"No Hijabs, please. We're Malaysian hoteliers!" sez who????

That was the ruling by the Chairman of the Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH)  [or maybe that should be recasted into the Malaysian Anti- Hijabs (MAH 2) International Brigade] ,Samuel Cheah Swee Hee.

Samuel Cheah claims that the prohibition of the hijab was an international practice.

[By the way, Samuel, according to the Bibles's Old Testament means  Name of God, asked of God, heard of God.]

See :http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/opinion/2017/11/13/hijab-ban-is-not-international-policy/

Perhaps he should be asked to quote chapter and verse of this policy and if he can't we have to wonder if he is serving God or Mammon or just someone who has the trademarks of an  instinctive  islamophobia.

As a veteran observer of anti-Malay tomes I can't help but recall an incident in 1966(?) at the lecture hall in the University of Singapore.  It was at the height of the Singapore campaign for joining Malaysia.  The guest speaker was Dr Mahathir.  This was way before the Race Riots of May 13 1969 in Malaysia and before Dr Mahathir became the Prime Minister of a country with a lucrative petroleum and palm oil industry.

A question came from a law lecturer (who later grew up into one of Singapore's foremost legal experts and Diplomats) which more or less challenged the validity of special Malay rights.  Dr Mahathir paused, gave his usual whimsical smile and replied,  "The trouble with you people (referring to the Chinese as the questioner was Chinese - just like Samuel Cheah Swee Hee!) is; you can only see Malays as your drivers and gardeners."

It's most likely that Samuel Cheah and his sidekicks in the MAH have the same myopic view of the hijabed Malays as not being good enough? or attractive enough? or enticing enough? or looking sexy enough? to serve as their front-line staff?

Perhaps they prefer these hijabed women to work only as low paid dishwashers, kitchen squaddies and sweepers and room cleaners - you know, the kind of job that doesn't require good looks or brains, just a good dose of elbow grease and sweat.

I thought that in the 'Malaysia Tanah Air Ku' and 'Anak Malaysia' ethos, Malaysians had eradicated or at least diluted such prejudiced and racist concepts from their brains.  It's a shame that our Sultans can only put pressure on Malay-Muslim neanderthals and not to all the anak-anak Malaysia!

I say Mr Samuel Cheah, if you think a headgear like the hijab is prejudicial to the profitabilty of your hotels, would you also ban another religious headgear, the turbans of the Sikhs? or other religious symbols like the cross?

Today the hotels; tomorrow and tomorrow, will this racist closed door policy apply to the banking and other service industry in my Tanah Air?

Will the children and grandchildren of those soldiers and policemen and others who fought and died for their country during the Communist Insurrection be denied a choice of livelihood even after they have gone through the educational and academic hurdles - just because they chose to practise the norms of their religion?

We can resort to all the Laws and Conventions to eradicate discrimination and racism.  But the most toxic issues of embedded and pathological sense of superiority of  some over others are not so easily suppressed.

MALAYSIA BOLEH KA? We always reply InsyaAllah .  God wills it but man is too arrogant.