardless.
- Friends bickering (on Facebook) on why Bahasa Melayu is being used instead of Bahasa Malaysia. (Now this one, I dah penat. I thought this issue was debated waaaaayyyyyy back when I was in school and it's frustrating to know that after all these years, we are still fighting over the issue. Don't they know how to 'move on'? Why so difficult to use "Bahasa Melayu"? I mean, consider this sentence... "She spoke perfect Malay despite being brought up in the UK." Now compare it with "She spoke perfect Malaysia despite being brought up in the UK." See what I mean?)

But really, I so don't understand all these squabblings about Bahasa Melayu or Bahasa Malaysia. Or maybe we want to be like Indonesia where they have a special language (which is neither Malay, Bugis, Javanese or whatever ethnic groups you have there)?

Penat baca Facebook kekadang. Penat baca isu perkauman. Again, I wish Malaysians fight for better quality of life, than bicker about the usage of the word Bahasa Melayu or Malay-nizing a State to feed one's political hunger.

Hmmm.. maybe there's nothing else worth fighting kot. I mean, gaduh-gaduh kat Facebook pun, we still can go to the malls and watch a movie. We can still have a decent meal (like nasi lemak kukus) at 3am. And we still watch football together at mamak stalls without any lockdown or curfew.

There are bigots who have nothing better to do than instil hate and instigate other races to fight with each other but you will still see a Chinese helping a Malay change her car tyre. And when you meet fellow Malaysians overseas, you automatically speak Bahasa Melayu because you feel special for being able to speak a language that no one (but Malaysians) understand.

Ohhhhh boy, what a rant!

Good to let things out once in a while. Don't sweat the small stuff, I would like to remind my friends. Why fight over the word "Allah"? Instead of politicizing it, why not educate the non-Muslims on the usage of the word?

Why ask the Chinese or the Indians to go back to China and India... because really, the Chinese friends that I have don't speak and behave like the Chinese in China and my Indian friends are not like the Indians in India.

Why not just accept one another and not fight over little things?

Fuuuhhh.. I'm a foul mood. I thought writing would help calm me down... heh.

Oh well. Time to get back to work. Need to check on the transport department to see if they have managed to bring the kids safely back from school.

Toods.