Another senseless murder on the front page of the Star today: a law student home on vacation was beaten to death by a group of men he had apparently confronted because he heard them teasing him as he walked by a restaurant with his girlfriend.
It seems like Malaysia is a very dangerous place to come back to for those who have returned from abroad or are visiting. Canny Ong was here on a short visit from her residence in the US when she was abducted, raped and killed. Earlier there was a Malay woman who had come from her studies in the UK and was working here when she was also raped and killed in a bus. A South African diplomat was abducted and robbed and held for several days before he was released. Tourists have had their bags snatched and I remember at least one who was killed in the process. O Malaysia, wherefore art thou, my country?
If it is dangerous for the visitors, how then for the locals? Not a day passes by without someone being murdered, raped, assaulted, robbed, somewhere in this country. It can be 91 year old grandmother, a manager, a maid, a teenage boy or girl, or a toddler or baby. Was it our former Prime Minister who had blithely said that murder was not part of our culture? Well, murder is certainly part and parcel of Cain's culture, Cain the first murderer, which is that of the world. We are part of the human race. What hubris to think that we are better than others, more civilised, more cultured?
"There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23) Lord, have mercy on this land, the government and the people. Forgive us our pride and self-righteousness, our unjust laws and judicial process, our ill-treatment and abuse of immigrant workers, asylum seekers and visitors, the old, the young, the disabled, the poor, the aborigines. Let Your light shine through this land, let Your love and peace prevail.
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