MALAYSIANS whine and complain a lot – it’s both good and bad.

The good part is that we obviously want the country to improve, to set new benchmarks so that we can match the best performing nations globally. And we want our leaders to be accountable and to have integrity.

The minus side is that we take many things for granted and we seem fixated in our perception that we are only going in one direction – downhill. We refuse to acknow­ledge even the positive traits around us.

We jump to conclusions, often coming out with the worst scenarios possible. We forward messages, in text or video, without thinking – a simple car fire, the vehicle set alight by a jealous husband, is the work of extremists for sure.

These cynics do not, for a second, ask themselves why a terrorist would choose an ordinary stop on the LRT route to set off a bomb.

But that’s Malaysia. I have enjoyed my Christmas celebrations and I am certainly happy that it is recognised as an official public holiday.

In fact, Malaysians – despite their many different and divergent views – all seem to agree that we must celebrate every festival of every community. Malaysia is among the countries with the highest number of holidays, at state and federal level, which often lead to extended weekends.

So, even the small groups of Muslims who feel that they should not wish their Christian Malaysians a Merry Christmas, supposedly on religious grounds, are happy not to have to report for work on such days.

While there are fears, among non-Muslims, that this country is turning more conservative and puritanical, this writer remains optimistic that most of us remain tolerant, respectful and moderate.

I do not believe we will go the Brunei, Tajikistan or Somalia way – countries which have banned Christmas celebrations and decorations in public.

For the tiny Christian community in Brunei, mostly expatriates and foreign workers, they can only celebrate within closed doors, such as churches and homes, and they must also reportedly alert the authorities ahead.

The Ministry of Religious Affairs said in a statement, “These enforcement measures are … intended to control the act of celebrating Christmas excessively and openly, which could damage the aqidah (beliefs) of the Muslim community.”

Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah’s decision to ban the public celebration of Christmas in his country has received worldwide attention but the media have also pointed out that the ban does not extend to his business interests outside of Brunei, including the historic Beverly Hills Hotel, part of his Dorchester Collection with branches in London, Paris, Milan and Rome.

International media continue to show pictures of these hotels fully decked out with Christmas decorations.

Punishment for violating the ban is a five-year jail sentence, and the government warned last year that Muslims would be committing an offence if they so much as wear “hats or clothes that resemble Santa Claus”.

It has also been reported that Somalia issued a ban on Christmas and New Year celebrations in the Muslim country, saying the festivities “have nothing to do with Islam.”

“We warn against celebration of Christmas, which is only for Christians,” Sheikh Mohamed Kheyrow, director of Somalia’s ministry of religion, reportedly said on state radio on Wednesday.

“This is a matter of faith. The Christmas holiday and its drum beatings have nothing to do with Islam.”

He was quoted as saying that the ministry had sent letters to the police, national security intelligence and officials in the capital Mogadishu instructing them to “prevent Christmas celebrations”.

In Indonesia, police had to be stationed at some churches to provide security with 13 areas identified as vulnerable to attack by extremists.

On Christmas Eve in 2000 a series of co-ordinated attacks on churches in Jakarta by al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah killed 18 people.

Despite the display of racial and religious extremism by some local personalities, who seem to enjoy press coverage without fear of being charged in the courts, Malaysia has been spared from such fears and unrealistic state actions.

The Prime Minister and our leaders have, without fail, issued statements wishing Malaysians of all faiths during each festival.

Christmas is openly celebrated, and our malls are wonderfully decorated to reflect the holiday season. It must be noted, however, that this is more for commercial reasons than of any religious significance.

Be that as it may, Christmas is an occasion to be happy and to spend time with loved ones, especially our families. That is surely a noble reason.

The Johor Sultan has taken to the social media to send out his wishes and has even publicly told Muslims that they should not fear that their faith would be threatened if they celebrate alongside their Christian friends.

I am glad that Malaysians continue to attend the unique open houses of fellow Malaysians, even donning the costumes of each ethnic group to reflect the occasion. No one has talked about their faith being shaken until now because of the actions of some ill-informed individuals who stir up issues of race and religion for their own agenda.

Globally, we have right-wingers and extremists like Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, the French right wing party Le Pen and Swedish Democrats with neo-Nazis, whose actions fan up Islamophobia.

Muslims who push for into­lerance in Malaysia must see for themselves how vulnerable their fellow Muslims in these countries are to understand the predicament of minority communities.

Trump has insanely called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States and soon, some pea-brained extremists in the Bible belt would say mosques must be shut down or that Hari Raya must be banned because it would purpor­tedly weaken the faith of Christians.

