Will he be Great?

Will Timur Abdullah become as lame as his grandfather?

Yesterday news apart from the debate and eventual passing of JAC (Judicial Appointment Commission) was the hullabaloo about the sixth Abdullah Badawi's grandchildren, second son of the notorious yet all too powerful KJ. He's named after an ancient Uzbek's warrior Amir Temur. Obviously this guy also got named after the iconic Timur, founder of the Timurid Empire.

KJ maybe inspired by the figure for his bravery and perseverance and thus he meant well when he decided to honour the great man by borrowing his name. However, he may have forgotten a very subtle yet significant principle. In Islam, one is required to bestow or named his children with good and well meaning names and this includes among others the culture of the society he belongs to. He may also have 'special and peculiar' in his mind when he named his son, Timur Abdullah.

Nonetheless, we live in an advanced and more transparent world where people become very inquisitive and thus make other people business their own. Thus, his son with a very peculiar name will become hot item. While others are in awe and admire his name many others will also ridicule that innocent child. There are abundant real life stories about those with peculiar names.

There are people who named their children out of the convention and norms like by putting Tengku, Puteri and Dayang as part of the children's names. Problem and issue arise when the children start their study. Raised eye brows and cynical smiles are some of the predicaments they have to endure later. There are a few cases when the children will be asked whether they belong or related to any royalties when they have Tengku at the beginning of their names while both parents belong to the Dusun ethnic! Its hilarious and downward degrading for the children who wished they are never born!

Timur is another name for the Tator people from Toraja in Sulawesi and by all means the word is uttered not in a very respective well meaning tone among Malaysians in Sabah since they are connected to the influx of illegal immigrants who for years have slowly and systematically eroded the Malaysians in Sabah their rights and privileges. So, what's the point when Timur Abdullah hails from the Peninsular and may never set foot here. Noted but remember we are living in a transparent and those Peninsular MPs are starting to learn and understand more and more about East Malaysians way of life and culture including the not so good connotation of 'Timur'.

The point here is while we meant well for the children we must also consider the impact and effect they will have to endure in the future for having peculiar and out of the ordinary names attached to them forever. Simple but good meaning names are sufficient and not those names which are foreign to our culture. I wonder what will happen to Timur Abdullah in the future?