Of converging interests and diverging methods

Yes, you probably figured out what I am now going to say. I scold you. I insult you. I curse you. I call you stupid. I call you cowards. I am condescending towards you. I treat you like children. In short, I provoke you and make you hate me while hopefully I make you hate yourself as well. More importantly, I make you think with the hope that once you think you will act.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

There is a Malay saying: tidur satu bantal, mimpi lain-lain. This translates to:sleeping on the same pillow but having separate dreams. This probably best describes Pakatan Rakyat. They do share a common interest or objective, of course, but PKR, DAP and PAS may not quite share the same dreams.

Their common interest would be to replace Barisan Nasional as the federal government. Their mimpi lain-lain would be: PKR dreams of seeing Anwar Ibrahim as Prime Minister, DAP of seeing a Malaysian Malaysia where we are no longer labelled according to ethnicity, while PAS dreams of seeing the entire spectrum of Islamic laws implemented in Malaysia.

Now, there is nothing wrong with this, mind you. Even the PLO is the same. In the PLO there are Islamists, Christians, Communists, Nationalists, anti-Zionists, Liberalists, Conservatists, Fundamentalists, and so on. The PLO, in fact, is one mixed bag of causes although most Malays have the misconception that the PLO is a Muslim organisation opposed to the Jews. Actually this is not so. Even some Jews support the PLO. And Malays must stop thinking that the PLO is an Islamic cause. It is not. It is a territorial movement, a movement fighting for land.

The reverse of ‘tidur satu bantal, mimpi lain-lain’ would probably be ‘tidur lain bantal, mimpi yang sama’. This translates to: we sleep on different pillows but share the same dream. Basically, this would mean we have converging interests but have diverging methods in achieving our objectives.

And this probably describes most of us -- the supporters for change, the reformists, the political activists, those of the civil society movements, the liberals, Bloggers, and not to be forgotten, readers of Malaysia Today.

Most of us can’t seem to understand this. Some of you are well-educated, well-read, university students or graduates, lawyers, doctors, accountants, engineers, architects, or whatever, but you still can’t grasp the fundamentals of what the fight for change or reforms is all about. And that is why every time I express my views many of you scold and curse me. Just because we may not be on the same page you respond with hostility.

Life is not that simple. For example, Jews, Christians and Muslims believe in the same God, the One and Only God. No Jew, Christian or Muslim would dare say that there are three Gods. There is only One God and that One God created the whole of humankind.

If that is so then why do we have Jews, Christians and Muslims, the people who believe in One God but are divided into three religions? On top of that, Jews, Christians and Muslims are further divided into various sects and branches. Hence, in reality, we actually have more than just three religions. Yet everyone believes in the same One God, not 20, 30 or 40 Gods. Does the fact that the various sects or branches of Judaism, Christianity and Islam each follow a different path mean they do not hold to the concept of the One God for everyone? 

Yes, while our interests may converge, we must accept the fact that our methods may diverge. And this diverging method does not mean we do not share the same interest. This is one thing many of you can’t seem to understand. And for that reason you respond with curses and mock me when I take a different course to yours. You are of the opinion that since our interests converge then our methods should as well. You just can’t accept the concept of converging interests and diverging methods.

I admit that my methods may not be palatable to many of you. So be it. Then stay out of my path because I am very abrasive and corrosive in the manner I address issues and I would not hesitate to mow down those who stand in my way. I am not a politician nor a diplomat so I do not need to be diplomatic in the way I do things or politically correct in what I say.

I am of the view that the fundamental problem we are faced with is the way we have been educated. Malaysia’s education system does not allow us to think, research and question. This is more prominent amongst the Malays who go to religious classes before they even get sent to school. And the religious education system discourages us from questioning, researching, doubting, rebutting and opposing. We are taught to merely absorb what we are taught like a sponge. 

This is no different from Europe of up to about 200 years ago. From 1803 to 1814, for a period of about 11 years, Napoleon Bonaparte conquered almost the whole of Europe. And one of the significant events of France’s occupation of Europe was, amongst others, to reform the education system. 

Prior to that, schools were run by the church and education was available to only the elite and nobility. Napoleon changed all this. He cut down the powers of the church, set up public schools, and made education open to all and sundry. One generation later, a middle class of educated Europeans emerged -- where in the past there was only a small upper class and large lower class -- that demanded change.

This triggered the revolutions of 1848. However, the revolutionaries only had an ideology and aspiration and did not have an army. Hence, through military action, all the revolutions were put down at a loss of many lives.

But the seed of reforms had been planted. Over the last 40 years of the 1800s, Europe saw change. But it would be the next generation that saw this happen. Hence it took four generations from the First French Revolution of 1789 (there were three French Revolutions in all) that change would eventually sweep the whole of Europe. That’s right, FOUR generations -- from the late 1700s to the late 1800s. That’s how long it took, 100 years.

Over 100 years or four generations from the late 1700s to the late 1800s, Europe saw the Age of Enlightenment, the Age of Romanticism, the Age of Nationalism, the Age of Unification, the Age of Revolutions, ‘Springtime of the Peoples’, the Industrial Revolution, the ‘Hungry Forties’, etc. That’s right, so many things happened in just 100 years.

At the end of the day, it was education or the reform of the education system that achieved this. The catalyst was education. And the platform for this change was the middle class (what, today, we would call the ‘middle ground’: meaning you, the readers of Malaysia Today). The large middle class, that was non-existent pre-1815, and that emerged and grew from 1815 to 1848, was the group that forced change in Europe.

Now, can Malaysia afford to see change over four generations? We would like to see it happen now, not in the year 2100 during our great-great-grandchildren’s time when all of us will no longer be around. The next question is: what must we do to educate Malaysians so that they rise and demand change, short of doing what Napoleon did in Europe from 1803 to 1814?

And this is where, while our interests may converge, our methods may diverge.

Yes, you probably figured out what I am now going to say. I scold you. I insult you. I curse you. I call you stupid. I call you cowards. I am condescending towards you. I treat you like children. In short, I provoke you and make you hate me while hopefully I make you hate yourself as well. More importantly, I make you think with the hope that once you think you will act.

I do not have 100 years (anyway, I am already 62 so I may not even have 20 years). I can’t do this over 100 years like what happened in Europe from the late 1700s to the late 1800s. I need to fast track the education process and bring it down from 100 years to just ten years.

Malaysia Today is already eight years old while I am 62. So that gives me only a few more years. Okay, maybe I still have ten years to go. But ten years would mean just two more general elections, the coming one and the next one. That is too short a time. In Europe it took the equivalent of 20 general elections (based on five years between general elections).

Most of us are victims of indoctrination and brainwashing. We just accept and are scared of thinking, questioning, disagreeing, etc. But if we get angry enough we would set aside ‘norms’ and go headstrong into dissent.

And that is my job, to make you angry. And whether you are angry with me, or whoever it may be, is not what concerns me. What concerns me is that you must be angry, even if it is with me, because anger makes you want to do something. And once you are angry, I can say to you what Lee Iacocca’s wife said to her husband: don’t get mad, get even!