Alwyn Lau On The DUMC Raid

I think Alwyn Lau manages to get to the root of the matter. This is probably the best piece written on this issue.

Excerpts:

Berita Harian and Harian Metro see only how Christians want to bribe Muslims into believing in Jesus Christ, without seeing how Christians may in fact be concerned about the very poverty of some communities (including Muslims, obviously) and how the fact that some Muslims end up being Christian may reflect less some odious scheme to convert Muslims and more the natural sense of gratitude humans have when people show compassionate love.

In a word, the politically motivated see only what they want to see. But what they can’t see is that segment which they must be most responsible for i.e. the least of “the people”.

I’m talking about the homeless, the AIDS victim, the drug addict, the orphan, the widow, the handicapped, i.e. the very people for whom the DUMC dinner was thrown — who sees THEM? Only, it seems, DUMC and Harapan Komuniti.

The drug addicts and homeless are those whom society doesn’t enjoy seeing, so all the more reason why our leaders must take a good hard look at how they came to be.

The orphans are the ones for whom GE13 will make hardly a whiff of difference, so it’s critical that voters make a difference at GE13 bearing these children in mind.

The handicapped are the ones who will continue to suffer after the media furore has been cleaned (off the fans and the surrounding “areas”), so we need to bring them to the top of our political priorities lest it makes our talk of justice and a “high-income society” full of nonsense.

It’s pretty ironic when we remember that the people being served by Harapan Komuniti represent the very definition of “marginalised”. And yet when an incident involving them sprouts up, the last thing we think about is them.

Because after the political parties and analysts have finished their speeches and back-patting, after we’ve finished convincing ourselves that the bad guy remains as bad or even worse than before and that our good-guy party isn’t an iota responsible, the abused wife who has to feed three kids still has to fight back the tears every day to ensure her kids don’t have to fight back their hunger.

[Read that bit again, O ye sanctimonious Pakatan Rakyat supporters.]

We need to see the less privileged in our community as part of us and not merely as pawns in political ploys to get people to tick a preferred square on a piece paper come election day.

I’m glad Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim apologised for the incident but I’ll be gladder if his commitment towards justice doesn’t end with reprimanding Jais for their conduct and if, overall, Pakatan Rakyat is defined less by their criticism of Barisan Nasional and more by their efforts to bring joy and hope to these individuals.

Read the whole piece on the wesbite: The DUMC Raid: Are we forgetting someone?