16th September : Malaysia

I am in a jingoistic mood right now.

I have my reason: two recent incidents involving emotional crowds and passionate protests: the distribution and screening of anti-Islam/Muslim film, and the ongoing protests of Chinese citizens in cities across China towards the illegal purchase of several uninhabited islands.

Also, today is 16th of September, the day which Malaysia was formed with two new states. Hence the title.

Protests have been on the rise in this country, introducing to our citizens the power and palpability of such collective measures. Protests are never ugly; the same cannot be said of protesters. Both mentioned protests, both Chinese and Muslim, were not without casualties which revealed the tendencies and flaws in both schools of logical thinking. Then again, since when protesters protest entirely on logic? Logic is the yawning in classrooms, flaring passions make the best kind of street protests.

I do not profess to know the intricate details of the Muslim protest fabric. I have only read a few news headlines and contents, like the many of casual readers around the world. There is no doubt in many that the Western media are somewhat biased or prejudiced against Muslim-related news items, because perception is the cloud many cannot see through and therefore live under. What I have read was an ambassador was mobbed by alleged Muslims after the film was spread like wild fire.

Slightly better is my knowledge of the Chinese protests. Japan has announced its purchase of the islands and China citizens gathered in numbers in retaliation. They took to the streets armed with China's national flag - blazing red and studded with five stars - and anti-Japan placards, mobbed Japanese commercial outlets and overturned Japanese cars. Chinese citizens owning Japanese products or merchandise were chastised and foreigners were taken advantage of. The Japanese embassy was under siege from angry and aggressive protesters with riot police personnel manning the security.

Reassuringly, there were more reasonable voices among the pockets of protests. Some Muslim friends did not like the ambassador's murder and called for a better and superior filming of an Islamic film to counter its predecessor, instead of taking lives. Popular Chinese TV personnel denounced the opportunistic robbing and mauling of everyone and everything foreign while most were protesting against Japan.

Such is the world we live in: a cacophony of the passionate and aggressive, with the moderate ones breathing down their necks. Logic is not lost, reasons are not ditched, they are merely held by a reduced minority who believed in it more than the majority.

Yet it is my opinion that any worldly affairs are not exempted from dollars and cents, whatever slogans they want the masses to shout and foam at the mouth for.