A couple of years after the Gulf War, a Western journalist wondered which direction I thought we in this part of the world would be moving toward. My answer was prompt and brief. I told him that I felt that we had one foot pushing firmly on the gas pedal, and the other jamming with equal force on the brakes. “But that’s not going to get you anywhere fast”, he countered.
And for the decade or so since that conversation, I’ve felt that my answer so many years ago had held up fairly credibly in view of the events that have followed. Who can forget the harsh and often insipid atmosphere of the ’90s where anything out of the ordinary was instantly targeted as the work of mischief, where innovation and imagination were stifled as being idle and fruitless pastimes, and where one’s interpretation of faith almost had to do a complete makeover time and time again?
There were sermons on anything and everything, and from just about any quarter deeming themselves learned in theology. And they attacked just about every phase of our day-to-day living. There were objections from different sectors to satellite television, to mobile phones, to the Internet, to the presence of women in the business community, to the way we chose to dress or the entertainment we chose to fritter our time on.
Even what we read or listened to came under their scrutiny. Whether we chose to teach our children English, or afford our daughters physical education was not a matter of choice. There were so many mixed signals from the business community or the public sector that often rendered us into a state of delusional schizophrenia. And during that period, to many it was agony in existence.
Today, the message from the government is loud and clear. We cannot afford to be held hostage to archaic ideas if we are to forge ourselves into success as a nation. All of us, be men or women, have a responsibility toward making this a better place. That is by no means something that contradicts the spirit of Islam. And while the government has indeed established rules and laws to help move this process forward, there exists resistance from some quarters against this nation moving forward. Be they individuals or groups, these people are alarmed at the incremental progress that we have come to witness in the last few years.
Unfortunately, some use their positions of influence and authority to manipulate their perception of a healthy society through their own intolerant views. The recent ruling by a cleric judge in granting a divorce to a lady whose husband chose to introduce satellite television in their home is but one example of such abuse. The persistent and personal attack on a Shoura member who wanted to table the issue of driving for women from hard-line theologians and their supporters is another.
In an era where our youth are growing fast and savvy, the appeal of such pedantic ideas is rapidly losing ground. They have seen the world, and they want to be a part of its growth. They are willing to work hard and toil for this nation. But they also want to be free from the shackles that curtail their affectiveness. The presence of ideologies that tend to curb our imagination and fuel our spirit still exist within some individuals, disdainfully holding up the banner of damnation if we chose to indulge ourselves in forging for ourselves a way forward. And they must be weeded out, for else they do us all a great harm. Malaysia did it, and so can we.
For it is now, the time to floor the pedals and move on.
