Our Failings

The failings of the political Malay are discovered in the burning ashes of the churches attacked in Kuala Lumpur.

“And as the flames climbed high into the night; To light the sacrifical rite; I saw Satan laughing with delight; The day the music died.”
American Pie -Don McLean

And so, this is what has become of us. A nation where the music has long since died.

We have banished our conscience at the foot of political expediency. We have long since been only moved to claim what is ours, or what we believe to be ours, and ours alone. We have long since been only moved to protect our rights or what we believe to be our rights.

We have been indoctrinated to think and we do think that everything in this land has a proprietary right attached to it. And we draw a line. These are mine. Those are yours. And into my area you should not encroach. We are like wild dogs pissing everywhere to mark our territory.

We have also been taught to differentiate our fellow human beings based on the colour of their skin. And the faith we bear. And the language we speak. And we now believe that only us and us alone are right. Everybody else is wrong. And we also now believe that only us and us alone matter. Everything, everyone else does not.

Soon we realise that we even have to own our race and the colour of our skin. We also have to own our language. That is sacrosanct. It cannot be Bahasa Malaysia nor Bahasa Kebangsaan. It has to be Bahasa Melayu. Because that is us. Because that language belongs to us. That is ours. We must possess it. We must not let it go. And we piss and piss drawing lines to mark our territory. While others have gone to the moon and back.

Now we own our faith. And our God. We now piss all over to mark and re-mark our territory, again and again. And again, that this is our territory. Ours. Mine. Not yours. And don’t you dare encroach into my area. Because you have no right over what is mine. You had better get away from it.

We have locked away our capacity to engage and to argue in a locker room somewhere between Putrajaya and KLCC. We have thrown away the keys. We have deleted civility, good manners and human decency from our hard disk.

All that we have is anger. And our capacity to strike. We have built an impenetrable firewall to ward off any kind of tolerance or rationality. Those will be blocked and quickly booted out from our system.

When we perceive a challenge – and we do that very quickly – we will strike.

The State meanwhile cavorts us. It condones us. When we carry a severed and bloodied cow head from a mosques to protest against some Hindu temple, the State gently met us. The State listened to us. The State said it understood our grievances. The State was sorry that our grievances were not heard by others. The State concluded that we had no bad intention. The State shook our hands, sat with us and pacified us.

And so we threatened to show our might, to protect what is ours. To defend God, our God who is definitely not your God. We are angry. Our area has been encroached. And together we must rise to protect what is ours. Together we must defend what is ours. Allah, this God is ours.

And the State stands by the side of the road saying it will not do anything against our plan. The State suddenly says it is powerless to stop us because according to the State, “people will demonstrate if they want to”.

The State says that there is a balancing act which has to be done, namely, our interest as an angry people and the interest of the national security. And accordingly, the State implies that we can carry out our threat up to a point when national security is threatened. But that point is not defined. It is still subject to discretion and interpretation. By the State.

We are relieved and happy to note that we can demonstrate our anger. Because before this we note that even candle-lighting vigilers singing Negara Ku have been arrested and detained. Even lawyers coming to the aid of their clients have been arrested and detained by the State. What more an anti-ISA rally.

The State came with all its might. It was there with its truckloads of baton wielding officers and that monstrous tank spewing acid laced water against us. It was there with that water and canisters of tear gas. It was there with batons. Even children were arrested and detained.

But this time, the State was meek. So we can do whatever we planned. And whatever we planned is in the name of God. We planned to protect God.

How dare you encroach into our area?

And in the name of Allah, we strike.