SMK Convent Bukit Nanas : Pray tell me Why?

Tell me……has the Ministry of Education under this Barisan Nasional government led by Najib Tun Razak really pick a Malay Muslim principal to head SMK Convent Bukit Nanas? Pray tell me why? 

Forget about the stated government policy that there will be “maximum consultation” with Christian mission schools on any such appointment.

Forget the fact that Datin Seri Zavirah Mohd Shaari is a suitably qualified person to undertake the task.

Forget the fact that you now need permits to go Christmas Caroling.  

This is personal!

I want you all to know that my sister went to Convent Bukit Nanas. In my last conversation with her a week ago, she is still, at the age of about 50, a Muslim.

Najib Razak who went to St John’s Institution (a Catholic founded school) is still today, a Muslim.

My cousin Iskandar who also went to St John is also still a Muslim today – many many years after their studies at St John.    

So pray tell me, as Mahathir has succinctly put it – if it ain’t broke, why fix it!

UNLESS…unless this is a blatant attempt by UMNO at taking over Convent Bukit Nanas and turning it – albeit slowly but surely – into a madrash – because UMNO deems it necessary to their political survival to now engage in state sponsored exposure of all schoolchildren to jihad which of course promises instant salvation! And to integrate this into the formal educational system we now have! And in so doing UMNO supplants PAS as the Islamic party of choice in Malaysia!

What madness is this?   

“For all those who have ears to hear

Who are these who speak dark counsel without knowledge?

Who are these who walk about in arrogant accord?

With their foreheads wrinkled and their hearts hardened?

Who are all these who speaks with serpents tongues?”

I cannot see any common sense justification for such an appointment except to confirm the absolute reality that a desperate UMNO is now reduce to taking desperate and dangerous actions to try and cling to power!

That nobody within UMNO is able to advise Najib as to the adverse consequences of his actions is worrying….so in lieu of that ‘nobody’ let me attempt to educate Najib as to the consequences of his actions:

You lose the support (read votes here) of one million Catholics of the country’s 28 million total population.

You lose the support (read votes here) of those of us that understand that what you have done in putting a Muslim to head a Catholic school is just one more blatant attempt by UMNO to satisfy the extremist within UMNO whose notion of flexing their muscles is to antagonize people of different races and religion with their idiotic belief that ‘might is right”. Put another million votes within this category.

The stupidity of this decision takes my breath away! How do you justify this to the people of Malaysia who are waiting to cast their votes in the 13^th general elections? Why pander to the converted within UMNO when you know that their numbers alone are not even enough to make Utusan viable what more win UMNO a general election! You stupid, stupid President! Surely there must still be some within UMNO who are made of sterner stuff able to understand the harm that all these actions are doing to UMNO?

It is impossible for me to believe that UMNO is so blinkered that it is unable to see defeat looming in front of them as they go into the 13^th general elections!  

What have we learnt from our history? We know that above all else Race and Religion is a powerful mixture in politics. We owe our greatest triumph and our greatest failure to Race and Religion.  Our greatest failure has been the racial riots of May 13^th in 1969. Our greatest achievement has been the freedom to worship any religion you choose albeit some would argue, within constrains that are arguably restrictive in nature.

Supporters and opponents of race and religion have drawn upon the vast reservoir and complexities of race and religion to advance their political agenda.

None demonstrates this more then PAS. Pas justify the morality of their political stance by drawing on the tenets of Islam.

UMNO tries to justify its political agenda by drawing on the tenets of Islam but UMNO’s very existence has been in the beginning and till today, has always been about race. The Malay race.

I would suggest that UMNO stays within its racial parameters in advancing their cause to us for re election. Religion is not UMNO’s forte. As I have said in the past: It is easy to champion the principles of Islam. It is in the adhering to the principles of it that many have failed…and UMNO and its leaders have failed time and time again.

For UMNO to now venture into the realms of religion for its survival is clutching at straws. To lose the goodwill of one million Catholics is sheer lunacy for an UMNO that is already being pummeled against the rope by a Pakatan Rakyat energized by the rhetoric's of the recent UMNO general assembly!

Now we await what will come next….perhaps a desperate gambit towards bringing PAS into their fold by handing over Convent Buklit Nanas lock stock and barrel to PAS to do what it will with it? 

Maybe so but I think there is enough common sense within PAS to know what is the right thing to do and what is the wrong thing to….and we are with PAS because we know that if anything, PAS understands that Malaysian are changing! 

That PAS understands that those who call Malaysia home are entitled to their space in religion! 

That PAS understands that race and religion should never be used to divide our people.

That UMNO does not understand all this is the tragedy of a once great party that now feeds off crumbs and left overs left on the floor. An UMNO bankrupt of everything bar its bluster as its head towards oblivion and defeat in the 13^th general election.

To those Catholics that feel strongly about what has happened at Convent Bukit Nanas I ask that you join us in our fight against Barisan Nasional and against UMNO. Enough of putting up with their arrogance and dictatorial style of government. 

ABU! ABU! ABU!