My response to this article in The Nutgraph.

Dear Deborah,
Thank you for taking your time to write to us. I really appreciate that you take your time to look at your work objectively and it really reflects in your articles.

Allow me to defend my fellow Malaysians for a moment. A lot of us grew up learning that submission to higher authority was the key to a better Malaysia. We grew up during scandals of Pewaja, Judicial Crisis and the infamous Anwar trials. Everywhere we turned we were facing corrupt cops, corrupt system, corrupt politicians.

Malaysia has to be the only country in the world that every Malaysian know every dirty little dirty laundry of the government and is discussed at every Mamak stall.

When we turned to religion – we were again found that our choices were again taken away from us. Especially for Muslims we have our rights stripped away from us. But the fact of the matter is, no one is even allowed to question these rules whether they are even truly Islamic at all!

The result – we Malaysians are a jaded bunch. We are cynical of everything and we don’t trust the system. So at every opportunity we try to beat it.

The result, from every single parking ticket to the ministerial appointment – we just don’t believe in it. Our lives is spent trying to make the most of what we have.

But something happened in the last decade. Malaysians became more organised. They realised they are not alone in thinking that there is a lot of pent up frustrations around them. Years of neglect by the people whom they voted for some of them came to the realisation that – thinks may never change so they accepted their fate. Others however wanted change so bad their voices in the dark grew louder.

So you see dear Deborah, its not hard to understand why Malaysians seldom take middle ground in anything. Most of us are just kids rebelling against the elders for the first time in their lives. We never learnt the subtle art of diplomacy – it was either submit or resist.

With every single avenue such as mainstream media, police, MACC, EC (and even the royalty) under the tight leash of the ruling party its hard to voice our opinion and be head. So when we do voice it out, how can we not be biased ?

In fact I find most Malaysians most restraint because they have been putting up with our leaders under the most difficult conditions and yet give respect to them instead of throwing sandals like in other country. In return, this respect is paid back by unleashing the police, firing tear gasses at women and children and arresting lawyers.

Unfortunately Deborah, my fellow Malaysians don’t know when to stop. They dump everyone they come across into the same bowl and come out with stinging critiques to friend or foe. How could they – they never learnt rationalisation. When you write something they like – you’re a hero. If not – you are devil incarnate. Nothing is taken with a pinch of salt and taken time to reflect.

Look on the bright side Deborah. For the first time in the lives of most Malaysians, old and young, we are truly expressing ourselves – because powers that be cannot stop us. They can kill our spirit, they can kill our body – but they cannot kill the idea of a better Malaysia. And this Deborah, why you and I are here.

Deborah, I believe its apt to finish with the lyrics from Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start The Fire (for those who are used to this song, it is about the defining moments in US history…) :

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio

Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

Rosenbergs, H-Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, "The King and I", and "The Catcher in the Rye"

Eisenhower, vaccine, England’s got a new queen
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye

CHORUS
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it

Josef Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc

Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dacron
Dien Bien Phu Falls, Rock Around the Clock

Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn’s got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland

Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev
Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the Suez

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, Bridge On The River Kwai

Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California Baseball,
Starkwether, Homicide, Children of Thalidomide

Buddy Holly, Ben Hur, Space Monkey, Mafia
Hula Hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go

U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it

Hemingway, Eichmann, Stranger in a Strange Land,
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion

Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatlemania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson

Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British Politician sex
J.F.K. blown away, what else do I have to say

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock

Begin, Reagan, Palestine, Terror on the airline
Ayatollah’s in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan

Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide
Foreign debts, homeless Vets, AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz

Hypodermics on the shores, China’s under martial law
Rock and Roller cola wars, I can’t take it anymore

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning since the world’s been turning.
We didn’t start the fire
But when we are gone
It will still burn on, and on, and on, and on…

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire…

The meaning to the lyrics above is available here : http://www.school-for-champions.com/history/start_fire_facts.htm

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