Lost more respect for Badawi...

I lost a bit of respect for Tun Abdullah Badawi today. I thought he could rise above the lowly actions and words of his former government subordinates when commenting on the recent racial tensions in Malaysia.
However, he has failed to maintain his objectivity, especially given his religious background. He instead opted to echo the PM's stand, deftly using the selfish explanation when commenting on the cow head incident.

“Street demonstrations that insult the race or religion of another community will anger the affected party, thus complicating efforts to resolve it.

“The Quran clearly states that Islam prohibits its followers from insulting the religions of non-Muslims.

“This is because non-Muslims may react and start insulting Islam, which can lead to untoward incidents,” he said after presenting Yayasan Budi Penyayang Hari Raya aid and scholarships to 477 people at Pusat Budi Penyayang yesterday.

[Taken from The Star http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/9/7/nation/4666285&sec=nation]

You should not insult others because someone might (would) react if you slur them, insult you back and you might then get hurt in subsequent trouble. That is a very absurd kind of reasoning when trying to teach someone not to do something that is obviously wrong. I am frankly surprised to hear this from a former leader who still retains a clean image and some respect for being schooled in religious thought. I mean, when Najib used the same kind of stance in his recent call to Muslims to "be tolerant" to other races, I wasn't surprised at all because that was all the concession I expected him to offer - he obviously would (and did) play the race/religion "we are actually still correct in our thoughts " card... but for Badawi, he did not need to use that.

You should rise above that, and history will accord you a rightful place on the pedestal of integrity of Malaysian leaders. Which is showing signs of slippage....

As V. Shanmugan says (http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/9/8/focus/4667405&sec=focus) "we need to have racial acceptance, not tolerance". Continuing down this road is a recipe for disaster.