With respect, I wish to provide a different narrative about our unity problem than the Minister of Unity’s version of “It’s the fault of the media.”

I am in total disagreement with this simplistic summary of our issue of national harmony.

The minister seems to think that we don’t have a serious problem. Perhaps he thinks that out of a ranking of 10, our problem is what…4 or 3?

Well, minister, I think it is 9.5 and I am being generous.

Perhaps, some of the minister’s advisors who are probably professors from public universities are showing tables of harmony rankings in comparison with other countries as well as their well-researched survey opinion polls.

Well, today I will rebut this so-called research and present my own understanding of how we are in a perilous state of disharmony and social disintegration.

Of course, there are no burning buildings or killings with parangs and guns like in the May 13 incident, but I personally do not want to wait until that happens to give a score of 9 or 10 on our state of unity index.

Firstly, the minister must observe what I call the silent effect.

The “silent effect” is a term I use when there is complete silence by those who are supposed to say something to resolve conflicts of race and religion.

Firstly, there is silence from the so-called intellectuals of this country from public universities.

There are professors and centers focusing on the issues of race and religious tensions but these entities and personalities never seem to make any media statement when there is a conflict like insults to religion, visits to houses of worship and victims being threatened with murder or rape by zealots.

When Hadi Awang accused non-Muslims of being corrupt and unfit to be leaders of politics, there is no sound from other clerics like muftis or professors of religion.

That, minister sir, is a huge problem! Silence of apathy or indifference or worse…acceptance.

These muftis and professors are worse than those who threaten to kill or rape others who they think have insulted their religion.

Secondly, has the minister looked at religious sermons by one religion that is financed by taxpayers?

I have read thousands. These sermons never talk about the similarity of values between different faiths, never touch on the sanctity of our ethnic heritage and never admonish those of their own faiths who threaten others with rape or murder on issues of insult to religion.

These sermons also never speak of being sinful in wrongdoings to others of a different faith.

Has the minister read the book on Pengajian Islam from Primary One to Secondary Five?

I have. Over thousands of pages, there are no pictures of other houses of worship except mosques, and no pictures of men and women in their own traditional garb except characters fully clad in tudung and long dresses. There is no picture of a pig or of a dog.

Now, is there anything wrong with this scenario? What kind of children are we producing?

Then we have accusations of vernacular schools as the cause of disunity. But thousands of thousands of Malays go through religious schools in private madrasah and public Sekolah Agama Islam who have not a single friend from others.

Perhaps the minister is from a nation that is well mixed in family, community and culture. Very lucky-lah.

Not so here, minister. We Malaysians in Semenanjung live in almost complete isolation from one another!

You will have, sir, people around you who will identify me as the person who cried wolf when there is none.

Well, minister, I cry wolf now for I know it is coming because I have seen its footprints, its droppings and smell its urine. The wolf may not be seen but it is there always, and will pounce when we least expect it.

Where there is smoke, there is fire, but I am talking about a mist that covers the sight of the fangs that will eventually tear into the very heart of our nation!

The threat to our harmony is real. Sarawak and Sabah may be immune to it now, but I predict that in ten years, the toxic narratives that are driving down this country will reach the shores of the two nations in the East.

Finally, with respect, minister sir, you have been badly advised. In fact, some of the advisors you have may be the wolf in sheep’s skin.

Just come down to earth and we will tell you a different story.

(Prof Dr. Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi is Professor of Architecture at a local university and his writing reflects his own personal opinion entirely.)