Jawi is going to kill Pakatan Harapan


Raja Sara Petra

The khat or jawi issue is going to be Pakatan Harapan’s Waterloo. If they abandon the plan to introduce jawi the Malays are going to get angry and if they proceed with it the Chinese are going to get angry. Pakatan Harapan is really sandwiched between a rock and a hard place — telan mati emak, luah mati bapak.

Some are trying to turn this into an Islamisation issue. Actually, khat has nothing to do with Islam. It is an art, Arabic calligraphy, just like Chinese calligraphy. Arabic calligraphy existed long before Islam, just like Chinese calligraphy is supposed to be thousands of years old.

Anyway, let us see what Pakatan Harapan is now going to do. Politicising this issue is going to make race relations, which is already at the lowest level since Merdeka, even worse. If Arabic calligraphy should be banned then all forms of calligraphy must suffer that same fate, Chinese calligraphy as well. Is this what Pakatan Harapan is planning to do?

It is comical that they insist the Christians be allowed to use the word ‘Allah’ in the Malay language Bible and Christian publications but they resent Arabic calligraphy when the original Allah is in Arabic calligraphy and not Roman lettering.

This is a game Pakatan Harapan is playing in trying to get Malay support but it appears to have upset the Chinese. Let us see who Pakatan Harapan will end up pleasing, the Malays or the Chinese.

 



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