Friday 30 June 2017

TO PRAY OR NOT TO PRAY?

TO PRAY OR NOT TO PRAY ?



As a wide eyed external London law student, I was told to leave religion out of legal studies because law is secular. 

Zaid Ibrahim's statement a few days ago (http://m.thesundaily.my/node/456109) sparked so much of lively debates amongst the netizens, intellectuals and pseudo intellectuals. 

As a law student  I was also taught that the best way to answer an exam question is to weigh the pros and cons and that there are always exceptions to the general rule. Meaning there's no outright wrong or right. The favourite word used by practising lawyers  in court is "walaubagaimanapun". 

Hence, I was quite amused at how netizens argue over some issues. How friends can turn into foes because of differences in opinion. How a liberal minded person can be so steadfast in an opinion until he/she becomes the very extremist minded person that he/she so detest. How difficult is it to agree to disagree? 

After watching the interesting talk, to paraphrase "Dissecting 1MDB" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZABOpi68HY), I feel like dissecting this issue. After asking the passengers to pray twice, the pilot's exact words were "Our survival depends on your cooperating. Hopefully everything will turn out for the best.” As a law student also, we were told to use the objective test and not the subjective test. As a pilot of an international airline, one would be obligated to subscribe to the international norm. There's nothing wrong in asking passengers to pray. In fact, in Islam this would be the most logical thing to do. However, we are dealing with a group of 359 individuals of different faiths. We need to use the objective test and not the subjective test. 

Same goes for Syariah laws in Malaysia. Malaysia is a multi ethnic and multi religion country. Muslims are undoubtedly the majority in Malaysia but if we allow Syariah laws to coexist with civil laws, then to be fair to the Malaysians of other faiths, we need to have Christian and Hindu laws to coexist too. Where do we draw the line? Hence, there should be only one set of laws to govern all Malaysians, irregardless of religions. 

It is nothing wrong to be pious. In fact,  it is a beautiful thing. It is also a very private thing. Just don't superimpose that piety on non believers. We need to come to a middle ground or else there can be no equitable harmony. 
Nicole Tan Lee Koon

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