my comment posted in chedet.com on The Social ContractDear friends,
“AMAZING”, I don’t think there’s any word that is even close to describe what we collectively achieved here as MALAYSIAN. Of course, there were many abusive words, degrading remarks and racial hatred used by many blogger’s and I fully understand, why? They were hurt by some of the remarks posted; emotions were running high and started retaliating with more hatred remarks. I have to congragulate some of the commentators who have written some excellent text worth publishing as a reference material for everyone to read and understand what is The Social Contract is all about. There were many blogger’s lashed out at Tun, labeling him as racist but I believe we just got liberated from the enigma of 50 years. If this discussion was held in 1970’s, I am sure we would’ve had bloodshed and curfew by the second day itself.
What has happen or changed us in the last 30 to 40 years?
We have developed, the country has developed and our thinking has developed.
That is why I strongly believe that the “rakyat’s” success co-relate directly with the nation’s development. When there’s rapid growth and development taking place, rakyat will be automatically educated and our mind opens up to learn something new. We will also have the task of cleaning up all the negative effect’s which comes with development such as social ills, designer drugs, Immoral activities etc but we need to address this problems fast without jeopardizing the flow of the development, not the other way around. Tun is the man who had the vision and guts to carry out some of the most ambitious projects and proved to the so called developed countries that Malaysia exist and we are closing in.
The main 3 races in Malaysia, we are together, we are friends, we are not divided by our ideology or religion, it is the leaders who are instigating us to fight because when there’s chaos, the “rakyat’s” attention will be diverted from them and they will have a peaceful administration. We are being manipulated and diverted over and over again by incapable leaders who are certified bollywood actors and actresses with creative and exciting storyline. There will be something new or exciting in the news paper everyday to keep our mine diverted from the truth and the sad part is 26 million people are silently watching a bunch of adults fighting for position and power and they don’t give a damn about you and me.
If we take some time to sit and look through our past and present “self”, we will realize how much we have changed, we are not the same person anymore, there is so much hatred in our heart, vengeance, arrogance, revenge and believe me, it is not your fault or mine, it is the system and the top administration that went wrong. I was born and raised in a small fishing village in Mersing, Johor. Throughout my childhood and my schooling days, my friend’s are from all races and religion, completely different ideology and way of life but we are all united in one un-breakable bond called “friendship”. The advantage, we had then was we were all equal and no one is superior to the other. I will stay in Ahmad’s house for the weekend, dine with their family, interact with their neighbors and relatives and help them to fix their chicken coop. The next weekend both of us will stay in Ah Chong’s house and finish our homework and help his father sell durians at his stall. At that time, none of the elder’s put any restrictions on us, but we grow to respect each other’s religion and will not cross the sacred line, we are exposed to the do’s and don’ts of Muslim’s, Hindu’s and the Buddhist’s. In a way, we were actually learning about their culture, heritage and religion effortlessly. I still remember, during my form 1 to SRP, we will have “kelas agama” and during this period, all the non Muslim’s are allowed to go out of the class but I will always sit in the class, initially the religious teacher was confused of my presence there but when he ask me why I’m still in the class, I told him “I want to know”, he never asked me again and in fact I was treated as any other students, I have notes and homework too. I learn to write Jawi and quite good with the Islamic civilization and its rich history, although it’s been over 25 years I still can write a few words in Jawi. I didn’t convert into Islam but I have learned to acknowledge and respect another religion and Malaysia, being a multi-racial country with the majority of the population is Islam, I have full understanding of my Muslim friends and know the limitation and the restriction of the religion.
What went wrong?
I think, as the country develops, there are many leader’s who were craving for power and glory, they saw what the general population is doing, they got panic, the fear of a united rakyat is impossible, hard to digest, they had sleepless nights and started implementing laws and restrictions. They are adamant to disrupt the unity of the people by using religion as the core for their political mileage. That is the beginning of the destruction and the word “friendship” becomes a religious word. Nowadays, the kids are entirely different from my childhood days; I have seen an 8 year old boy use some degrading words to a boy from another race. The father of the boy was delighted and encouraging the kid to hurl more bad words. Whose fault is this, the boy, the father, the race, the religion or whoever conditioned the father to be such an evil man.
