My wife and I always enjoy the weeks before Christmas every year, mainly because my wife would sit down in front of the TV watching Netflix or YouTube of Christmas Hallmark movies.

I, too would re-watch some of my favourite Christmas dramas with stories of The Christmas Visitor, A Christmas Miracle for Daisy and A Castle for Christmas.

I have outgrown the powerful story of A Christmas Carol with its social and spiritual message of man’s greed versus his compassion to others.

However, in Malaysia, I was thankful that the “Christmas Drama” in our social and political realms were hastily dealt with and did not explode into a crescendo of insensitive religious back and forth.

The first Christmas Drama came with the issue of the O Holy Night song. Before that was the worker-cross at a halal restaurant issue.

The worker-cross issue is purely the ignorance of the netizens spreading and supporting such a simple issue.

I can understand the management who fired the worker for fear of the Palestine-like backlash on McDonald’s and Starbucks. But I hope the management has since mended their fences with the worker, or else he might become a wealthy service worker with a handsome lawsuit for wrongful dismissal.

The worker-cross issue is not a government nor an Islamic institutional issue, but as usual, hasty and populist knee-jerk reactions of influencers who do not know anything about Islam and the sins of slander, especially against non-Muslims.

Malaysia has a large population of simple-minded citizens of one particular faith, the largest one among all others.

Those in the know, as usual, remain silent and simply allow the fires of ignorance in the digital world to manifest in the costing of a person’s economic lifeline.

This seems to be the sad fate of our use of democratic freedom of speech and the fast pace of digital revolution, two big fat eggs on Malaysia’s face.

The O Holy Night issue was different than the worker-cross one as it involved certain “official and standing instructions”.

Luckily, the Unity Government dealt with it firmly and quickly before some politicians tried to score points with their electorate by enlarging the issue.

I was monitoring the issue’s development and checking whether I had to help put out some fires but it was contained, and the issue dissipated without too much ado.

Kudos to both the Unity Government and the Sarawak state government for the quick and resolute action.

Then came the Merry Christmas on a cake issue.

Only in Malaysia can a picture of a pig, the name “hot dog” and the sign of a “cross lookalike on a building under construction” can cause social, religious and political agitation.

How far have we fallen in intelligence after over six decades of independence?

Again, the the Merry Christmas on a cake issue was dealt with, thankfully, by the minister of religion who said in no uncertain tone that whatever ruling that preceded did not include a simple icing on a cake.

So much mistrust in Malaysia! So much suspicion of each other’s faith. Bila nak habis, saya pun tak tau!

Finally, came the bitter-sweet reading of PAS strongman, Takiyuddin.

He came out with a “beautiful” statement about wishing Malaysians a Happy Christmas in the hope of “beautifying” his party from the hateful and derogatory words of his leaders like Hadi Awang and Sanusi, the two worst Malaysians I have ever encountered in the history of my adult life.

PAS, within a short stint of a few years have managed to become the darling of the Malay voters using religion to gain political power.

I wonder which Malaysian will be convinced by this “sincere” greeting of Takiyuddin, the man responsible for tabling the False Emergency Law to parliament during the PN rule after the Sheraton Move.

I still remember how the Agong had patiently and clearly asked for the tabling of this law that immorally usurped our civil liberties simply to stay in power from what many thought was a lost majority.

For me, Takiyuddin and PAS are two entities that do not sit well with the words respect, dignity and integrity.

Anyway, my Christmas present was the fact that at least there is an admission that PAS needs more than just those Malay voters who are ignorant of their own religion and the values of this nation to take power.

That is all the takeaway from Takiyuddin’s Happy Christmas greeting to my mind.

As I cruised along the four-day toll-free Cheras and LEKAS highways without much traffic just like during the Covid times, my mind wondered what would be installed for Malaysia in 2024.

Will we grow up or will we suffer a fit of “national dementia” making enemies between ourselves while thinking we are smart and clever” from social media “learning” that has taken over our minds and hearts?

The Christmas I would hope for in the coming years would simply be the gifts of sharing, patience, wisdom and respect for one another.

These gifts do not cost any ringgit, require no ministry of billions in budget or a policy change from the Unity Government.

It simply requires our will to be patient, our desire to share, our humility to learn from others, and our spirituality to honour all faiths.

I hope I find these four boxes of values nicely wrapped in our Jalur Gemilang next year.

Meanwhile, my family and I wish all our dear Malaysians a Merry Christmas!

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