The keris and the damage done

Neil Young is one of my favourite musicians. He was part of the Buffalo Springfield in the 1960s and when the group broke up, he played solo for a while before joining up with David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash in the super-duper CSNY. But before long, he went his solo way again. One of his massive albums was Harvest in which Heart Of Gold became a Number One hit single in the United States. Another song from this album that caught my young and impressionable ear was The Needle And The Damage Done, a song about talented artists who died from heroin addiction.

Now fast forward 36 years later and substitute Needle with Keris. In 2005, in a country halfway around the globe from the United States, a politician rose on stage to start unsheathing and kissing a keris. He should have known better than to play to his audience because alarm bells immediately rang out throughout the country. It was a show of undisguised disdain towards the non-Malay citizens in this country. The Keris And The Damage Done. He tried to downplay his action but he offered no apology. We know what happened after that. People don't forget this affront easily and they told that to his political party in no uncertain terms.

But finally, he has seen the folly of his reckless action and last Friday (25 Apr 2008), Hishammuddin Hussein finally apologised. He said that it was time he offered Malaysians an apology over the keris-rattling and threatening noises at the Umno assembly three years earlier.

It was a gambit that failed. The Keris And The Damage Done. He may have aroused the members of his political party but he had also rubbed the wrong way all the non-Malay citizens at large in this country. Too late, too late. The damage was done. And the apology comes way too late. But at least he has acknowledged that it was a silly gesture.

But I'm perplexed. Was the apology all that it was taken to be? If he was saying sorry to the non-Malays, why did he in the same breath say sorry to the Malays too? Was he now implying that the non-Malays are to be blamed for not allowing him to uphold their symbol of heritage? Can someone explain that part to me better?