For some, hosting Naik was the day the music died

The day the music died is a line from the popular song “American Pie” by Don Maclean that was released in 1971. It was written as a tribute to the late Buddy Holly who died tragically in a plane crash.

In today’s context, this line is so apt for a young politician in Malaysia who, when he first appeared on the political scene was like a breath of fresh air with his oratory skills and his ideals.

If you hadn’t notice or heard of this champion debater, it was a matter of time before his name became emblazoned in bright lights and across the land. This was an inspiring politician with brains and relatively good looks.

One that carried the hopes of future generations and all Malaysians with his strong conviction, principles, beliefs and quest for a New Malaysia. A future leader of the nation perhaps with a desire for change because of what he believed in. So strong was his conviction and desire for change that he even turned down a scholarship to further his studies at Oxford University in the UK, courtesy of the previous government that was toppled in GE14.

You had to be insane to have turned down such an opportunity but you would do so if your quest for a better Malaysia far outweighed your own ambitions. At least that is how it ought to be perceived by the public at large. It is not that you love Oxford less but that you loved Malaysia more. A colossal sacrifice of such nature can only put you right at the top of the food chain.

The very fact that you were the first amongst many that came out with guns blazing when a foreign fugitive mocked your Indian and Chinese Malaysian brethren earmarked you as an icon of bravado, of courage and a true blue Malaysian. You were the shining light coming through that gave me and thousands of others like me reason to believe that in you lay our hopes. You demanded that this fugitive foreigner be deported for insulting your very own brethren.

Then something happened. Everything changed almost instantly. You hosted this foreigner for a get together in the comfort of your home.

And all that you stood for crumbled right before our eyes. The pain we will endure in the knowledge that staying politically relevant superseded the love for your own Malaysian brethren is something we have to live with.

Something died in you. It was for me the day the music died.

Clement Stanley is an FMT reader.