JULY 23 — Another day, another big tragedy to keep the populace feverishly pressing the refresh button on news sites. But the reality is that bad things happen to everyone, every day, every second.

I find this Bible verse a rather appropriate summation of life: “I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.” (Ecclesiastes 9:11, King James Bible version)

Bad things happen to good people. Good things happen to bad people. There is no rhyme. No reason. No real “fairness.” It is no wonder that people look to their holy books and seek some wisdom or meaning. Many look to religion as either solace or a way to cope with the hideous realities of life. But while it is a personal choice to hide behind an apparently omnipresent being, it is still revolting when people attribute bad things to God’s wrath or ire. 

PAS Youth is now among the many shrill voices saying that MAS is being punished for its stewardesses not covering their aurat and for serving alcohol. My dear fellows, if that were true, no plane would be in the air today. All the planes would be shot by lightning before they even made it to the next airport.

Isn’t this victim blaming? But that is the sad point here. Instead of decrying a crime or giving the victim redress, we always somehow try and find out if maybe, just maybe the victim was to blame too.

A woman gets her handbag snatched? Who asked her to not put her valuables in her pocket? A man gets mugged at night? Why did he choose to walk somewhere unsafe?

Unless we all start wearing suits of armour and start packing guns, we will almost always be at the mercy of those among us who have no qualms about hurting other people to get what they want.

And when it comes to rape, I am tired sometimes of always having to tell people off for making rape jokes. Or trying to make them understand that jokingly telling someone you’re going to get killed or going to murder them is not the same as mock threatening to rape them.

“You’re just an oversensitive feminazi.”

“Men get raped too. I don’t see you advocating for them!”

Remember the girl who was raped by more than 30 men in Kelantan? I wonder what she is doing now. If she has gotten counselling. If she has received any sort of healing at all, physical or mental.

Gang rape is a horrible crime; when being raped by one person already leaves many victims bearing emotional scars for years, imagine being the victim of many perpetrators.

It does not help that being chaste, especially in Malay society, is so valued among women. And to be defiled, whether willingly or unwillingly, is seen as being of lesser worth.

I had a friend write to me, aghast upon hearing about the incident. 

“Who in Malaysia dares to confront this girl and explain to her that she did nothing wrong, that she is a good person, that she is loved, and that she can be proud of being a Malaysian?”

She was a victim. 

The people who died on the plane were victims too. So were the pilots, the cabin crew and those they left behind. To blame them somehow for not pleasing God enough, for somehow earning their terrible deaths is not God-like but the mark of the God-less.

For when you make out your God to be a cruel, sadistic sod, you really aren’t doing your God any favours.

So before you put people on trial (in your eyes) in the name of God, perhaps you should ask yourself if you truly know God’s mind in the first place.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.