A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand

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That was Abraham Lincoln in 1858 when confronting the issue of whether America can be half-slave and half-free. Make no mistake, beneath the calm surface of our everyday lives, we too are becoming a house divided against itself, half secular and half religious.
Every issue, every event, every disaster, every bill and every law are viewed through the narrow prism of either race, religion or both. “We, the People” have become “Us, against Them”.
We did not get to this point overnight. Blighted by the rabid politics of race in the 1980s, the fight for power morphed into the even more dangerous politics of religious supremacism.
And today, like all divided societies, the only relief comes from casting our ballots and individual acts of kindness with some stand-up comedy thrown in to keep our hopes alive even as devious politicians proclaim “Unity” while working behind the scenes to disunite us.
Then, on the verge of despair seeing a 130-year-old temple give way to a mosque, came the one-in-a-lifetime picture of a pious Muslim performing prayers in a temple following a massive gas pipeline explosion in Putra Heights. What are we to make of it?
Surely, it's both a sign and a message from on high that “We, the People” will be better off than “Us, against Them”. What else can it mean?
Also note that on this occasion, the “Us, against Them” politicians - the Abdul Hadis and Akmals of the day - have remained silent on this matter just as they have on endemic corruption plaguing the nation, the rich-poor divide, drug addiction among fisherfolk, the struggles of the urban poor and the shenanigans of our ruling class.
Their hackles are never raised by these matters but just try mentioning race or religion and they begin to foam in their mouths.
Ideology
It begs the question, how did they end up this way? The quick answer: ideology. And especially when politics takes on the mantle of religion shorn of all doubt or compromise. It is a wise man who said that it is doubt that unites us all, not certitude.
For certitude, especially of the religious type, is the deathbed of discourse, of working things out together, of seeing the destitute and the disadvantaged as fellow travellers on earth, of seeing a cripple as a victim of circumstances, not Divine disfavour.
And what does the certitude of ideology do when it is given free reign? Whether religious or secular, it pits humanity against each other. Between countries and even citizens of a country. We lived in such a world for close to half a century.
It was called the Cold War and it is a stark reminder of where we could end up as a country and a people if we continue this current trajectory of “Us, against Them”.
A Cold War in hot, steamy Malaysia? We must cast our minds back to March 5, 1946. The world was still in ruins when then-prime minister of the UK, Winston Churchill, began speaking in Missouri, USA of a crisis in Eastern Europe following the end of the Second World War.
Former prime minister of UK, Winston Churchill“A shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted by the Allied victory,” warned Churchill. “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent."
On the other side of the curtain Stalin, the one-time seminary student insisted peace was possible, but it could only come after communism's global triumph. The world was now divided into two ideological camps, one led by the US and the other, by the USSR. Each camp had its own political and economic worldview and a vision of the individual's role in society.
The Iron Curtain of Churchill eventually led to the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961. Divided by ideology, the world lived in the shadow of a possible new war, a thermo-nuclear Third World War. Both camps spent billions in arming themselves, sacrificing the well-being of future generations.
Iron veil
Here in multi-cultural, multi-religious Malaysia, an ideological struggle dating back to the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran has picked up considerable steam in recent decades. Almost daily it feels like a curtain, if not a veil has descended upon our lives. Yes, our very own “Made in Malaysia” iron veil.
This iron veil first cut across our Constitution by giving it a supremacist interpretation without paying the slightest heed to its generous nature or its equitable spirit. Merdeka and our long struggle against Communism was willfully ignored. The first shot in our own Cold War had been fired.
Then, a section of this iron veil became attached to our ‘revised’ history like an undeclared threat. The rakyat jelata, the common man of every creed and colour, who had helped build this country was written out of it by revisionist historians. The stage was now set for the next phase of our Cold War.
Slowly and steadily the iron veil wound its way across our nurseries, classrooms and school canteens, the admission offices and lecture halls of our universities and their residential colleges. From there it was only a short distance to the workplaces of the civil service, the boardroom of GLCs, the sports field and our shared social spaces - our eating, meeting and talking places including chat groups.
As things stand now the very fibre of our vibrant society is being stretched to breaking point by politicians hellbent on cementing an ideological divide centred on race and religion of our Cold War. Though a section of society refuses to be cowed, their numbers are small and they keep shrinking with each passing year.
Meanwhile, the men guarding the iron veil now running the length and breadth of the country squabble over how to bend it in their favour before turning it into an impregnable barrier.
The Global Ikhwan Services & Business Holdings (GISBH) saga is a clear manifestation of this trend to isolate themselves from the rest of us socially and economically. They see themselves as the foot soldiers of a new world order run by theocrats.
This leaves us with many questions we can no longer ignore: Will this Cold War of ours pave the way for military rule like in Egypt? Or strongman rule like in Turkiye? Is the unity of this country at peril? Can our house divided against itself stand strong and weather the coming storm of an impending trade war and geopolitical upheaval?
This iron veil has taken us into very dangerous waters. And looming ahead of us in the fog are a rocky shore's dark, shadowy outlines.
There is still time to sound the fog horn and steer the ship away from disaster even as Lincoln’s wise words ring in our ears: “I do not expect the Union to be dissolved; I do not expect the house to fall but I do expect it will cease to be divided.” - Mkini
MURALE PILLAI is a former GLC employee. He runs a logistics company.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.

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