Wednesday, 11-Feb-2004 7:52 AM

HARAKAH DAILY

Eat, drink and be merry

Raja Petra Kamarudin

One of my favourite stories that I read over and over again in primary school was ‘The Three Musketeers’. And the ‘war cry’ that Athos, Pothos, Aramis and D’Artagnan chanted while guzzling down their ale was “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we may die.”

And that was probably the same ‘war cry’ that the Barisan Nasional leaders gave at the Sekolah Rendah Sultan Sulaiman I in Kuala Terengganu last Saturday night as they boisterously celebrated Chinese New Year at dusk, the time when a good Muslim should instead be conducting his Maghrib prayers.

Any Malay worth his salt will tell you that one needs to be indoors conducting your prayers during the time of Maghrib. I remember, when I was a kid, the old folks would shout at us to get indoors and get ready for Maghrib as the sun set over the horizon. “Only the devil and companions of the devil will roam the streets at this time of night,” the old folks would scream. Afraid that we may bump into a devil that would be running around helter-skelter during Maghrib -- as we kids used to believe would happen if we did not get indoors -- we scrambled for the safety of our homes.

Such foolish ideas we kids used to have. Looking back now, it was probably stupid of us to think that decent humans should be indoors during Maghrib while only devils will be engaged in worldly pleasures instead of conducting their Maghrib prayers. I suppose I know better now, or at least I should after all that schooling I was forced to endure, and I no longer believe only devils should be out during Maghrib. Yes, we learn and we grow up, and we no longer hold dear beliefs of the past.

And the Barisan Nasional leaders proved this last Saturday night at dusk as they celebrated Chinese New Year. Did any of them bump into any devils roaming around? Certainly not or else it would have been in all the papers. That just goes to show that, sometimes, old folks can be wrong. Or maybe they purposely frightened us kids with this story of devils roaming around at Maghrib as a strategy to get us to come indoors. If not we would be happily kicking around that football way past Maghrib instead of getting indoors to pray.

It was certainly very noble of the Barisan Nasional leaders -- and when I say “Barisan Nasional” I of course include the UMNO leaders, the new Deputy Prime Minister amongst them, who were all there that Saturday night -- for respecting the Chinese community by holding that Chinese New Year gathering. This shows the huge tolerance and consideration accorded the Chinese Community, something all Malaysian should emulate.

Well, no doubt, in respecting the Chinese culture of celebrating Chinese New Year, they had to show some disrespect to the Muslims. But this is a small price to pay. After all, as they say, one man’s loss is another man’s gain. So maybe the Muslims had to “sacrifice” something in the process -- respect for their prayer time. But what was gained in return was far greater than mere respect for the Muslim prayer time -- and that is, cultural tolerance.

Okay, maybe you want to be petty and argue that there are 24 hours in a day. Maybe you want to argue that they could have held the celebration at some other more suitable time. Maybe you also want to argue that they could have delayed the whole event an hour or so to ensure it does not clash with the prayer time. But why must we only look at the convenience of the Muslims? Those Muslims who want to pray can go and pray. But if the UMNO Muslims would rather be at a party instead of praying, then that is their business. Why make an issue out of it?

Of course, there are others who would want to argue that Chinese New Year singing and dancing is not a Chinese custom so asking them to delay the event an hour or so is not showing intolerance to the Chinese. These same people would argue that the Chinese in China do not even know what is Chinese New Year. They would then argue that, if the Chinese in China have never heard of Chinese New Year, then how can you say this is a Chinese custom?

Granted, the Chinese in China do not celebrate Chinese New Year. Granted, the Chinese in China have not even heard of Chinese New Year. Granted, what the Chinese in China celebrate is the Spring Festival. But then the Malaysian Chinese have always celebrated Chinese New Year and have accepted it as their custom, so we should not split hairs on this issue.

In that same token, Malays celebrate Hari Raya by burning oil lamps and eating ketupat. If you take the oil lamps and ketupat away from the Malay he would be outraged. To tell the Malay that no other Muslims in the other parts of the world celebrate Hari Raya in this manner would not be an acceptable argument. To the Malays, whether this is the right Islamic custom or a deviation from the true teaching is of no consequence. They have celebrated Hari Raya in this manner for generations and they will continue to do so. And this applies for Chinese New Year too.

Whether it is Hari Raya or Chinese New Year, it is a time, as the Three Musketeers would say, to eat drink and be merry. And let us not allow a minor thing like our prayer time stand in the way of these festivities. And let us Malays, or at least the UMNO Malays, partake in this merriment for the sake of racial harmony. And let us not allow our prayers to disrupt our quest for racial harmony.