A most shameful incident has taken place in a Muslim nation. The Alor Setar Municipal Council staff found hundreds of condoms at the site of TV3 Sure Heboh Carnival while cleaning up the area, as reported by Harakahdaily (July 6).

Former Selangor Mufti Ishak Baharom stressed that according to Islam, anything which can make someone negligent or too engrossed is against syarak (Islamic rulings).

"Even though it (the Sure Heboh carnival) has a few good aspects, there were overwhelming negative aspects related to moral issues and the free mixing between the sexes, so the ruling that it is haram (prohibited) remains unchanged," he declared.

He also agreed with the opinion of Perak Mufti Harussani Zakaria who said that the Sure Heboh concert was haram because it made the audience negligent (Harakahdaily, July 30).

Harussani reiterated that all carnivals, concerts and entertainment programmes which were excessive, including Akademi Fantasia, Audition and Malaysian Idol, are clearly against syarak (Harakahdaily, Aug 3).

When the uproar abates, that is the time for me to butt in. For the past month, I have been in self-imposed isolation after reading in the media about our nation's socio-political culture. The most disturbing aspect was about the cultural development process of the Malay race.

'Sure Best'

The personal disturbance does not persist for long. Each time a phenomenon surfaces, I read the answers tendered by various 'thinkers' who fight the phenomenon with their mental power.

Their answers are most amusing and comical. Comedies which terrify. The hideous comedies cause me to roar with laughter until I revoke my isolation.

The key word here is 'phenomenon'. So we have to use our brains (if there are still remnants of it) in order to understand what the 'phenomenon' actually is, what can be understood from its components, what we can discern to be its contents and what can be considered as just appearance.

Is our thinking power strong enough to separate the content from appearance? Or is the Malay race so terminally sick that we choose to collectively stupefy ourselves? Or have we become like a group of lemmings who have vowed to become imbeciles or to be made so?

I am surprised, amazed and remorseful to read that hundreds of condoms had been found in a field which, the night before, had been the site of the Sure Heboh carnival. I regret that I failed to attend the carnival.

If I had known how exciting Sure Heboh was going to be, I would surely have tried as hard as possible to be there, even if I had to borrow money from a loan shark.

Who wouldn't after reading about the condoms strewn all over the place? The Sure Heboh carnival must have been truly sensational.

Better than the Woodstock festival of my hippie days. John Lennon must be turning in his grave out of disappointment that he could not be in Alor Setar.

And why wouldn't he - if there had been a hundred condoms found, there must have been twice as many people who had the chance to copulate on that field that night. Even if we allowed for 10 spoilt condoms and another 10 which were not put on properly due to lack of practice, there must still have been 160 human beings copulating.

Ooh la la... that is no longer Sure Heboh but 'Sure Best'. More exciting than a Roman orgy from the time of Nero.

What amazed me was the chap who had collected all the condoms. Who was he? Was it his hobby to go around collecting used condoms? Or was he going to sell the second-hand condoms in some antique shop in Malacca? I think not. Because a condom is not like some Pepsi or Coke tin which can be recycled.

Perhaps that chap was someone most concerned about how green the grass in the field was. Or maybe he was afraid that if the condoms were left all over the field, mutant human shaped mushrooms will start sprouting. If he was some worker whose job was to clean the field, why did he count how many condoms there were?

Feeling suffocated

Sometimes being a Malay in Malaysia makes me feel suffocated. (Please remember that there are many types of Malays - there are Christian Malays in the Philippines, Hindu Malays in Bali and Buddhist Malays in Sri Lanka).

From my observations, aside from the Palestinians who are continually bullied and subjected to Tidak Boleh (Not Allowed) restrictions by the Zionists, the Malay people in Malaysia are the ones who are subjected to the most Tidak Boleh orders.

That cannot. This cannot. It is wrong to do this. Doing that is prohibited. Dreaming is wrong. That does not meet the conditions. This does not comply with the rules. Holding a concert is forbidden. Building a theatre is not allowed. Films are false. A group of three is an illegal gathering. Unlicensed newspapers are prohibited. Free speech is not allowed. Becoming a mystic is wrong. That teaching is wrong. This teaching is false. The progressive is forbidden. The cilvilised are jailed. Plucking a guitar is wrong. SMS is forbidden. Dancing is not allowed. Swaying like this is wrong. Swaying like that is wrong.

These are all phenomena arising from the quest for power. From the dawn of history, mankind has fought to grab economic resources. Someone with power could surely dominate such resources.