All of us have someone we look up to as a hero or a role model in our lives. My first hero is my father, my second hero was Tun Dr Mahathir, when he took over as PM, I was in form 1 back in 1981, so obliviously that is the age where u start learning about politic, government and laws, I only see him on the news paper and TV making statements, making new laws, sacking people, solving problems and launching gigantic projects. I think everyone around my age will see him as a hero at that time. Later in life, I completed my studies and start working for a shipping company as a cadet officer and climbed the ladder and finally become a captain of a ship, I have sailed the 7 seas, gained enamors knowledge about the world, seen different types of culture and tradition, stayed in many countries and have friends all over the world and spend 14 years of my life at sea. I would not trade my citizenship in Malaysia with any other country in the world, for me this is heaven because we are very peaceful, friendly and easy going country. Variety of food, a lot of public holidays (ha ha), many festivals, less stressful living condition and the most important, a stable government (not sure about that at present).
I need to say this, in the early 90’s when we go to certain 3rd world country such as Venezuela, Jamaica, Morocco, Tanzania or even Europe, the local people will ask me where I come from, and i say Malaysia, immediately they will ask me where is that place, I have to explain that Malaysia is north of Singapore and south of Thailand. They know Singapore and Thailand but don’t know where Malaysia is. I used to get very annoyed with this people because they don’t know where is my country but a few years later, the whole scenario changed, they still don’t know where Malaysia is but when I say I’m from Malaysia, immediately they will say, “Dr mahathir, always talk a lot and argue with USA, good man”. That moment, your adrenalin starts pumping and you feel like a million dollars, your are proud to be a Malaysian.
I am a fan of Tun, always been but I also have differences in opinion in some of the things he say’s or implement and sometimes not agreeing with certain things that he has done BUT when you look at the magnitude of contribution he has done for the society and the country, not forgetting being more famous that the country itself, that’s another story.
I have a few heroes in life, real experiences, happens years ago but still fresh in my mind. Whenever there are some write-up abt racial problems, kampong Medan incident, breaking temples, I too, get worked up because it’s natural to immediately react but I have perfected a method to take 1 minute silent and see my past and my heroes. I will be able to think and advise people in a very rational way, calm the situation down, buy some time and think of a better way to deal with the matter. I hope I’m not putting you guy’s to sleep with my story but I need to tell this. There are many incidents in our life but very few touches our heart and stays there forever.
Hero 1I was abt 16 years old, my father is a JKR lorry driver, a loyal government servant, worked for 36 years as JKR Lorry Driver and very happy with the RM400.00 penchant he is getting. One day, it was about 8pm in the evening, I was watching TV in the hall and my father and mother were outside sitting under the mango tree and chit-chatting. I heard a woman’s voice screaming tolong, tolong, tolong, immediately I rushed out thinking there was an accident, then I saw the house opposite the road is on fire, the house is the typical malay wooden house and its about 70 meters from my house. I got cold feet, couldn’t move for a few seconds, don’t know what to do, when I compose myself and start running towards the house I realize my father is missing; he is not under the mango tree. I ran towards the house, and I saw the “makchik”, that is what I call her, she is about 65 years old and standing in front of her house, helpless, crying and calling people to help but the fire engulfed the house within 30 seconds. Then the “makchik” was screaming that the 2 kids were still in the house, and started going hysterical. She was taking care of her son’s 2 little kids, one is 2 years old and the other is 4 years old. The entire neighborhood has surrounded the “makchik” but no one is attempting to do anything, everyone is standing still and shaking their head, the fire has completely engulfed the house. That moment I saw someone running out of the house, covered with wet gunny sack and 2 kids, one in each hand. I was stunned because this man has just run through the fire; the wet gunny sack is on fire. He dashed out to safety; drop the kids to the ground and quickly trying to remove the gunny sack which is on fire. The moment he took out the gunny sack, all the neighbors started saying,” Maniam, lu betul betul gila la”, that’s when I realize that my father was the one who brave himself, risked his life and saved the 2 kids. I was in a dilemma for sometime after that because my father although is not racist but he doesn’t care less about the Malay’s or Chinese, he was a typical Indian man with his proud heritage, culture and religion. He had a few burns but everything was fine and we came back home, he never spoke about it at all, my mother is very quiet about it and I was thinking to myself, here is a man who risked his life and saved 2 kids from certain death and there is no commotion etc. When I came back from school the next day, he was lying down on the floor in the hallway, and I asked him, why u ran so fast and went into the house and saved the kids, it is not your family or someone close to you for you to take such a risk. He answered, the only thing that makes us different from them is this skin, pointing towards the skin on his chest, without the skin, we are all the same, u cannot see the differences and by doing that I hope someday when we are in some kind of trouble, there will be someone who will risk his life to save us. There is no race, religion or segregation when helping someone in need, don’t think, just do it, god will be with you.
