2100 • The Museum of Past Doctrines Published October 2015

Preamble It’s the dawn of the 22nd century, 50 years after the religious holocaust, and peace has taken hold. Eziqa is 5 years old and she is with her grandma visiting the Museum of Past Doctrines in Putra Jaya. The New World Order is in flux, driven strictly by secular values and Malaysia, a former Sharia-based nation, is ‘comfortably numbed’ in the matrix. It has flowered into a ‘developed status’ morally and economically and while it has matured into a vibrant financial center, it is regarded the most ‘introverted’ nation in the region. Quiet, yet powerful.

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Given the flavour of the day, little Iqa has developed an effervescent mind and her questions posed to granny are equally challenging. She observes the artifacts within this ‘hallowed space’ with intense focus. It was her idea to visit the museum. The conversation Iqa:- Grandma, what is the Museum of Past Doctrines all about? Grandma:- It showcases religions that mankind previously practiced while consigning features, deemed not in concordance with secular values, to symbols. When I was your age, the world was racked with religious zealotry and our beautiful nation was drawn into the centrifuge; and in-spite of the bulwark within our multi-cultural and multi-religious fabric, we went 'down the tubes’, so to speak. It was inevitable. Iqa:- What you are saying, grandma, it was a ‘Mine Is Better Than Yours” scenario, not unlike the way some children still behave, no?

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Grandma:- Bingo! Iqa, you have an innocent way of distilling a complex event and then simplifying it, in two shakes. Iqa:- Explain those figurines up there? It looks like a man with a cloth on his head flanked by four women dressed in black, from head to toe. Grandma:- When I was your age, it was not uncommon for a man to have multiple wives; up to four i.e. The practice was called Polygamy. I used the past tense simply because our ‘secularity’ has relegated it to a symbol of our past. It is no longer relevant. As for the abaya, the flowing black dress, it was designed not to accentuate the female contour and therefore protect the 'modesty' of women, as it was perceived then. Iqa:- Did women willingly agree to this arrangement? Grandma:- Good question, Iqa, and a loaded one too. There is an old book called Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki, where the author suggests that large groups tend to make un-enlightened decisions that are accepted drowning the enlightened view of a single

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member. The group then coalesces its groupthink into a single viewpoint, steered by those who cry the loudest, rather than those who think the smartest. In essence, our religion offered such ‘wisdom’ and when coupled with a pliant ‘crowd’, women at large became willing participants in this arrangement. Iqa:- Amazing, but it is a mouthful for my tiny 5-year old brain. I need it simplified. I can’t believe our women of the past behaved like unthinking ‘zombies.' Understandably ‘divine’ sanction played a role but what actually made polygamy work? Give it to me straight up, grandma! Grandma:- Obedience and Discipline, period. These were the two features that gave polygamy traction and the only ones that ensured ‘Harmony.’ Is that straight enough, Iqa? Iqa:- Nice! Safe to assume that fidelity and romance were polite fiction in your era. Safer to imagine both grandpa, god rest his soul, was firing on all four cylinders. Pardon the ‘automotive’ pun, grandma, I couldn't resist. Grandma:- You are a complicated and naughty little thing, aren’t you, cynical as well! I agree,

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fidelity was polite fiction in our polygamous environment, but given that I loved your grandpa to pieces, polygamous as he was, I assure you that our romance was in full bloom. Talking about grandpa brings tears to my eyes. Let’s move on, Iqa, if you don’t mind. Iqa:- Grandma, explain that figurine of the cow on the floor, with a knife beside it? Grandma:- It symbolizes ritual slaughter, a practice we endeared to in the past, towards food consumption, unlike the painless and efficient ‘assembly line’ method we apply now. Anything else, Iqa? Iqa:- Thank you, grandma. The dawn of the new century has been enlightening to say the least, besides, my pride in my religion and country has received a boost. In essence, I believe that placing the various dogmas in the private domain has in a way preserved and protected them, while keeping our secular fabric, vibrant and diverse. Words, Tommy Peters

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Afterword 1. Malaysians by and large are brought up to be polite, civil and diplomatic and, given their propensity to bedtime stories, prone to fiction. 2. The character in the conversation is the alter-ego of a beautiful artist, but the animated simulation of her thought process is as imagined as the 'utopia' depicted in the narrative. It is assumed that the position portrayed by the charisma of her character is oblivious to her personality, but only when her persona is in conflict, to which the author believes that such conflict is rare. 3. The reason moderation is employed by a responsible blog-master in Malaysia is because censorship and detention laws drills down to clamp the ‘oblivious’ poster, even if one responds without malice, of whom the author is concerned.

4. Advanced appreciation is rendered for the image, used without express permission of its copyright owner.