by Howl Pillay
15 Jan 2021
First a confession...
I am addicted to History. For half a century and more. I see the world through its lens.
Spelt with an “H”, it is about us - race, religion, politics, war, peace,economics, sociology,
anthropology, archaeology, science and technology…. All that we know of ourselves. Thus far.
Enter, COVID-19 in late January 2020 when ushering in the Year of the Rat, the first animal sign
of the Chinese zodiac. The legend is that the Rat outfoxed the Ox, hiding in its ear to be first to
show up at the behest of the Jade Emperor, beating the ox to the draw. Such trickery!
Wuhan? Ah! The combined cities of Wuchang and Hankou on the Yangtze.
The Wuchang Uprising of 1911? That led to the fall of the Ching? Yes, History. Slowly but surely
the virus turns fear into gloom. Pandemic! We don’t panic. Ignorance is bliss. Still time for
politicking.
Then the resignation, driven by hubris and lots of lansi, of that old race horse (pun intended).
More whispers. More rumours. A mad rush to the Palace. Not the Jade Emperor’s. Then like
the zodiac Rat, a new Gomen jumps out the sleeve of the previous one, claiming legitimacy.
There is much indignation all around. What! A backdoor Gomen? What has become of the will
of the people? The Sheraton movers and shakers have more tricks up their sleeves. Remember
the zodiac Rat? They cling to power on the coattails of Covid-19 even as we suspect the stats.
The Westminster model has turned Eastminster.“Oh, East is East and West is West, and never
the twain shall meet”. Shall appoint, may appoint, will appoint….go on debating but the
ironclad rule of the Eastminster model is: “Saya yang berkuasa”. I am in charge now.
The months pass. The statistics are grim the world over. The mighty are on their knees - rich
countries, powerful leaders, whole industries. Billions of the poor suffer in a still prosperous
world. Wealth inequality comes home to roost. And sloth, laziness and wastefulness too.
Closer home, our politics turns rotten by the day, reminiscent of the bitter tussle to become
Sultan of Perak circa 1870. Roaming the length of our first tolled highway, the Perak River,
the claimants, and there were three then, rallied their geng for the bitter fight. Same. Same.
Months later after more shuffling, Saudara Anwar claims he has the Ace, the Chow Kai.
Negara-Ku Najib has the cash. Banyaknya! And Tun M is the Joker in the pack. Game over?
No lah! Like in the ending scene of Animal Farm, Abah Mu throws a King on the table. Kantoi!
Meanwhile, the “Never waste a crisis” politicians of the world are running riot. But ours
are a class act, putting to shame the wily traders of the flea-ridden Kabul Camel Market.
By now the Pandemic has taken us by the collective scruff of our necks, its vice-like grip,
unrelenting.
The mosques go quiet, church bells fall silent and priests offer prayers in empty temples.
The faithful pray in their hearts while the atheists smile at the impotence of the Divine.
More shops and SMEs shutter up; the economy nose-dives. Debt piles up. Apa lagi Covid
mau?
The new Gomen empties the coffers to stay in power. Taxpayer’s money is handed out
to the rakyat jelata, now the personified MakCik Kiah, running a warong. What of the Achi
hawking Indian food from a gerai? Curry favour, she is told. The wanton mee lady?
In a hotpot surely.
But there is not enough money to kill two birds with one stone and have enough left over
to line their own pockets and that of the geng. The rakyat jelata is now told by the quinoa
eating politician, “If you can’t eat nasi, eat your EPF”. Common man vs Conman, huh?
No points for guessing the winner. To save themselves the rakyat jelata must cannibalise
their future. Sama macam Gomen kita. You have a problem with that? It's not hard to do with
some practice: lift right leg, take aim and kick that bloody can down the road.
Susah ke bruder?
By now the rakyat jelata should know that the ancient war cry of “Agama, Bangsa dan
Negara”, so beloved of our ruling politicians is merely a cover for the three Akus: Untuk
kroni Aku, Keluarga Aku dan Aku. The rakyat jelata are merely the screen for such
skullduggery.
Enough of Aku punya Gomen! Business as usual has no future. Like a giant spotlight,
the pandemic has exposed the good, bad and ugly. We have a front row view of History in
the making. The next act in the drama will take the stage shortly. Now it's intermission time.
