Berani dalam Benar: Will there be a MADANI temple or church anytime soon!
Coincidentally, a MADANI mosque was officially announced on one of the auspicious days during the Ramadan. On the surface this looks logical enough, but on scratching the surface deeper, it raises a number of questions. Leaving aside the political ramifications of such a move, the labelling alone is already problematic. As 'M' is the first letter that stands for Mampan or Sustainable derived from the English acronym, SCRIPT, it implies that anything considered as such must not be tempered with. It is part of the distant past, a heritage to be preserved throughout humanity.
All heritage sites recognised by UNESCO are to be regarded as "sustainable." And is to be left the way it is in terms of sites and structures. Not even the slightest renovation is allowed so as to ensure that it remains as pristine as it can be. Think of the seven wonders of the world. The famous Taj Mahal is a good example as far as a mosque-like structure is concerned. Likewise, a structure can only be regarded as genuinely meeting the "sustainable" standards, as long as it did not result in the destruction of another existing structure or other life forms. For example, damaging the environment to erect a so-called "sustainable" structure in whatever architectural styles cannot be said to have complied with the 'M' definition as claimed by MADANI. No matter if it has been negotiated, compensated, or just out of magnanimity as a matter of political pandering. All these do not make it sustainable or mampan!
Apart from this, it also violates the 'R' in SCRIPT which stands for "respect." This is the second 'A' in MADANI - for hormAt. (Some may ask why A, not H? That is another complicated story!). Incidentally, the 'R' is the third letter in SCRIPT, whereas hormAt is the 4th in MADANI. The third letter in MADANI is D for Daya Inovasi which is not a translation for ‘Respect’ - (yes, you guess it, yet another complexity!). This alone has weakened the slogan MADANI vis-à-vis SCRIPT!
Ignoring the apparent deliberate sleight of hand, (which is in itself disrespectful), to cause a temple of more than 160-year-old to be "destroyed" (to allow for its reallocation, for example) means that the new structural entity cannot qualify as "sustainable" in violation of what MADANI stands for.
The same argument could be made for 'C' - care and compassion, equivalent to the first 'A' for sejahterA (another form of letter manoeuvring). Let alone the poor translation as compared to perhatian dan belas kasihan to give a better rendering of the English version. Sejahtera is a more comprehensive concept as per Sejahtera documented in Wikipedia (https://ms.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sejahtera).
In other words, the claim that the new structure is MADANI is untenable and grossly dishonest. To simply fix MADANI to a mosque could be viewed as more of an "insult" and "arrogance." To top it all, why the chosen location and the particular site that has been reportedly highlighted to have questionable records for various reasons misaligned with that set by MADANI. For instance, why not just rename an existing mosque elsewhere as the purported MADANI mosque! One with a more transparent and clean record without any alleged problematic issues at all, intended or not!
In addition to this, why is there only one MADANI mosque countrywide after two years the acronym being sloganised? Isn't the National Mosque MADANI enough? For that matter the several state mosques too? Or any other that existed before MADANI was sloganised? Since Malaysia is caricaturised to be MADANI, should not all mosques be MADANI too, automatically? Otherwise, it tends to be more divisive than serving a unifying factor under a unity mandate!
This is even more blatant, when taking into account other places of worship - temples, churches, or by any other names whatsoever allowable in Malaysia. No MADANI churches or temples? Have they not met the MADANI descriptions as per SCRIPT? Unlikely! So why is there a double standard? After all, Malaysia MADANI is a civilisational notion, not a religious one going by the widely used slogan to describe almost all things that is Malaysia! Not only the sacred!
To make it worse, of late, the converse seems to be ironically true when a high-ranking person in the unity government asked no less than the PM to refrain from pronouncing 'kuil haram' (prohibited/illegal temples) which sounds offensive to the Hindu devotees. Alternatively, should not there be a named MADANI temple giving the “awkward" request? Is the prominently placed Hindu temple at Batu Caves, since many years ago, still not qualified to be the MADANI temple?
Being marginalised like the Masjid Negara! What is more, the lone voice comes from within the same government indicating quite strongly and clearly that MADANI is not truly understood (thus accepted) by most – what with letter manoeuvring as mentioned above to begining with. Beyond mere "slogan," let alone its implementation, it serves to confuse rather than “unite” - with the MADANI mosque incident, the latest, to further illustrate the case very clearly! Until the situation is resolved, MADANI is more of a stark liability to the unity of Malaysians, and Malaysia! This seems to undermine its the very intention of the unity government!
It always seems impossible until it is done Nelson Mandela (1918-2013)