Friday, August 05, 2011

Fighting the FPI

T called yesterday after his quarrel with FPI thugs. It was absurdly funny, yet alarming. It started with T eating biscuits in his car and a FPI thug came knocking on his door:
F You dont respect people who fast!
T I eat my biscuit in the privacy of my car.
F You.. Chinese!
T I am Chinese. Unlike you, who is Indonesian but acting Arabs.
F Anjing! (=dog; v. insulting in this part of the world)
T Your anger nullified your fasting. So, you want to fight?
*4 of FPI thugs joined in, while T was out of his car. I know he's nut*
F *hurling some abusive language*
T It's a pity, your religion is great but you act like that.

The point of fasting is to train ourselves to control ourselves (speech, emotion, craving, desire, etc). I thought by being able to control ourselves eventhough there are people eating, etc, that's when you are succeed in your fasting.
What good of fasting when everyone has to conform to us? I dont really control my desire of eating when there are no food/people eating to be seen. I control my desire of eating when there are food present and I dont eat/desire/crave of them.

It's alarming that those FPI thugs forcing their way on people. If they want respect they have to earn it in a descent way, not by force.

Indonesia's a free, secular-albeit-believing-in-god country. Unless those who are not fasting forcing their food to those who are fasting, I dont think people eating while I was fasting is rude. It is selfish to expect people not to eat just because I was fasting.

I think those who fast as a minority such as in Europe are the ones who really testing their self control, unlike those who fast as a majority and controlled environment such as in Malaysia and Indonesia.

3 comments:

Harry Nizam said...

Fasting is not just not eating and drinking from dawn to dust, but its about controlling our emotion, desires, speech, actions. Also have respect on others.

Fasting doesn't give us any right to be rude or act violently against others who don't fast.

colson said...

Fasting is a virtue. But Dick Swaab pointed out ( in last Sunday's "Zomergasten") that serious fasting can have an unanticipated impact on the brains. I guess these thugs did exaggerate their abstinence :).

By the way: to me T. is a hero of civil courage

triesti said...

@harry, I know. but I dont think FPI thugs knows. They are just a bunch of low life in religious disguised. They are a disgrace of their religion. They sell G-d's words to the highest bidder. I pity them.

@colson, fasting in Indonesia is not a 'serious' fasting, it's shorter than in NL at the moment-you can eat and drink for 10 hours if you want after iftar- unlike catholic fasting that only eat once a day or some Javanese fasting that can last for 3x24hours not eating, everybody has to "respect" those who are fasting-so a sterile environment. Those thugs' brain is just not there, their moral is out the window.
I love T for being nuts like that :)