MGG Pillai Commentary View

<< Previous || Next >>

Business men have taken over Deepavali and Hari Raya

THE BUSINESS MEN HAVE taken over Deepavali and Hari Raya Puasa. Just as they did the Christmas in 1930 in the wake of the economic slump. Christmas is not the religious festival it once was, and the celebrations with an eye to business takes priority. Deepavali and Hari Raya Puasa is fast becoming a business venture. With a little help from authority. In Brickfields, were I live, the streets are lined with Indian traders, from Malaysia and India, disrupting business for the shops along Jalan Tun Sambanan and Jalan Travers, and annoying passers by or those like me who visit restaurants there. The licences have to be obtained through intermediaries to enable officers to get their corruption. Direct application is not allowed. So a RM250 licence cost RM10,000 for a month of trading. The IGP's son is arrested for making more money than he is entitled to. The area in the open space behind KL Sentral that used to be a car park has become one large fair, with traders busy selling you Indian cakes in unhygenic conditions, often kept in the open so that flies will settle on it before you buy. The restaurant I patronise in Brickfields has managed to take the stall in front of it, but others are not so lucky. Meanwhile, we are told by the official and private radio and television that you are doing Deepavali and Hari Raya Puasa a favour by buying from these traders.

Business was declining in the United States in 1930s before the world slump. People were not going to the stores, because they did not have jobs or money. So a group of business men got together and decided the only way to get business was to change the business climate. Some one thought of turning Christmas into what it is today, turning St Nicholas into Santa Claus, and the rest is history. Today, all over the world, the Christmas business season has started. In Malaysia, but for Deepavali and Hari Raya, it starts late. Christmas is not what it is in the Christian religion, to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. December 25 is not the date of his birth. Many sects of Christians, including the Syrian and Eastern rites, celebrate it twelve days after the rest of the world does. But it does not matter. The Christians adopted a pagan ritual as the birth day of Jesus to get the pagans into Christianity.

Christmas is not what it was. But is Deepavali and Hari Raya Puas what they are meant to be? I called on a Middle Eastern ambassador. He was fasting, as Muslims do in the month of Ramadan. He said his prayers and started his fast in the morning by eating daates and drinking a glass of milk. He broke his fast the same way, said his prayers, and his only meal of the day at about 9.30. This is how it should be. But the month of Ramadan in Malaysia is an orgy. True the rich Malaysian Muslim fasted. But he made up for it by eating a heavy meal before and after his fast. The Prophet's injunction was forgotten, as each Malaysian Muslim showed how rich he was or how he could afford spending hundreds of ringgit daily in a restaurant. The Ramadan month is to show the other how rich one is. It is an orgy of self-flagellation. Contrast that with the poor Muslim buying what he and his family can afford, and breaking their fast. He is a truer Muslim than those who break their fast in five-star hotels. If the fast is broken in the house, instead of doing it privately, the rich or influential Malaysian Muslim invites their ilk but has forgotten the injunctions of the prophet. It was not a time for special business. The tenets of Islam are followed rigorously, but as the Malaysian Muslim elite would like.

It is the same with Deepavali. Gone are the days when you respected Deepavali by religious observances. It was a strictly family affair. I do not celebrate Deepavali. But I mark it by an oil bath and prayers, either at home or at the temple nearby. We do not prepare for the day, although we would prepare cakes and savories for the odd visitor. The MIC is in the forefront of turning Deepavali into a commercial success. Its president, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, is busy shouting his head off on the lack of sufficient Indian stalls for Deepavali, refusing to realise it is a religious festival. The MIC controls everything that is Indian in the National Front's eye, and its goons prevent others from a view in public that is contrary to it. It controls all the Hindu organisations, and these organisations will not advise him or protest at this commercialisation of Deepavali. Very soon, Deepavali and Hari Raya would become institutionalised, and business would take over, as Christmas has become worldwide even in countries that are not Christian.

The Deepavali and Raya cards follow Christmas. It is often sent to people the sender does not know but can earn some business. A lawyer I know bought more than a 1,000 Deepavali and Hari Raya cards. I asked him whether he would recognise the receipients if he saw them on the street. He said it did not matter. They were either his clients, or people who could give him business. I, a Hindu who does not celebrate Deepavali, get Deepavali, Hari Raya and Christnmas from people I do not know. Now that I am in semi-retirement, many have stopped sending me the cards. They have removed me from their list. I used to get about a 1,000 cards a year from Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists for their festivals. Now I get a twentieth of that. These cards mean nothing, most of the time, to the fellow sending or receiving it. The fellow who sends the card, if he is somebody in an organisation, does not know he has sent the card to you. Often, the cards are put before him for signature, or is signed on his behalf by his secretary. Everyone sends cards, so must he.

The modern Hindu or Muslim in Malaysia does not know the religious meaning of these holidays. The government and private sector would like that to be forgotten. So that they can make money. There is more corruption these months than there is in any other month. Policemen hide behind pillars in the hope that the driver breaks the law. In exchange for a summons, money changes hands. The policeman on the beat always has a sidekick. So both can get bribes. A taxi driver told me that he took a client to the airport, and since he was going slow, he was asked to faster, which he did. Two months late, he got a summons for speeding on the road to the airport. By that time, he did not know who his client was, to get the money. He had to pay RM300 for a RM70 fare. But during your festive season, you do not take bribes. But that does not bother the Malay, Chinese or Indian official. He takes bribes as he would any other day.

It is a rule of thumb that the more laws you pass the more corrupt the society. It is so in India. It is so in Malaysia. It is not in Singapore it is only those in power who say there is no corruption. And they shut the fellow who says there is. So, Deepavali and Hari Raya is an open sesame for corruption. For corruption to flourish, all religious festivals must be turned into money-making concerns. Usually for the benefit of the government servant. The Deepavalu and Hari Raya fair is unfair to the public but fair to the business man, the government servant, and the government. As long as that it so, the commercialisation will continue. The people at the top are corrupt, and they want to give others in government service a chance to take bribes. So Deepavali and Hari Raya Puasa will be commercial enterprises!

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com