Just Noise | by Johanan Sen

A columnist for Utusan Malaysia, Dr Maza, who usually writes from the UK, sent this week’s dose in from Germany — an entry he titled Hitler itu mungkin ada benarnya or “Maybe there was truth in Hitler”.

In it he runs through the crimes committed by European societies against the Jews, fueled by a fear and hatred of the latter. He uses it to justify his own anti-semitism. Then he goes further, listing offenses the Jews have committed in Islamic history.

Moving quickly past the obvious fallacies in his argument – one, that a people may not be deserving of the fear and hatred they receive and two, that religious texts are rarely good historical sources – let me move on to the part for which I have the most disdain.

He kicks off his final paragraph with, “Kita bukan anti kaum tertentu, atau anti-semitic secara membabi buta seperti Hitler atau masyarakat Eropah dahulu.” (We are not against any particular race or anti-semitic in the way that Hitler and the societies of Europe were, blind and without logic.) “Namun jika kita melihat Yahudi Israel hari ini mengkhianati perjanjian atau bersikap jahat, itu bukanlah perkara baru dan pelik untuk mereka kerjakan.” (But if we look at the Jews of today’s Israel, them going back on their word and their immoral nature, it isn’t something new or unexpected for them to be so capable.) “Kepercayaan Hitler itu, mungkin ada benarnya.” (Maybe there was truth in Hitler’s beliefs.)

The columnist, Dr Maza, doesn’t deny his anti-semitism or prejudice outright. He claims that “we” aren’t prejudiced “secara membabi buta”.

So I guess as long as the pig isn’t blind all is well!

What worries me the most about the clear anti-semitism expressed in this column is that it is often followed, in Malaysia, by a wave of anti-Sinoism (hostility toward or prejudice against the Chinese), a culture that men like Dr Maza have within their power to oppress.

Politicians, pundits and commentators here often draw comparisons between what the Jews did in Europe to what the Chinese have done here, economically. It ends up being a justification for anything short of a holocaust. We had our Kristallnacht just not an Auschwitz, and that apparently gives Maza the right to claim he’s more evolved in his sense of prejudice.

I whole-heartedly disapprove of the actions of Israel in the recent Gaza conflict. My friends can’t shut me up about it. But evil is never as simple as a race, a people or a country. Just as genius needs its mistakes and just as heroes can often show themselves to be cads before a moment of glory, lines blur. You judge actions just as the law should judge persons charged. Never a people.

There might have been truth in Hitler. His mustache was true-black on a Bravia (homeboy was as Aryan as me). But truth in hatred is no truth worth having at all. You may have reason to hate someone but every religion, even yours Dr. Maza, asks that you let it go for your own sake.

I am ever more weary and less forgiving of learned men who would exercise prejudice against an entire race of people. They’ve had every opportunity to notice the determined nature of individual consciences. To see that people can always surprise.

They’ve done the math and still they decide that the thoughts and actions of a majority is enough to diminish the rights and standing of an entire race of people. That summation, symptomatic of a lazy approach to life (in my opinion), puts me off.

I wish I could tell you that I feel deep shame over the sentiment expressed by this Dr Maza. I don’t. He isn’t of me. And our divide speaks to a deeper one in my country, a nation that remains in pieces.

I’m just looking to the academic institution that gave him his Ph.D. With an argument made in such bad form, somebody should take something back!