Tommy Peters' Bicycles

2100: The Museum of Past Doctrines Preamble It's the dawn of the 22nd century, 50 years after the religious holocaust, and peace has taken hold. Eziqa is five years old and visiting the Museum of Past Doctrines in Putrajaya with her grandma. The New World Order is in flux, driven strictly by secular values. Malaysia, a former Sharia-based nation, is 'comfortably numbed' in the matrix. It has flowered into a 'developed status' morally and economically. While it has matured into a vibrant financial centre, it is the region's most 'introverted' nation. Quiet, yet powerful. Indoctrination of religion from birth is discouraged, but from the age of sixteen, teenagers schooled in moral studies, creationism, and science are allowed to make informed decisions to subscribe to the religions of their choice. Given the day's flavour, little Iqa has developed an effervescent mind, and her questions to granny are equally challenging. She observes the artefacts with...

Salman: - Erdogan has gall. He just inked a gas deal with Iran, our archenemy, and to twist the knife, the Turk agreed to pay the Shiites higher than our GCC boys are offering. Shall I organize another 'eruption' at Gezi Park? He has not learned his lesson from the earlier episode. Personally, Mr Netanyahu, I prefer the old scarf and dagger to finish him off. Bibi: - Take a seat, Sal. My Turkish serf has no gall, nor are the Persians playing hardball. I green-lighted the deal behind your back and asked Iran to increase the price. Salman: - What! Are you in the tank with Iran? How long has this 'affair' been going on? And how can I explain this to the council in God's name? We take pride in our all-Sunni GCC, our' coalition of the willing' set up to serve the interest of the Zionist and explicitly configured to exclude the Shiites, which Iran represents.   Bibi: - I prefer the term 'coalition of the billing' uttered privately in successfu...

Published June 9, 2015 Kit Siang: - Hadi, superb! You were playing us like a violin, weren't you? We never expected the old 'scarf and dagger.' Hadi: - I take issue with that, Kit! Must I remind you we are Muslims? With Karpal in the equation, we could not come clean earlier, but I trust you remember our founder, who said, "If Malaysia is truly Islamic, PAS is irrelevant." Kit Siang: - In hindsight, Hadi, that was the 'reddest' flag we missed. Perhaps, we were blurred by your lies and double-speak, but we took comfort in Karpal's bluster, "Over my dead body." While alive, those four words gave refuge to the secular ground. A fitting epitaph of the man would be, "As long as he lives, Malaysia will not be Islamic." Hadi: - An appropriate inscription for 'the Lion' indeed, despite your coy takes on the 'Hitler' epitaph of Tomas Masaryk. But granted, we feared Karpal. Something about him mimicked his warrio...