It is a reminder that all of us must learn to put ourselves on the other side of the equation when we speak or take certain actions.

The office Christmas parties, yes, it’s a plural, have been the best so far! We have reminded ourselves that as we open our presents, we must also never forget to open our hearts and minds. That’s our mode­ration reminder!

I wish all Malaysians a Happy New Year!

We must stick together to face challenges of the new year. Malaysia needs us.

IT’S wishful thinking, perhaps, but then it’s still a wish that many Malaysians, we are sure, would cherish for Malaysia.

Wouldn’t it be nice if some of our politicians would stop talking about mono-ethnicity and in some cases, openly saying the community, which they claim to represent, should just disregard the interests of other races?

When these politicians sow distrust and suspicion among Malaysians, using race and religion, it can only spell trouble.

Worse, when low-level party apparatchiks stir these racial rants, and actually get away with it, without even a slap on the wrist, then we know that the wrong signals have been sent.

Something is fundamentally flawed when we cannot differentiate between right and wrong.

When public institutions of higher learning are allowed to hold seminars questioning the faiths of other Malaysians and no convincing explanations are forthcoming, can we be blamed if we feel there is a sense of injustice, and for that matter, lack of protection for the minorities?

For sure, we can do without such issues in the coming months when Malaysians need to come together, as one nation and one people, more than ever.

Malaysia needs the reconciliation of all races, all religions and all cultures. We need to pull back and ponder the meaning of power sharing – the very basic political principle that has glued this wonderful nation together.

The majority community has to reaffirm the plural fabric of Malaysia and to reemphasise that a multi-racial society is an asset. The continued push for mono-ethnicity and mono-religion will destroy this nation.

On the flip side, the minority Malaysians have to appreciate that power sharing is two-way. They have to accept the political reality. The fact is that the Chinese and Indian communities are shrinking fast while the Malays have grown swiftly.

To put it bluntly, the day will come when the Chinese community drops to 20% and less. When this country achieved independence, the number stood at over 35%.

With 222 parliamentary seats, there are only 35-38 Chinese-majority seats, and no Chinese tsunami is sufficient to overthrow the ruling party.

Without Malay support, any plan to dump Umno will never work, and anyone harbouring that hope should just wake up.

That could be clearly seen at the Bersih 4 rally when the majority of Malays stayed away. Those who strenuously pointed out the presence of Malays were merely lying to themselves, with their unconvincing spin.

Without PAS, the harsh reality is that PKR and Amanah could not rally the Malays. That is certainly telling how these parties would fare, except perhaps for Selangor and Penang, in the coming year.

And when the Chinese voters chose PAS candidates, including even personalities with extreme stands, they probably did not expect PAS and Umno top leaders to sit together on the same stage.

How can Chinese leaders in the Barisan Nasional now tell Umno not to work with PAS when in the 2013 general election, a huge number of Chinese voters supported PAS, at the behest of the DAP?

After kicking PAS out of the now defunct Pakatan Rakyat, PKR is scrambling to woo PAS in the presence of DAP.

Both Umno and PAS are now looking inward at their core supporters, and the other communities are now perceived as being less impactful in the numbers game where Muslim voters will increase in the coming years.

The country could well become more conservative and Islamic, let’s be frank, and certainly for liberal and progressive Malaysians, it is a disturbing trend.

The moderate forces have to step up to push back the waves of right-wing nationalism and religious forces.

It may seem like a paradox but Umno leaders are saying they have no choice but to look for alternate political support elsewhere, if they are spurned, and this can only lead to a more fragmented plural Malaysia.

If the political trend is gloomy, many of us are looking at the coming economic year with some apprehension. After all, we have been cautioned that the challenges for 2016 would be even tougher.

The price of oil has already dropped below US$40 and this certainly spells trouble. The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Wahid Omar has said the Government will review Budget 2016 if oil prices continue to stay low.

The Government had planned for the Budget based on the assumption that Brent Crude would average at US$48 per barrel for next year but at midday on Thursday, it was trading around US$37 per barrel.

“The Government will need to optimise the country’s expansion plans if oil prices continue to stay low,” Wahid said. That includes reviewing some of the projects it has announced.

I remember asking a top official in October when Malaysia would be in trouble, and he said, if the price of oil reached US$43. Well, we have now gone below that.

To put it simply, if you are the head of the household, you now have less money to spend. Obviously, you have to review your family needs and that is precisely what the nation is going through. We cannot live like we used to, whether at the level of a family or as a nation.

Malaysia won’t suffer an economic crisis but we are in for a tough time as we face the impact of the continuing oil price slide and its effect on the value of our ringgit.

