It is how you perceive things

Your view does not make what you say become the truth. Truth is subjective. That these organisations exist is true. That they fight for a cause is true. Whether the cause is right is not the truth. And whether the cause is wrong is also not the truth. The truth and falsity depends on your beliefs. Beliefs would be what you perceive things to be. And what you have to say about what you believe are merely your opinions.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

“Tunku Abdul Aziz Ibrahim's fall from grace with the DAP leadership has been swift and severe and many doubt that he can continue in DAP after what has happened,” said Joceline Tan of The Star. Before I comment on that statement, allow me, as usual, to digress in my normal cheong hei fashion. After all, if I am not long-winded then that is not Raja Petra.

Let’s say a conference is organised by some hard-core Christians, say, in the United States. The conference is to discuss the threat of militant Islam to the free world and how Islam is not a religion of peace but a religion of war. 

One of the speakers in that conference is an ex-Muslim who has since left Islam to become a Christian. This ex-Muslim who used to live in Iran but is now an American citizen goes into great detail about the how intolerant Islam is and how Islam infringes your civil rights and how Islam does not respect freewill and democracy and how persecution is perpetuated in Muslim countries and so on. 

Basically, he is ‘exposing Islam for what it really is’ and has nothing nice to say about Islam. He is, in fact, confirming the belief of the 1,000 participants in that conference that Islam is a dangerous and warmongering religion. The objective of Islam, claims this ex-Muslim speaker, is to dominate the world and to eradicate all other religions so that in the end only one religion remains, Islam.

Of course, to those 1,000 participants, this ex-Muslim who used to live in Iran and is now a US citizen and a Christian is merely telling the truth. He has seen the light. God has opened his heart. His soul has been saved. This man who has embraced Jesus has been guaranteed paradise, as all those who embrace Jesus have been promised.

But how would the Muslims perceive him? He is an apostate. He is now an infidel. He is a traitor. Satan has misled him. He is destined for hell. He is misinforming everyone in that conference. He should be put to death for lying and for slandering Islam.

Actually, both sides are right. No one is wrong. Of course, they are right based on how they perceive things. And, if perception is considered the truth, then both sides are telling the truth.

But there is a difference between truth and perception, of course. For example, say you are a bachelor and you have ten girlfriends, whom, of course, you sleep with. If I say that this makes you an immoral person is that a lie or the truth? It is neither. It is merely my yardstick of morality and hence I am merely stating my opinion, which is my perception and hence is neither true nor false. 

Now, if you do not have ten girlfriends and I say you do, then that would be a lie. But if you do have ten girlfriends then what I said would be the truth. But whether that makes you an immoral person is neither true not false. It is my opinion based on my perception of things guided by my moral compass.

As I have said before, one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. The Americans who fought in the American Revolution were rebels -- that’s negative. Or, the Americans who fought in the War of Independence were patriots -- that’s positive. It depends on whether during 1775–1783 you were a blue coat or a red coat. Both were actually right. The fight did happen. That is true. But how you perceived it would determine the labelling you give it.

Perkasa, Bersih, Hindraf, the Malaysian Bar Council, Sisters in Islam, the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST), and all those many organisations operating in Malaysia that support or propagate causes are viewed differently by different people. Some have negative views about what these organisations do while others have positive views. 

Your view does not make what you say become the truth. Truth is subjective. That these organisations exist is true. That they fight for a cause is true. Whether the cause is right is not the truth. And whether the cause is wrong is also not the truth. The truth and falsity depends on your beliefs. Beliefs would be what you perceive things to be. And what you have to say about what you believe are merely your opinions.

Joceline Tan said, “Tunku Abdul Aziz Ibrahim's fall from grace with the DAP leadership has been swift and severe and many doubt that he can continue in DAP after what has happened.” Is that the truth? Or is that merely how Joceline Tan perceives things?

Some may consider Tunku Aziz as being a traitor when he joined DAP in 2008. DAP is a Chinese chauvinist party, they say. Hence any Malay who joins a Chinese chauvinist party is a traitor to his race. If Tunku Aziz were to now resign from DAP and, say, join Umno, he would be considered a patriot, a loyal Malay.

You and I may not see it that way. In fact, we may even see it as the reverse. But that is only how you and I see it. That does not mean others also view it the way we do. Hence, any statement that we make on the matter is merely an opinion based on our belief system.

Some of us support clean, free and fair elections. Hence we support Bersih. Some of us support Bersih but do not support violence. Some of us support Bersih as long as the politicians do not hijack Bersih and turn it into the fourth member of Pakatan Rakyat. And so on. Different people have different value systems. Hence we would perceive things differently because of this. But to say that if you do not support Bersih because you are opposed to violence means you do not support a clean, free and fair elections is, again, your opinion and this does not make it the truth. 

The trouble with most of us is we are incapable of separating fact from opinion. We allow our beliefs to cloud our judgement. We apply beliefs and regard that as truth and therefore anything that goes against this belief is false, a lie, and so on. 

To the Christians, what they believe in is the truth. And don’t ever try to suggest otherwise. The Muslims, however, would have the opposite view. What they believe in is the truth. Everything else is false.

It could be that both the Christians and the Muslims are wrong. No one is right. But try telling them that. They will foam at the mouth and condemn you to hell even though they can’t prove the existence of heaven and hell and this belief is based entirely on faith.

There are about 1.4 million civil servants in Malaysia if you include the security services as well. The majority, of course, are Malays. Quite a number support PAS because they believe in Islam and they believe in the Islamisation of the country. They also support clean, fair and free elections because, without it, PAS would never be able to form the federal government -- with the other two members of Pakatan Rakyat of course.

So they support Bersih. But that does not mean they also support a Secular State. DAP also supports Bersih (plus a Secular State). Hence this does not mean that these Malays in the government who support Bersih because they support PAS also support DAP’s stand (or opposition to) regarding the Islamic State.

Then there are those Malays in government who do not support Bersih. They do not support Bersih not because they support a fraudulent election system. They do not support Bersih because they believe that Bersih is a secret weapon of the non-Malays, aided by some Malay traitors, who wish to take (rampas) political power away from the Malays.

Is this true? What has the truth go to do with it? This is their perception. This is what they believe. This is their opinion. And if perception and opinions can be regarded as the truth then this allegation is certainly true. 

Is there any proof? Do you need proof when we are playing with perception and opinions? Why question whether the perception and opinion regarding the so-called hidden agenda of Bersih is true? It is what they believe. And beliefs have always been taken as fact, like how the Muslims, Christians, etc., see things regarding their religion.

So, has Tunku Aziz fallen from grace? It depends on your belief system. Joceline Tan thinks so. Many of you also think so. But just because you think so does not mean 16 million other Malaysian voters also think so. So what do these 16 million other Malaysian voters think? I don’t know. Let us wait till the next general election to find out.