AUG 3 — “We cannot allow this situation with regard to serious crime to persist,” Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said.
“The society today has become too sensitive,” Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said.
Although the two top government leaders were referring to different contexts, it is indeed a fact that poor public security has led to a chaotic situation while the lack of understanding and respect has made society increasingly sensitive.
Our society is now in an era full of issues.
If the deterioration of public security has not reached a frightening level, why should the government set up a committee comprising Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and several other ministers in the Prime Minister’s Department to fight crime?
If the people’s bottom line has not been provoked and challenged by a series of chaotic incidents and controversial policies, how would society become so sensitive?
Indeed, our society is filled with chaos.
All issues, including poor public security, political struggles and religious disputes, need us to find out the root of the problem and solutions to restore social harmony and tranquillity.
Society has always been filled with various problems. Although not all the problems would become influential big problems, they still need to be solved, regardless of whether they are big or small problems. Otherwise, small problems might grow big and big problems might evolve into disasters.
Sadly, many problems which could originally be easily resolved have instead been complicated by stereotypical judgments, double standards and selective blindness due to the ideology of “political correctness”.
For instance, it is stereotypical judgment to jump the gun and blame non-Muslims for the uproar over a viral short video of a Muslim dog trainer cleaning her three dogs, following the storm over a sex blogger duo’s Ramadan message.
For instance, it is double standards to charge some people in courts for staging a protest rally but no action was taken against some others who wriggled their hips in front of someone’s house.
For instance, it is a selective blindness to charge some people with sedition for allegedly making racial sensitive remarks while some people who provocatively told the Chinese and Indians to go back to China and India with impunity are let off.
Similar incidents have been staged time and again, causing society to become more and more fractious, impatient, clamorous, confused and contradictory.
Everyone knows that we must not allow society to continue falling and sinking. Society cannot be always haunted by so-called sensitive issues as it would eventually lead to the discard of mutual trust, the loss of mutual understanding and the oblivion of mutual respect.
It is now the time to address all problems and stop letting stereotype, double standards and selective blindness continue disturbing and ravaging our society.
We must have the courage to face problems as it is not frightening to face problems. Instead, it is horrible to ignore and cover up the problems, thinking that blindfolding the eyes would cover everything up while covering the ears would mean everything could be ignored.
The government, political parties as well as members of the public must do more practical work in enhancing mutual understanding and communication among different races. It is not frightening for not understanding. Instead, it is terrible to refuse to understand and even expand differences into confrontations, and misunderstanding into hatred.
We all need to make greater efforts for a better tomorrow! — mysinchew.com
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malay Mail Online.
