By Anil Netto
On March 3, an emergency sitting ofvthe Perak state assembly took place in an open space beneath a tall raintree and close to a lush mango tree as a crowd of several hundred watched intently. The event captured the imagination of many Malaysians and some have already dubbed the tree Pokok Demokrasi.

Here was democracy, returned to the people, conducted under a tree — just as in days longgone when village meetings the world over were conducted in open spaces amidst the trees and meadows. The symbolism of a humble tree providing shade for a democratic gathering was not lost on many Malaysians of various spiritual persuasions. Someone sent me a poem written by an
American Islamic scholar, Hamza Yusuff:

A Tree Knelt In Praise
I know that I shall never see
A poem that bows quite like our tree
A tree who like us loved to pray
In adoration every day
A tree who humbly knelt in praise
To God and never chose to raise
Itself above the other trees
Instead remained as if on knees
A tree who gave our scholars shade
And never asked that it be paid
A tree whose needles never hurt
But gently fell upon the dirt
A tree whose worth cannot be told
Or ever lent or bought with gold
A tree who showed us all its height
With God by bowing with delight
It taught us all to clearly see
A Garden lies beneath a tree
And then it showed us with a sigh
That trees, like us, must also die
In an age of folly, play and mirth
A tree has died with brow on earth

One Malaysian, who believes in the fusion of Nature with human activity and spends times just staring at their beauty and generosity, penned the following “message from Democracy Tree”:

I am just a tree, why not be like me...
I give shelter, and rest to all in need, you
can see.

There’s shade under my branches, come
and take your rest
You’ll know then, that I am simply
Nature’s gift and I ….did my best.

Some have already suggested that the Pokok Demokrasi or raintree could be the emblem for democracy in Malaysia just as the cedar tree symbolises freedom in Lebanon.

Trees are deeply symbolic in the various spiritual traditions. Buddhists point out that Buddha attained enlightenment after meditating under a bodhi tree. Hindu shrines are often built next to trees. In fact, all of Nature is sacred to Hindus.

Nature too is an integral part of many of Jesus’ sermons which were delivered in the open while standing on a boat in a lake or along the lakeshore. He would also trek upthe hills to pray and preach. Indeed, the Beatitudes are often referred to as the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus used the tree, no less, as an analogy for the kingdom of God. In Matthew, Chapter 13, he says:

31 The kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field. 32 It is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the biggest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air can come and shelter in its branches.

In Genesis, the apple tree is described as the symbol of all knowledge. Humankind's harmony with Nature was disrupted when the first humans placed themselves on par with their Creator and disobeyed the existing order set out by God.

Since then, groups of powerful human beings — the elite — and later their corporations, besotted by greed, wealth and power, have set themselves as lords of creation rather than as wise stewards whosesacred duty is to protect creation. Today, large swathes of creation have been degraded, resulting in the depletion of the ozone layer, climate chaos and even water scarcity.

Nowadays, developers think nothing of chopping down trees and cutting hillslopes to make way for “development”. In places like Selangor and Penang, developers have met with protests from residents who, deep down, sense that without the trees and hills and the clean rivers and seas, what have they got left?

In an age when “development” that is disconnected from nature has degraded the environment, we have much to learn from the humble but majestic trees, whose trunks soar to the heavens while bowing down in humility to provide shade and shelter for the birds and the creatures of the world.

In this Lenten season, perhaps we can also reflect: when most of his followers had scattered, the closest thing to Jesus was the trunk of a tree, which he carried with him on the road to Calvary. And it was the trunk of a tree, that lifted him high above the earth as he cried out for all to hear, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they are  doing!” before he breathed his last. It was the symbol of that tree — in the shape of a cross — that also represents our hope today of restoring the disconnect between God and Creation and between ourselves and our fellow human beings and the rest of Nature.