After a respite of barely 10 days, the police sirens were blaring again in the neighbourhood this morning.
My guess is it was just a precaution but the cops could have done better by making such information available the soonest possible.
That aside, the men in blue did the right thing if my guess is right. The Sri Maha Mariamman Temple in USJ 25 is close to where I live. And with people so edgy and the recent pockets of rash behavior, it was good to see the police acting fast.
It came about after the tragic news that fireman Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim passed away at 9.41 last night. Adib was injured in the rioting at the temple over three weeks ago.
Just days ago, a bar manager was slashed to death in an unrelated attack in Petaling Jaya.
Everyone who had something to say about both incidents, has said it. “It’s sad, it’s tragic, our hearts go out to his family.” Is that all there is to it? Then life goes on?
What has become of us? Nothing. We have always been the same. We have not changed despite one incident after another. Something happens, there’s outrage, there’s grief, and then there’s memory loss … until the next time.
We always seem to be fighting one another for some reason or other. Mostly, it’s for no reason, I dare say. We want to act superior, often at a huge cost to humanity. We are so ungiving even in the name of religion which preaches otherwise.
Sometimes I wonder if the ‘Planet of the Apes’ movies are a prophecy.
Only when we, the hunters, become the hunted will there be unity. In times of extreme adversity, we will become one. But by then, it will be too late.
Seeing how humans are behaving, we can be very confident that the apes will do a much better job at preserving harmony and life.
