Buddhism's three marks of existence anicca (impermanence), dukkha (unsatisfactoriness or suffering) and anattā (non-self) make an interesting watch. Take for instance this: Once, some 10,000 people reportedly gathered at Stadium Mini Titiwangsa in Kuala Lumpur to protest Myanmar's persecution of the Rohingya. Then Prime Minister Najib Razak, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang and PAS Youth chief Nik Mohamad Abduh Nik Aziz shared the stage to lend their support. I suppose the mere thought of injustice to fellow human, done or undone, cause much dukkha. Anicca is when the present Prime Minister Dr Mahathir talked of ratifying ICERD, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. There were protests from various Muslim NGOs and politicians, who argued that ratifying the UN instrument would contravene Article 153 of the Federal Constitution, which stipulates that special privileges are to be accorded to the bumiputeras. The PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang had said that all Muslims must oppose the ratification and come Dec 8, a coalition of Malay-Muslim NGOs plans to gather at least 500,000 people at Dataran Merdeka just to protest. The prime minister had since announced that ICERD would not be ratified. Isuppose people who fight for one's race or religion don't embrace the concept of anattā.
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