We wait with bated breath. Who will save us with a vaccine? There is time yet for a peek
at History. Yes, we have survived wars, famines, diseases and climate change. Long ago, we
even survived near-extinction by trekking out of Africa, reduced to a few thousand breeding
pairs.
And we are heir to the same emotions experienced by that ragged band of early
humans - joy, sadness, avarice, envy, anger and all other thoughts and feelings too.
Like them, we too can smell a rat a mile away like when the Gomen called the deferment of
loans as aid.
Stage and set have changed many times since those very early days but we kept faith with
the human spirit. Then enter ideology via politics and religion. Envy, fear and hatred of the
other is the new binding agent. Mind control is the new power tool. Down with Hammer and
Sickle!
But our sixth sense never fails to warn us that when others control our minds, they rule it;
that those who rule our minds, rule the world. Witness the endless ranks of suicide bombers
with their brainless minds. In the midst of the pandemic, bombs go off in the name of peace.
That tough trek out of Africa with its many twists, turns, and dead-ends, scattered us around
the globe. It shaped our very being. In faraway places, in forgotten time we came up with
language, art, literature and modes of thinking that were peculiar to a place and a people.
Our differences are many. Celebrate! The free human spirit is universal. Celebrate! Science
and technology belongs to all mankind. Celebrate! Different people can live together by
accepting, not subjugating the other. We are not nails to be hammered down for sticking out.
The current world population is 7.8 billion. That’s a lot of people and a lot of differences.
We should not even try to make us all believe the same things and act and think the same
way. Sisyphus belongs to myth, not modern reality. Shame on those who preach otherwise.
Shame!
There is movement on the stage of History in the making. The vaccine-men are here
bringing the gifts of a free mind bent on saving bodies and not souls! We see five men on
the stage wearing lab coats. All of them scientists, holding vials not magic wands and amulets!
The first of the five is Chinese. Surprised? Many are of the view Chinese citizens under the CCP
have closed minds. Wrong! Through the ages, highly bureaucratic dynastic rule kept a tight grip
on society. To survive and prosper individuals kept their minds open and sharp.
There is not a place you cannot see them run a business or practise their craft. To succeed in
foreign places you must surely take the world as it is. Open-mindedness at its best! To say it
again, the Chinese under the CCP are an open minded people living in a closed society.
Next to him, a European. The product of the Age of Enlightenment; of centuries of fighting
to free his body and his soul from oppression by Kings, dictators and corrupt Gomens. A work
in progress but without a doubt open minded and living in a society kept open with Rule of Law.
To his left is an ugly American, holding a thick pile of papers, perhaps a contract. He looks
like the European, a product of Old Mother Europe. On the wild side and mercantile to the
extreme, he comes from an open society where open minds from the world over, flourish.
The Russian is unmistakable in this group. Taciturn and aloof his eyes shine with a sense
of self containment. Independence even. He is clutching a handful of vials in either hand
all proudly marked ‘Made in Rossiya” and stamped “For Internal Use Only”. Russia is forever!
In the midst of this group is an Indian, lean and wiry with eyes that yearn for engagement and
dialogue. And this will surprise many - the Indian lives in an open society but half of them have
closed-minds that endlessly hark back to a past they see as good and virtuous.
The paths of these five men have criss-crossed many times in seminars, symposiums, research
labs and universities. They share one thing in common - an unquenchable thirst for knowledge
and understanding. In their open minds and their hearts the human spirit is alive and well.
And us? Will we ever share the stage with the other five gentlemen? The honest answer:
we missed the boat when al-Ghazali wrote "The Incoherence of the Philosophers" in the
eleventh century, rejecting in full Neoplatonic thought and Aristotelian philosophy.
Prior to this, the early luminaries of the Islamic world like al-Farabi and Ibn Sina were staunch
exponents of harmony between faith and philosophy; of reason and religion. Then al-Ghazali
brought it crashing down. But not without a fight. The flame still flickered, refusing to die.
Decades later, the polymath Ibn Rushd, Averroes to the Western world, wrote a direct refutation
of al-Ghazali, "The Incoherence of the Incoherence" to restore the old balance. Rejected in the
Islamic world, the book influenced thinkers in the West for centuries.
Dreams for a proud and prosperous nation shattered, our lives have been reduced to that
ending passage in "The Great Gatsby": So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back
ceaselessly into the past.
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