HOTD – Raja Petra Kamarudin (RPK)

RPK’s article today is very insightful – complete with translations from different languages of the Bible.

as the title of this post goes, i am declaring RPK today’s hero for explaining that the word “Allah” is an arabic word, and had been before the quran was around. mind you, there are arab christians. but you won’t see it aired on malaysian tv unless u have ‘parabola’ (what’s that called in english?)

so i’m not going to bash my malay muslim friends. i have many wonderful muslim friends. and i respect them lots. RPK’s article explains why christians in malaysia should not be prohibited to use the word “Allah” in its publications

i want to bring up something i learned from my cousins – primary schools are teaching bahasa arab as an elective subject. “tidak wajib, tetapi digalakkan” says the teacher

err… hello? can someone tell me how children will benefit from this class? i can only think of a few things – to be able to read the Quran (for muslim kids), to study/work in Arab, to cater to arabian tourists, to work for an arabian boss in malaysia.

what are the chances of 1000 primary schoolchildren today of continuing their studies in saudi arabia or doing any of the above ‘benefits’? have u got the answer? try that on millions of malaysian children. when they grow up, we will have millions of kids who can speak arab but can’t put it to ‘good’ use (unless these kids decide to migrate to saudi arabia).

since it is “tidak wajib”, students are not obliged to learn this subject. and i think schools could hire librarians to look after these children or create an extra co-curriculum class for them to join. so many things to learn, time for govt schools to tap on these possibilities

but my 7-year-old cousin was forced to stand up on his chair for not bringing his bahasa arab textbook – the subject he is “tidak wajib” to take. three days he was punished like that. on the third day, he was extra punished by writing some arabic words on the blackboard, tears in his eyes.

that ustaz also smacked a 7-year-old girl on the face with a book for forgetting to bring her textbook to school. i’m gonna kick that frickin’ ustaz’s ass!

sorry, i digress. but kudos to RPK for an insightful article i just think the title is a bit sensitive. he might get sued again… oh dear RPK… itu lidah & blog mo kana kasi insurance la sikit…