The air is clean, the roads are not jammed. I can understand why Mahathir gets exasperated by such attitudes. The people are not poor in the sense of lacking food or other essentials, and they have an appearance of spiritual contentment. But the bald fact is that there is no fire of ambition burning in their bellies. If so, please keep it.
Similar sentiments echo from the top.
Aziz told me he does not discourage the pursuit of wealth. But he reminds his flock that life is short and there is another more important one in the hereafter. Such comments invite the jibe that Aziz is behind the times, even feudalistic in his preoccupation with head scarves, hair salons and sexes mingling. It is these values that will ensure the survival of any community. Again there is that implacable divide.