By Siti Kasim
I DO not know about the politics of Israel-Palestine enough to figure out who is right or wrong, when and what to make an informed judgement.
All I know is from the anthropological history, that the land has been occupied by other races before the Jews (Canaanites/Hittites etc). The Jews ruled the land again, before coming under Roman occupation, and then with Arabs with Jews living there together.
So, there is no point talking about who displaced whom, or who is right or who is wrong.
All I know is about the character of a society. The Arabs have been killing amongst themselves from the days of the Ummayad rule (Sunni/Shia schism), and killing others from the days of the so-called Islamic Empire expansionism (how do you think the empire came about?).
And even today, they keep killing each other in the name of nationalism or religion, while at the same time, claiming to be victims of other people’s hatred towards them. More than always, this is what their “leaders” go about telling their people so their citizens will support their lavish lifestyles throughout the ages.
So, what is happening in Palestine does not surprise me at all.
Honestly, I am sick and tired with the Arabs. Not all Arabs obviously. Unlike our indigenous people – who does not have a material civilisation – the Arabs should sort out issues among themselves and live peacefully, no matter what is the compromise because it has always been available.
To me, something is wrong with a society that cannot even live peacefully amongst themselves, what more with others.
Clean our own backyard first
They seemed to always blaming others instead of looking in the mirror. By the way, before these bombings somehow happened, their Hamas political arm of Mahmoud Abbas postponed their elections – why? Because of Israel. I guess COVID-19 was not a strong enough reason to prop yourself up in Palestine. I don’t know. Maybe I see a pattern.
What I do know is what matters to me. That is Malaysia and how we treat our minorities and the marginalised, like our own indigenous people.
So, I do not care about what happens over there. I care for what is happening here. I want to talk with passion about how our Orang Asli communities are being eradicated and converted into a religion they do not want.
I want to talk how our Orang Asli people are being displaced from their ancestral land. I want to talk about how since the days of former Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, this country dived into corruption (Yes, it is so convenient how Noah Omar ended up in Genting when Razak was serving as premier, to give out the casino license).
I want equality and justice here in Malaysia without all these quotas, covert and overt “Islamisation” that has slowly but surely destroyed our nation’s economy, governance, education and multi-ethnic unity since the early 1970s.
This is what I care about and what I want us to be concerned, not the Arabs.
And I’m just a Muslimah speaking from her heart. Why is our Government getting involved in other people’s problem and trying to drum up support under the guise of “Muslim Brotherhood”?
Our own country’s racial problem, Orang Asli issues, muted freedom and country’s constitutional problem, where the Government is using the Emergency as an excuse to combat COVID-19 looks more pressing to me.
Look after our own backyard by solving all those mentioned problems. If one day Malaysia becomes a superpower, then go ahead and meddle in other country’s internal problem.
For now, stay out. By the way, I heard now that Israel has mentioned Malaysia in the news. – May 16, 2021.
Siti Kasim is a human rights lawyer and an activist.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
Editor’s note: Mahmoud Abbas is the chairman of Fatah, not Hamas. Fatah is a Palestinian nationalist party while Hamas is an Islamic fundamentalist party headed by Khaled Mashal.
