Focus Focus: Jom Tengok!

Amidst the ruins, young countrymen watch the gods play.

There's a Malay adage that goes, “Gajah lawan Gajah, Kancil mati ditengah-tengah.” I couldn't think of a more apt time to use it than now. Seven months after the 12th General Elections, Malaysia and Malaysians are still fixated at the politicking and powerplays of the people's elected 'gods', or 'dewarajas' in our Southeast Asian cultural context. But it hasn't been a boring seven months, I would have to concede. From death threats, to chasing chairs, to sodomy cases, to running off to other countries to learn about agricultural technology, to revealing (or not) certain lists, to draconian detentions, to... it goes on.

You cannot help but ask: Is this flurry of activity any good for Malaysia? Are all these shenanigans advancing the cause of democracy and developing a mature and civil attitude of discourse for a fledgling nation like ours (45 years on, and the press still can't decide which day is National Day... it's September 16th)? Is the reduction of Pakatan and Barisan into the apocalyptic view of Good and Evil heavyhanded and over-simplistic?

Of course, it would be bitter to answer these questions. Most urban Malaysians clamour for any kind of change; the Heartlanders (if there could be such a demographic), who would not be reading this article for instance, seem (or are told) to want more of the same. And so, depending on which side you stand, it would appear that the voice of Reason would be defeated by the idea that whoever has more on his side wins, no matter if it is sound in principle or not.

And that's a mighty dangerous thing. Shouldn't we pause to ask: is there no third option? Is it always as simple as “You're either with us or against us” (in that Bush kind of way)? Shouldn't we make room to doubt both sides? Or should all doubters be draconianly drawn and quartered? What does such an attitude reveal about ourselves?

A man who used to teach in the film department at the National Arts Academy (ASWARA) once published a book where he said that the 'hegemony of the ruling class has been fractured' with the ascendancy of the Internet, especially in Malaysia. No one can doubt it (especially the moribund ruling class, as can be seen by the measures they've taken against bloggers recently). That was the eye-opener of the last General Elections: that you could listen to other voices, not the voice of Big Brother alone. That the Internet, the playground of information, along with other technological advances in telecommunications had enough reach to untangle the State's chokehold on what we could see and hear. And boy did we see and hear a lot... enough to make sure that 13 of the 14 Parliamentary seats in this Kuala Lumpur of ours belonged to the other side.

But do we stop there? Is our duty as citizens of this 45-year-old country limited to electing our representatives once every four years? Is that it? And everything else after that is just, “Sit back and enjoy the show”?

I'm not so certain that we can allow ourselves to fall back to that state of existence, where our elected representatives are subsequently elevated to 'dewaraja' (or God-King) status, whose every word we listen to (or sin against). That's the feudalistic system we've kept from pre-Independence Malaya. Are we still feudalistic today? It would be naïve to say we are not. We still are, but only because we've allowed ourselves to (but it wasn't us alone, of course; the State is involved too, but that's another story).

And now, as the global economy reels from the far-reaching aftershocks of the sub-prime fiasco, the Malaysian play of power and political intrigue continues to trample on the little Kancils that we are. But remember that Kancils are not prone to sitting still. It did outwit the hungry Buaya, and so it need not let the Gajahs have a field day at its expense.

No, Kancils cannot sit still. As the Gajahs thunderously go at each other, us Kancils have to be wary (I had mistyped it as w-e-a-r-y; a Freudian slip no doubt). And if we've learned anything from the past seven months and more, all we have to do is to look for the Tikus in our midst and use it to frighten the Gajahs away, or at least to hold them at bay.

Isn't it funny, that when you think about it... Tikus also means Mouse.

There's a Malay adage that goes, “Gajah lawan Gajah, Kancil mati ditengah-tengah.” I couldn't think of a more apt time to use it than now. Seven months after the 12th General Elections, Malaysia and Malaysians are still fixated at the politicking and powerplays of the people's elected 'gods', or 'dewarajas' in our Southeast Asian cultural context. But it hasn't been a boring seven months, I would have to concede.

Text Fahmi Fadzil Photo Myra Mahyuddin