[lg policy] blog (Malaysia): Our Failings

[Harold Schiffman]

Our Failings

"And as the flames climbed high into the night; To light the
sacrificial 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 fellow humans based on the
colours of the skin. And the faith that we bear. And the language that
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 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 we 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, 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 apparently 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.

We are relieved and happy to note that we could 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.

http://art-harun.blogspot.com/2010/01/our-failings.html

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