Most companies in Malaysia have remained operational and people continue to have jobs but operating costs have to be cut as revenue and profits tumble.

Employees can help to keep their jobs by postponing demands and being more productive. We all need to help ourselves.

All this may sound gloomy, as we celebrate this holiday season, but we need to keep our wishes in check.

Bangladeshi and Yemeni Americans join supporters to protest against Islamic State and political and religious extremism during a rally in the Detroit suburb of Hamtramck, Michigan December 11, 2015. – REUTERS

DONALD Trump is a serious mental case. It will not be wrong to label the front-runner Republican presidential hopeful as an extremist.

He is no different from the other religious extremists, whether Muslim, Hindu or Christian, who use religion, fear and ignorance to pursue their political ambitions.

His call to ban Muslims from entering the United States of America is the most outrageous suggestion I have ever heard.

It is one thing to be racist but how on earth is the United States – should Trump, God forbid, become the president – going to enforce such a ruling?

Since religion is not stated on the passport, is he going to ban travellers on the basis of their Arab sounding names? Trump would be surprised to know that most West Asians have similar sounding names, even if they are not Muslims.

Or he is going to identify the Muslims by the way they are dressed, with their headgear and robes, or simply because they keep a beard or goatee?

It may be news to him but many Arab Christians do wear traditional garbs. They cover up themselves for simple practical reasons – to protect themselves from the sand in the desert as well as to follow the dictates of a conservative society.

I have travelled extensively to Arab countries and even to Jerusalem and as such, I am able to share some educated opinion from my observations and conversations with the people.

And let’s not even talk about Muslims from other parts of the world who do not fit into the typical Muslim image of the West. China has an estimated Muslim population of more than 20 million and the US immigration will surely have a headache if even a fraction of them decide to go to the US for a holiday.

And what about the Western-educated, English-speaking Muslims, who can easily fit into US society?

Last week, Trump became a global news item when he called for the barring of all Muslims from entering the United States.

“Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on,” a campaign press release said.

Trump, who has previously called for surveillance on mosques and reportedly said he was open to establishing a database for all Muslims living in the US, made his latest controversial call in a news release.

His message comes in the wake of a deadly mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, by suspected IS sympathisers and the day after President Barack Obama asked the country not to “turn against one another out of fear”.

The problem with the likes of extremist politicians like Trump is that each time the IS terrorists carry out a brutal campaign, such remarks are a form of oxygen to these people. It is the kind of reaction that they are looking for, which gives their campaign a far wider reach than they could hope from a localised attack.

The coordinated Paris attacks in Novem­ber involving three suicide bombers saw 130 people killed and 368 others injured. IS has claimed responsibility.

The attacks, which saw seven attackers killed, have been described as the deadliest on France since World War Two. In January, also in Paris, 17 people were killed in an attack by terrorist groups.

The saddest part of these IS attacks is that they give rise to Islamophobia, which leads to anger and suspicions against innocent Muslims.

It also provides right-wing politicians a fresh voice to pursue their campaigns while moderates find themselves losing their appeal as the latter would be perceived as being too ready to compromise and accommodate.

Individuals in Europe who have been sympathetic to the refugees have suddenly found that their citizens want the borders closed and that the refugees are no longer welcomed.

This may be something that IS wants. An analyst in the Wall Street Journal said IS’s objective is clear: to try to bait Western societies into an indiscriminate backlash against millions of Muslims living in Europe and the US. It is a backlash that, if successfully provoked, would disrupt these Muslims’ bonds with their countries of citizenship and residence and – as is it happened with Iraq’s Sunnis – validate the Islamic State’s claim to be their only protector.

“IS thrives on polarisation,” Hassan Hassan, an expert on the group at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, was quoted as saying.

“They want people to say they hate us, and so we hate them. This is the foundation of their success.”

If Trump’s call has gained traction, in France, the far-right National Front has reportedly received a major boost following the Paris attack, becoming the country’s ­largest party in regional elections. Reports have said that it is no longer beyond the realm of possibility that the Front’s leader, Marine Le Pen, may become president in 2017. Some opinion polls have placed her ahead of the incumbent.

The emergence of such rightist leaders in Europe against equally Islamist groups in West Asian and other Muslim countries can only spell trouble for the world.

If the IS succeeds in carrying out more attacks in the West in the coming months, something that terrorism experts and counter-terrorism officials say is a near-certainty, such polarisation is only likely to intensify, the report pointed out.

Extremist Western groups and individuals will become more popular while the moderates will find themselves discredited, and that will be sad for the world.

