GEORGE TOWN, Feb 16 — A group of 50 Malaysians walked peacefully from one house of worship to another here this evening, in a show of rejection of the racial and religious extremism sweeping the country.
Calling themselves “Malaysians for Malaysia”, the multiracial group of various faiths led by social activists Azrul Mohd Khalib, Jenny Liew and Aida Redza walked with purple balloons and stalks of carnations to hand out to people they met along the way.
“The purpose of this walk is to demonstrate that Malaysians are standing up for all Malaysians and we are also standing up against groups like Islamist group Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) and Malay rights group Perkasa to reject their prejudice and racism,” Azrul said when the group started gathering at Esplanade at about 5pm.
The group met at Esplanade and then walked from there, with stopovers at a church, a Taoist temple, and a Hindu temple before ending their journey at a mosque.
“We are Malaysians who are concerned over the religious tension over the ‘Allah’ issue, so this walk is to show that we want to stay united to reject all forms of violence, aggression and bigotry,” Azrul said.
The event, called “A Walk In The Park”, saw the group first stopping at St George’s Church at Farquhar Street where Azrul met up with the vicar and Archdeacon of the northern region, Venerable Charles Samuel.
Samuel had stood waiting for the group and received them with open arms while stating that now is the perfect time to call for everyone to wipe away all bitterness, anger and slander and replace it with a pure heart, compassion, love and kindness.
He even joined the group to continue to the Goddess of Mercy Temple just 200 metres away, where the group also handed a bouquet of flowers to the temple committee.
After the temple, the group walked down to the Sri Mahamariamman Temple to deliver another bouquet to the temple management committee chairman S. Varatharajoo.
The group finally ended its journey at the Masjid Jamek in Acheh Street where Samuel handed flowers to the Badan Warisan Masjid Melayu chairman and mosque committee member Mohamed Yahaya.
“This is a very good idea to foster peace and harmony amongst Malaysians as times have changed, many young people do not mingle enough, not like in my time, this is why there is so much anger and misunderstanding,” Mohamed said of the walk.
He said that in previous days, everyone in a community knew each other as they mixed around, talked to and understood each other.
He then lamented the present, when many of the younger generation kept to themselves and which gave rise to misunderstanding.
“What we need is for people to be around people for them to understand each other,” he said.
The Malaysians for Malaysia group will be organising similar “A Walk In The Park” in Ipoh, Kota Kinabalu and Klang in the next few months.
The group had chosen purple as their colour to represent religious tolerance as this is the core value the group is trying to impress upon those who chanced upon them.