In Malaysia, the quest for power is fought between two Malay/Islamic political entities - Umno and PAS. These two parties represent the two groups which seek to dominate the economic resources in the nation.

To me, that is not wrong. We should fight to democratise and distribute the economic resources more fairly and transparently. The fight to grab economic resources is a fact which will be part of the story of mankind from cavemen days till Judgement Day.

What I do not agree with is the way religion has been used to mould political agreements. Religion in Malaysia has now been made into something which strangles.

It is not religious beliefs which strangle but those who try to monopolise and create religious viewpoint hegemonies who restrict and strangle human beings in their efforts to win political support. This is what I cannot stand!

PAS and Umno are both trying to show prospective supporters their religiosity and purity.

The end result is the heboh phenomenon and the clamour over it. All the uproar is just a veneer of religious appearances. Beneath that veneer, there is no sign of any pure religious content.

I do not mean to be disrespectful of the views of the mufti, pak lebai, tuan haji, mak rempit, minah kilang, alim ulama or the views of new converts. I will respect the views of anyone even of atheists.

If this view of mine is considered rational, sensible and something which can benefit many, then I am grateful. I do not believe that truth is the monopoly of any race, religion or political party. Truth is not like McDonalds, which can only be owned by an American imperialist company.

I think so because I am aware that the fatwa (Islamic edicts) which have been issued also stemmed from views about cultural developments in the social construct. We do not need to go far to see how the fatwa arose from views which were the fruit of human understanding.

For example, in Perak, a fatwa has been issued that smoking is haram. But in Kelantan, the wide expanses of tobacco fields there have not been ruled as haram.

The United Kingdom Muslim Law (Syariah) Council recently issued a fatwa that Lucozade, which contains small amounts of alcohol, is a halal (permitted) drink. The same council also ruled that Ribena is halal even though it had traces of pig gelatin in it (since removed).

Meanwhile, the Canadian Council for Muslim Women wants to reject Syariah laws, and instead be sheltered under the federal laws of Canada which are secular.

And hundreds of millions of Muslims - more in number than the Malaysian population - in India want India to remain a secular country. Similarly, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Charter encompasses clearly the aspirations of the Palestinian struggle to establish a Palestinian nation which is secular and democratic with no special regard for any race or religion.

'Sure Noisy'

My purpose of writing about these matters is not to humiliate anyone, but to prove that fatwa were the fruit of human thinking. Views about our world were born from cultural developments in the social construct.

Even those who issue fatwa are divided and do not agree with each other. There are some pious ulama (Muslim scholars) who take sides with the royalty. And other equally pious ulama became the apparatchik of political parties and issue fatwa which toe their respective party line.

There are some pious ulama who do not have any opinions, and others who champion the oppressed. To some pious ulama, religious matters come first, while there are others who value material things. An imam was a candidate in Baling during the elections, and another contested in Permatang Pauh.

Here, I would like to break up the 'one viewpoint' hegemony which is trying to dominate the Malay race. I advocate diversity in thinking. I celebrate living a life full of varieties. To me, diversity is the purity and beauty of life. And in diversity is the uniqueness which formed me.

The Islam which exists today is clearly diverse. There are the Sunni, Shiah, al-Jafferi, Ismaili, Druze, Salafi, Wahabi, and Ahmadi sects... and let us not forget the Sun in Balik Pulau.

Even the Sunni themselves are divided into four sub-sects. One of them considers that breaking wind will not void the rite of prayer ablutions, while another holds the opposite view.

It is clear to me that all these are interpretations by human beings about the pure contents of the religion itself. This is haram, that is haram. This is not allowed, that is not allowed. If that is the case, then surely everything will not be allowed soon enough. Everything can be tagged 'heboh'.

As a supporter of diversity, I am only trying to highlight the pure content of all religions - opposing falsehood, fighting despotism and ending rigid conformity.

Creating an uproar over trivial issues will not get us anywhere, and only serves to make the situation 'Sure Noisy'.

HISHAMUDDIN RAIS is a Renaissance man with a free spirit. He is a founder and supporter of the NGI (non-governmental individual) movement. He has been influenced by Marxist ideology of the Groucho sort. Isham is a graduate of political brainwashing schools like the Melbourne Tellamarine Center, Bombay Arthur Road, Ayer Molek and Dang Wangi.

His column in malaysiakini - DOTMAI - ended in April 2001 when he was detained under the Internal Security Act. He was released last June after two years in the Kamunting Detention Camp. Isham re-emerged with his new column DOTMAI KEMBALI (Return of Dotmai) in which he writes about current political issues, films, sexuality and the aesthetics of the boredom of living.