Hidden meanings

[After much thinking and pondering if I should practice self-censorship, I decided to post this any way. I just want to point out that I have nothing against any religion as I claim myself as a full-time Atheist and a part-time Roman Catholic. Religious fanaticism is bad regardless of the religion. Is there such a thing as the TRUE religion? I don’t think that should be the point of any supposedly teachings of God. But what do I know?]

I want to share a little story on how narrow-minded some people in Malaysia can be. This story revolves around the new Malaysia football jersey that was launched last Sunday.

Photo by Mike Yip

I bought a bootleg version, as the original would set me back in the region of RM270-RM320. So I’d might as well save up for an original Manchester United jersey. I got the new Malaysian jersey 2 months ago. You’re probably wondering, how’d I get it so quick if it was only launched 2 days ago? Don’t underestimate the power of piracy. Anyways, about a month ago, a friend of mine (who also bought the jersey early) got hold of pictures (not this photo) of a photo shoot for the new jersey. The pictures showed that the jersey would have a horizontal yellow line added to the jersey (ours didn’t have the horizontal line). So imagine the picture above with a yellow horizontal line roughly at the same place as the numbers.

At that moment, we both complained about it as I had the opinion that it wouldn’t look nice. I was actually disappointed with the last minute changes because then my jersey would be different. So to my surprise on Sunday, I saw that the horizontal line was removed and thus the jersey you see in the photo above. I asked my friend, why the change? And he said, “Well, it was controversial.” I thought about it for a while. So I asked, “What’s controversial with a horizontal line.” And he says, “It’ll resemble a cross.”

I was lost for words and he looked at me gasping for a response. He just says to me, “Orang sinun nang cam ya. Orang S’wak sikda problem. Orang sia jak nok sik faham. Kedak orang MP Sabah ya madah, mun nak belajar tolerance, pergi S’wak jak. Siboh molah akta-akta. Situk, orang sik nangga gik mun kau India, Cina, Melayu atau Iban. Aku madah dengan orang sia, kawan aku makan babi kat sebelah aku jak. Aku kisah apa. Sidak nya sik percaya. Sensitive gilak orang sia.” Let me just point out that my friend is Malay.

I didn’t like the horizontal line because I thought it looked bad but I never noticed it forming a cross. People might say it’s because I’m on the other side of the fence so I wouldn’t pick up on things like this. So is it my fault for being insensitive or someone else for being overly sensitive?

So how about this? My Muslim friends, wear a shirt with a cross and I’ll get church goers to wear a green shirt with a moon crescent and star. We’ll call this a religious learning exchange. Let’s get DrM involved too. He can wear a shirt with the Star of David and Jews can wear a shirt with his face on it. If they can eventually get along, there might be hope for the world.