Now that the dust has settled on the halal certification issue where the cabinet has decided that no it would be based on voluntary request by eateries, I think it is time for both Teresa and Akmal Saleh to bury the hatchet and apologise.

Apologise to whom? Well, of course, to each other!

But, I do not think that both parties are ‘big enough’ to do that. Then I say both of them should apologise to Malaysians in general.

Teresa Kok should firstly apologise for raising the halal certification issue by not consulting relevant religious authorities before making her statement public.

Even though she was within her democratic right, that does not mean she should go ahead and climb over the cultural situations of the sensitivity of Islamic interpretations by a non-Muslim.

Howard Lee once did the same in Parliament in quoting the Quran.

For me, as a Muslim and an academic, I have no issues with any non-Muslim expressing an interpretation of the Quran or the hadith, as both are there for them to actually understand Islam.

As Tun M said, the Quran was not meant for Muslims only but for the whole humanity.

But with the Malays, drilled by Umno to be hostile against non-Malays and now drilled by PAS to make enemies of all non-Muslims as reflected in their Qunut Nazilah pronouncement in Parliament as well as their Kafir Harbiy accusations on DAP, things get a lot more problematic when non-Muslims interpret any Islamic issue on their own wits.

In the future, Teresa and all DAP members should exercise silence or refer first to an authority on religion before making a carefully phrased comment, not a hurried and ill-conceived one.

Secondly, Teresa was quoted as saying the world would ridicule Malaysia if the halal certification was enforced to all.

Now, Teresa seems to be blaming ChatGPT and her assistant for not being careful with the translation from Mandarin.

This, to me, is not really a strong excuse but we can accept it in good faith in order to move forward.

We as human beings are not free from making mistakes in hurried response and in angry retort. Both Teresa Kok and Akmal Saleh can open a new chapter of Umno-DAP relationship in a positive and progressive manner.

Thus, Teresa can apologise to Malaysians for being too ‘hurried’ and too uncareful with translated statements. And I think all Malaysians would accept that apology.

For Akmal Saleh, he should apologise to Malaysians for his name-calling effort that has the clear motive of insulting a senior and veteran lawmaker.

Akmal’s insulting stance is unacceptable in any context or excuse given.

Even though Akmal was within his own right as a Muslim to remind Teresa about interpreting Islamic issues without due reference, there is no justification for him to rant at Teresa in his famously insulting way.

Akmal Saleh, who was awarded a Datukship recently, has sullied the title as well as his own position as an Exco Member of the state of Melaka.

Such behaviour is unbecoming of a Datuk or an Exco.

For me, as a Malaysian, both Teresa and Akmal have committed grievances that merit a reset by making apologies, best to each other, if not then to Malaysians.

I hope that Teresa would not go through with the suit on Akmal and let us begin the new chapter by making good something that was terribly bad.

As the great P. Ramlee said, lagikan lidah boleh tergigit, inikan pula suami isteri.

In this case, we as human beings are not free from making mistakes in hurried response and in angry retort.

Both Teresa and Akmal can open a new chapter of Umno-DAP relationship in a positive and progressive manner, thus teaching Malaysians of all races and faiths how we can grow beyond our own narrow cultural and habitual constructs.

Malaysia will only change if and when her own people decide to change for the better.

The nation is us and we are the nation. No political party, no prime minister and no party president can define or redefine Malaysia.

Only together, all of us, we all, are the change we want to see in our country.

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