Deepa Raya
Friday, 11-11-2005I stopped blogging for about ten days, mainly because I do not usually give many speeches or make many statements when Parliament is not in session.
When Parliament is not sitting, I spend a lot of time handling constituency service. One of my assistant has left, and the new replacement, Mei Yee, is inexperienced and I needed to guide her through hands-on. As such I am personally handling many of the complaints.
A reader emailed me last week and asked me why my article in Sin Chew is so short. He suspected that the editor “chopped off” some parts of my original article.
This reader is correct. I wrote about some people, especially Muslims, who were not happy about the term “Deepa-Raya”.
I cited intolerance among some Muslims, examples being the bombing in New Delhi a few days before Deepavali, the content of MenJ’s blog that created lots of controversy, as well as the attitude of the Muslims in one of the DBKL flats in my constituency.
The following is my original, unedited article in Chinese.
Deepa Raya
郭素沁
一如去年，今年的屠妖節和開齋節恰好落在同一個星期，對大部分人來說，雙佳節是絕頂好事，因為全國人民都可乘機度假，此外，一般人都認為這可促進宗教信徒的交融。於是，許多廣告和商店的布條都掛上綜合屠妖節和開齋節字眼的，藉此把兩個宗教的慶典拉攏起來。
事實上，非回教徒忘了問興都教徒和回教徒究竟是否喜歡把這兩個節日連在一起？在印度，屠妖節前幾天，新德里鬧市內便發生爆炸事件，造成60人死亡和200多人受傷，印度警方懷疑這是喀什米爾回教極端分子所為。這些回教徒恐怖分子選在興都教徒歡慶他們的宗教節日之前轟炸鬧市，由此可見他們對興都教徒的憎恨。
在我的選區，沙叻秀新村人民組屋的以華人為主的居民協會，本欲舉辦一個居民聚餐會來慶祝屠妖節和開齋節，但是，興都教徒欣然接受，但是該組屋的回教徒卻反對，於是該居民協會被逼搞兩個聚餐活動以顯示他們對不同信仰的尊重。最令人遺憾的是，當當該人民組屋的印裔和華裔居民晚間在屠妖節聚餐會中大吃大喝時，組屋裏的回教徒同胞卻不願下來與大家同慶這節日。
後來，也很以外的發現到，在網際網路的部落（blog）裏，一些“虔誠“的回教徒也對非回教徒和商家把這兩個宗教節日稱為Deepa Raya 感到非常不滿。一個稱為“MENJ’s Critical Thoughts”的部落的作者，把Deepa Raya 的稱號視為對回教的褻瀆，因為屠妖節怎可和神聖的開齋節Eid ul-Fitr相提並論？
後來，這位仁兄給其他部落一族“轟炸”得幾乎難以招架，因為大家都不認為Deepa Raya這稱號有何不妥，部落族裏的各宗教信徒都把他罵為極端分子。
沙叻秀新村人民組屋的基層人民及MENJ 的部落對Deepa Raya的態度，顯示出好些回教徒對這雙佳節的聯合稱呼的不削反應。
人擁有宗教信仰是件美好的事，因為宗教能給活在世俗中的人們在生活與道德方面的指引，這有助於建立一個有道德規範的社會。但是，人對神過度的虔誠和沉迷，或只注重宗教裏某個層面或某個教義，而忽略了現今社會的狀況和其他宗教信徒的問題和感受，那宗教無形中對社會帶來破壞，而非建設。因此，宗教司們其實應該鼓勵人們去認識其他宗教，以促進各信徒之間的交融，才符合國情。
與其爭論Deepa Raya這字眼是否詆毀某個宗教的節日，不如探討為何Deepa Raya前後，吉隆玻購物中心那麼冷清、市場那麼低沉？此外，為何Deepa Raya期間車禍率奇高，為何政府在雙佳節前推行的“態度行動”失敗，以致全國發生逾千宗車禍？為何我國居然有6萬名大學生失業，而且很多失業了一年還找不到工作？
我國還有許多棘手的問題有待處理，何苦為Deepa Raya 的字眼傷腦筋？
（４－１１－０５）
Hi Teresa,
I guess quite a number of your blog visitors will be glad if you could translate your Chinese articles/blogs into English too.
I just found out that you have a blog today. I am glad to find more and more people who work hard for a better Malaysia blogs. It may still be long before we can achieve much improvement, but I strongly believe with persistency and counter-propaganda feeding, we can achieve that in near future. Keep up the good works.
Comment by amalaysian — Sunday, 13-11-2005 @ 00: 23.47
Greetings to you, Yang Berhormat.
I am MENJ, the same person you cited in your post here, and apparently in your Chinese writing as well. I am afraid that I am unable to address the issues you raised in your Chinese article unless and until you make a translation into English or Bahasa Melayu.
But I need to correct a misunderstanding: I am in NO WAY trying to be intolerant to any religious group or believers. My concern is in preserving the purity of my religious faith, not promoting intolerance as you have insinuated.
Best regards.
– MENJ
Comment by menj — Monday, 14-11-2005 @ 11: 20.08
Ms Teresa… I’m not agree with your statement that Menj’s blog was intolerance… he might have created misunderstood statements but as a muslim I know what he is trying to say… u also need to learn more and u might need to ask fellow muslim friends opinion…who are good in islamic religion before you make such drastic conclusion…
Comment by reader — Tuesday, 29-11-2005 @ 15: 33.20
Article centres on the Joint Celebration and highlights of world events. Guess if the “”Love Thy Neighbour” teaching of Jesus is practised, there is no issue . Read “The World’s Religions” and learnt that Islam is about implementing the teachings of Jesus.
Comment by jinwu — Saturday, 04-02-2006 @ 20: 24.56