Are We Prepared To Shed The Extremist Label?

This posting is a part of an article written by a well known blogger which I find interesting. I have edited few words or lines to suit the purpose of my posting which is centered on the main theme ''are we prepared to discard the extremist label"?.

Bernama reported today that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak wants Malaysians to fight extremism and to accept 1Malaysia.

Before we can fight extremism we must first understand what the word means.

Extremist (noun): a person zealous about a belief (Synonyms: agitator, die-hard, fanatic, radical, revolutionary, revolutionist, ultra, ultraist, zealot, illiberal, immoderate, stubborn, obsessive, single-minded, biased, unreasonable, bigot, intolerant, prejudiced, passionate, etc.)

Going by the above, almost 100% of Malaysians can be described as extremists. After all, who amongst us could tolerate/allow what we would regard as an insult to our race, religion or nation? Would we not passionately defend what we would consider our rights, dignity, freedom or whatever?

That would make us extremists.

The entire world, not just Malaysians, is extreme. And the only way to fight extremism would be to be the opposite of that word. And what is the opposite of extremism?

The words opposite to extremist are: conservative, moderate, humanitarian, liberal, disinterested, impartial, unenthusiastic, limited, mild, tolerant, etc.

Now, for Malaysians to shed the extremist label and become the opposite of extremist they have to make a lot of sacrifices and offer a lot of concessions.

Are Malaysians prepared to do that?

Are the political, community and religious leaders in Malaysia prepared to do that?

Are the 20 or so other political parties in Malaysia prepared to do that?

Are all the races in Malaysia prepared to do that?

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