I'd call this a Manifesto, but I'm not a Politician
"Let me begin with two quotes from the great Deng Xiao Ping."
Speaker during Forum on Student Activism.
If you do not understand the ironies contained in the above quotation, then may I congratulate you on your:-
(a) Blissful ignorance. I.e., 'Deng who?'
(b)Wonderful pragmatism. I.e., 'So Deng Xiaoping was a great man! He opened up China to capitalism what! So there was the whole Tiananmen Square thing- do you know how high China's GDP growth rate is now?'
(Stop being mean, Nadia)
The Forum this morning, was, in my humble and almost apolitical opinion, a mild disappointment. Everyone I heard said exactly what I had expected them to say.
The daughter of a man currently suffering under 'draconian' ISA detention spoke passionately about the need to abolish such a law. Don't get me wrong, I think that the law, like all those other 'draconian' laws (the OSA, AUKU) are obsolete, mildly ridiculous and make a mockery of our supposed 'democratic' system where one should be presumed innocent until proven guilty, where the government should make information, such as economic demand projections and air quality levels publicly accessible and where students, one of the engines of civil debate, should be allowed to voice their opinions as part of their learning processes before they de-evolve into mindless Sing- err...I mean, mindless zombies incapable of intellgent discourse. However, I couldn't help but hope that her talk wasn't filled with what I now think are 'Reformasi movement' soundbites and stock phrases. Where any mention of those laws is preceded by 'draconian', where any mention of the ISA is accompanied by a mention of her father (who, my slightly-jaded mind thought, didn't give two hoots about the ISA when he was in a position to change it) and where student activism is always associated with the movement for which she is, whether you like it or not, the (intelligent, and perhaps endearingly naive) poster girl.
Next came the pro-government-but-trying-to-hide-it chairman of an entrepreneur association. So yes, one must be pragmatic or die. Yes, we all have our responsibilities and we should all concentrate on them. And maybe, just maybe, he had a point, except...forgive me for being anal, but horrendous grammar does influence the effectiveness of one's message. It becomes garbled, and you might run the risk of sounding less intelligent than you actually are. Also, I must say that I thought that the 'As long as the Economy is running like the proverbial well-oiled (or rather, greased with the blood, sweat and tears of a few thousand souls not receiving their share of the pie) machine, who cares about the other stuff' argument would actually go down well with the Yuppies amongst us, but perhaps less so with people who had sacrificed their Saturday mornings to attend a political forum.
The democracy activist though, was in my book (go ahead and call me biased) the most coherent and intellectually convincing speaker. Unfortunately, as much as I would like student activism to be what it once was, when Malaysian students had the power to actually act, and occasionally, even change things, I can't help but think- 'then what'? So democracy is installed, (or re-installed depending on how you look at it), we all know that democracy in itself is far from being a flawless system- one can just look at the outcome of the most recent election in the self-proclaimed 'most democratic country in the world'. With the right campaign tactics (and a family member in the right position in the right state), a chimpanzee could get elected as the leader of a country, and apparently, one has.
Which brings me to my point.
I am a Muslim. This may not have been obvious from the outset but I am now stating it explicitly. As a Muslim, my faith entails that everything I do, everything that I am, everything I wish for, should be done for one object- my Deen. I believe that the perfect system of governance, of law, of economics, of anything, really, originates from one source and one source only- Allah (and, by extension, the Sunnah). It ain't a popular view, but it's what I believe is right. And as long as democracy, liberalism, secularism or any man-made ideology remains within the bounds of Islam, I can't say that I am against it. So this is where my politics lie. I wish I had enough knowledge to explain it well, but I recently found a pretty good exposition of Hudud and a bit of the Islamic state debate here. It might dispel some fears, and myths, inshallah.
This does not mean, however, that I am now sourcing for the nearest Kalishnikov supplier. On the contrary, everyone has their own responsibilities in Islam- to one's family, to one's community, to one's country, and ultimately, to God. Tots and I hashed this out on the tube back from the forum- the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) didn't establish the Deen, and in doing so, one of the most successful civilisations of the world, via aggression (Orientalist opinion to the contrary). In fact, he spent 13 years in Mecca attempting to build the best generation of people known in Islam. And neither did he then go out and attempt to convert the rest of the Arab world by 'civil protests'.Nor did Islam spread throughout a greater part of the world (while, I may add most of Europe was engulfed in the Dark Ages and debating whether women had souls) via 'terrorist/guerilla' tactics. Change must be gradual- and foundations must be strong. The foundations I believe, lie in getting back to the fundamentals. I may not be out there protesting and running elections, but inshaallah, I know my responsibilities, and if the rest of the 2 billion of the world's ummah did too, who knows what we may be able to achieve. But- scum on the ocean, eh?
I would love to go on like a demented pink rabbit, but I'd rather save some thoughts until they fully develop. I'm truly looking forward for feedbacks. I have to state though, that while the level of my secular education is relatively high, the level of my spiritual knowledge is analogously, below nursery standards. So some questions have to be left to the experts.
Thank you for listening.
nads went at 23:37