My perception of my father changed instantly and I told myself that I will be a man like him when I grow up; he is 76 years old now, still smoking, living a happy life and always my hero.
Hero 2I was driving back from Johor Bahru to Mersing, it was about 6.30pm in the evening and the roads are wet and slippery after a heavy downpour. The road to mersing is a very windy road and very lonely at times. I was on a 2 month leave, just came back after signing off from a ship and excited about the new sound system I have installed in my car in JB. I have removed the entire backseat of my car to install it, and need to go back to Mersing to fix back my backseat. As I was driving, I saw a car skidded and plunged into a ravine on the opposite side, followed by a thunderous sound. I knew at that time it is bad news, I immediately stopped and rushed out to help. The car was badly crushed and I feared the worst. It was an Indian family, a man and a woman in mid 40’s and a teenage daughter and son. They look ok, I manage to break the side glass and pull the father and the mother out, followed by the son but the girl was motionless. By that time about 10-15 passer by already gathered and helping the victims. I called for help from the passer by’s and we manage to get the girl out of the car, she was still breathing, but loosing a lot of blood, a deep cut on her face and shoulder, broken leg and arm, she looked bad. As part of our syllabus in merchant marine, we have to learn advance first aid and I did the necessary to stop the bleeding etc but I need to get her to hospital, nearest is Kota Tinggi which is about 35km from here.
I was asking for anyone who can give her a lift to the hospital, no one was ready, my car has no backseat and wires and amplifiers were all over the floor, no way. The moment I start asking for a lift, the crowd started disappearing from the scene, maybe because of the blood, she was soaking in blood. I start waving at the passing car’s and all of them slowed down to see the accident (Malaysian style), but no one wanted to help. The jam already started and I was standing on the road side when a Malay couple stopped to ask me, what happened. He was about 60 year’s old, typical haji with songkok and baju melayu. I was about to answer when I saw an Indian couple in an MPV about 4 cars behind the haji, immediately I told the haji to “jalan, jalan, jangan tunggu sini” because I wanted to ask the Indian couple for help. The MPV didn’t even stop and sped away fearing that I might ask for help, I was dejected and angry and if I had a stone I would have smashed the MPV’s back windscreen. I heard the father of the girl calling me “thambi, thambi, come here”, when I turn around, I saw the haji and his wife by the side of the victim talking to the father. I ran to them and the haji instructed me to carry the girl and put her in his car. I didn’t say a word, we carried her, placed her in the car and the mother and son sat in the car. The car speed off and I followed behind with her father, I never spoke a word until we reached the hospital.
The Emergency Unit immediately took her for treatment and she had a bad head injury and loss of blood, they transfer her to JB General Hospital within half hour. The Haji and his wife was there all along, talked to the parents, console them and told them they will visit her in JB because they are also living in JB. We exchange phone numbers and the family left to JB in the ambulance with the girl. Haji Suleiman, that is his name, put his hand around my shoulder and said, “ Tuhan yang menentukan semuanya, bila kita susah, dia akan hantar pertolongan tapi kita tak nampak dan tak ambil kesempatan, kita ingat semua orang kejam dan pentingkan diri sendiri”.I had tears flowing over my cheek and I ask for his forgiveness for ignoring him and pre judged him that he will not help. We parted and I head back home, while driving I was questioning myself, who is racist now? The girl survived, The haji and his wife visited them in hospital a few times until she was discharged and I spoke to them over the phone a couple of times. I kept in touch with the haji Suleiman and whenever I come back from sailing, I will get for him souveiner’s and we spend hours talking about everything. He was a very wise man, and I learn a lot from him. I was on the ship somewhere in Mexico when I got the news that haji passed away and I felt sad because I couldn’t attend his funeral, he might be gone but his words and wisdom is still fresh in my mind. He was a hero for me.
“All of us will die one day that is the only certain thing in one’s life, humans is a special breed, we can determine how we want to live and even when we went wrong sometimes we have the capacity and capabilities to correct it and do the right thing. If everyone realizes this, we will have a beautiful country and a life full of love”. Quote by Haji Sulaiman.
I want to have a good peaceful life and help the nation to build a better and brighter future for the next generation. There are many capable and selfless people out there find them and make them leaders, we should play a part in making the changes and not just complain and grumble and do nothing about it. The General Election was a good sign that rakyat is taking their rightful charge, please read, listen, and investigate before deciding on something because there are many stories, theories and leaders out there who is using the vast media for their own popularity and selfish gain. Not all are true although it sounds logic and convincing. This is the hardest task for the rakyat and we have to be careful not to be lured by their “sandiwara”
Thank You.
