Mach Sa Les - An outstanding example in Cham ethnic community
Mach Sa Les, an official from the Mosque of An Phu district’s Nhon Hoi commune in An Giang province, is considered an “architect” of many mass movements with practical meanings towards the community.
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| Mach Sa Les is well known for being a wholehearted man for the public work and a pioneer in promoting Cham ethnic culture. |
He is well known for being a wholehearted man for the public work and a pioneer in promoting Cham ethnic culture. He has also made significant contributions to awaking tourism potential of “Bung Binh Thien” (or God lake) - one of the largest fresh water lakes in Viet Nam’s Mekong River Delta.
We had a chance to meet Mach Sa Les one day while he was conducting a praying ceremony inside the Masjid Al Khai Ryah Mosque, which hosts all communal cultural events and religious rituals of local Cham people.
The Cham people have trusted the 74-year-old patriarch to hold positions of deputy head of the An Giang provincial Muslim Community for two terms (5 years each) and head of the community for two terms (5 years each).
He is seen as the most prestigious person in the nine Cham ethnic hamlets in An Giang province, with more than 20 years of experience supervising all activities at the mosque as well as the Cham ethnic community’s life in Nhon Hoi commune.
Notably, the elder is one of the first Cham people in Nhon Hoi to be able to master Vietnamese. For years, he has run two free classes to teach regulations, ceremonial rituals, and the Noble Qur’an... to roughly 60 local followers.
“For me, Islam and life are always involved with each other and develop together. I always tell myself to live a meaningful life and always strive to cultivate the lives of Cham people, contributing to the development of the society,” shared Mach Sa Les.
It is known that the life of the Cham people here is always simple, happy, and free of social evils. Stealing, gambling, prostitution, quarreling, disunity, and drinking alcohol, etc. are considered the worst sins in Islam that must not be committed by its followers even once in their lifetime. They should also make any efforts to prevent and eliminate activities that exploit the religion to gain illicit profits or serve evil schemes.
According to Mach Sa Les, Nhon Hoi is a border commune. Locals here had been through the Southwestern border protection war. He witnessed Pol Pot’s troops set fire to buildings and murdered people. “Therefore, local residents are always fully aware of and try our best to protect the national border’s sovereignty and security”, he affirmed.
Over the past time, Mach Sa Les has proposed to local authorities at all levels to open literacy classes (undertaken by border guard officers). Then he mobilized to open schools in the area, knowing that local education has been still limited and that the majority of Cham people could not write or speak Vietnamese. Therefore, at present, the literacy rate of Cham people has improved considerably. Many of Cham students have entered colleges and universities nationwide or even studied abroad.
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| Mach Sa Les and Nhon Hoi Border Guard Station updated the COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control to Cham ethnic people in Nhon Hoi commune, An Phu district. |
Mach Sa Les, according to Cao Xuan Dieu, Secretary of the Nhon Hoi Party Committee and Chairman of the commune People’s Committee, “took the lead in the establishment of funds for the poor and study promotion funds... of Cham people in the commune.” He often called on businesses and sponsors both inside and outside the province to provide free health checkups and medicines to local residents, as well as raise funds to buy ambulances to provide free-of-charge services for patients in need.
These meaningful activities have contributed to stabilizing the Cham people’s lives. Besides, Mach Sa Les also urges Cham people to unite and support each other, and well resolves all arising problems in the community.
Amid the complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic, the board of leaders of the An Giang provincial Muslim Community, in coordination with local authorities, strictly grasped the disease situation, and popularized information dissemination on COVID-19 prevention and control regulations.
Meanwhile, he actively joins hands in local tourism during the floating season in “Bung Binh Thien”. He proudly said, “In recent years, we have rented out costumes, taken photos, picked up and dropped off visitors, operated accommodation services, among others, to further develop tourism potential of the locality.”
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