Fracture Point

Singing Whose Name for 'God'? - Nov '09

A couple weeks ago I described the sensation that the ground on which I've been walking was little more than an a thin veneer, that just below the surface there exists a complex web of tension and discord of which as an outsider I'm only vaguely aware. Last night the eggshell cracked.

As firebombs were thrown into a couple scattered churches around KL in protest to recent court rulings about the use of the word Allah in publications among Bahasa speaking Christians in Sabah & Sarawak on Borneo and the Orang Asli here on the peninsula, points of fracture were made plain in the facade of 1Malaysia.

At this point I don't really have the depth of experience or background to comment on the events of the day, so I'll defer to the expertise of local storytellers and meaning makers.

Fortunately these actions haven't had a direct impact on either me or the congregation I'm serving. Apart from the news posts on Facebook and an early flurry of e-mails, in my immediate world there was little to distinguish today from any other day. . .

The main square in PJ New Town still had the usual collection of motorbikes. The Sweet-and-Sour Chicken in 'Kopi Oh!' still has the flavor I find appealing (almost guaranteeing that local friends would declare it inauthentic). The checkout lady at Tong Woh is still very much with child.

In short, externally everything appears the same. And yet, somewhere, something significant has shifted.

Welcome to life in Malaysia.