The voices of reason and compromise will be drowned out if Western countries conti­nue to be targeted by IS.

The saddest victims will also include Muslims who have assimilated into these Western countries and have accepted the Western way of life.

IS does not help Islam and Muslims one single bit.

We need to give credit where credit is due. And when good leaders shine, we should acknowledge it.

A GENTLEMAN politician – that is what International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed is – and is certainly an exemplary one, too.

Not many of our politicians are prepared to apologise when they make a mistake, thinking an admittance of a flaw is a weakness.

The ability to say sorry, unknown to some politicians with inflated egos, is a strength.

Instead, they prefer to go on the defensive, and often blame the media for purportedly being misquoted. Of late, some of them even play the racial card, claiming they are being targeted because of their ethnicity.

But our salute to Mustapa, or Tok Pa, as he is affectionately known, for apologising after coming under fire for making certain remarks on Tuesday that were considered sexist.

At the first official function held at the new MITI building, the minister reportedly described the new building as an “inexperienced virgin” when compared to the old building – home to the ministry for the past 30 years – as an old wife who is no longer exciting and who deserves to be discarded.

The off-colour joke amused some people but others did not find it funny. Like a true gentleman, which even the opposition readily declared, Mustapa issued an apology and expressed regret for his indiscretion.

“I humbly apologise for offending anyone, including women, with my inappropriate analogy at the event,” he said in a press statement.

“As head of staff, a husband and a father, I always respect women’s contributions to the country and to myself and I hold them in high regard. I regret what happened and this will be a lesson for me. I hope the matter will not be prolonged.”

Even DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang, who is ever ready to pounce on Barisan Nasional MPs, issued a statement acknowledging the swift stand taken by Mustapa.

“Kudos to Mustapa for admitting his fault and having the courage to apologise. We only wish that all of his colleagues in Umno and BN had his gentlemanly qualities,” he said.

“However, if we were to search for someone who this week exhibited an attitude that contrasted with Mustapa’s, we would have to look towards the opposition.”

PKR vice-president Tian Chua, despite being embroiled in the Nurul Izzah-Jacel Kiram controversy, has refused to acknow­ledge that the issue is indeed serious.

It has been reported that Tian Chua alleged­ly arranged the meeting between the two. Tian Chua outraged Malaysians when he said that members of the Kiram clan were not terrorists.

This is despite a statement by the late Sultan of Sulu, Jamalul Kiram III, that he ordered the Lahad Datu intrusion in 2013, which saw 10 Malaysians killed.

But back to Mustapa, who would have learned by now that telling jokes is not his forte. He should leave it to the professionals like Harith Iskandar and Douglas Lim.

It was during Mustapa’s time as the Higher Education Minister that Tan Sri Dr Rafiah Salim was appointed as vice-chancellor at Universiti Malaya, making her the first female vice-chancellor in this country.

He also appointed non-Malays to key positions in universities, such as Prof Dr Khaw Lake Tee, a woman, and Prof Dr Tai Shzee Yew as the deputy vice-chancellors for Universiti Malaya and Universiti Sains Malaysia respectively. There is also Prof Dr Saran Kaur Gill, a deputy vice-chancellor at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

Mustapa, a believer in meritocracy, pushed for these appointments when he took office, believing talent should be recognised, regardless of gender and race.

It has to be pointed out that the current secretary-general in his ministry, Tan Sri Rebecca Fatima Sta Maria, is certainly one of the most respected civil servants.

But what sets Mustapa apart from many politicians is his preference to be low-key, preferring not to be accompanied by an entourage of officials.

It is well known that he often takes the ERL from Sentral to the airport alone. Don’t expect him to buy expensive meals for you, as he is well known for his thriftiness. He has consistently proven that he can get himself elected into Parliament and in the party leadership by being a “no frills” politician.

In a state like Kelantan, where the voters hate smug politicians who show off their power and wealth, Mustapa is regarded as Barisan’s most effective opposition leader to PAS despite his lack of religious credentials.

At his Jeli parliamentary constituency, he makes it a point to personally teach students at the weekly English classes whenever he can find time.

Mustapa also does not believe in spewing racist remarks to win votes, preferring to let the voters judge his work. Affable and well-liked, Umno certainly can do with more politicians like Mustapa.

There is another one that comes to mind and that would be Datuk Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah, another gentleman politician.

At a time when taking an anti-establishment stand is popular, we should give credit where credit is due and certainly when there are good ministers who stand out, we must be prepared to acknowledge these gentlemen.

They are human beings with strengths and weaknesses, and they, too, like to be encouraged and inspired, so they can do better.