Dotmyhome’s Weblog

Obama has won! It’s official. McCain has conceded. As at the time of writing, BBC reports Obama at 338 electoral college votes to 155 for McCain. There are so many firsts in this win. That he’s a black man is a given. And also gives me hope for my country. But more than that, he won on the politics of hope. NOT the politics of fear; something which we see too much of in this country.

1. The fact that a black man won the Presidency of arguably the most powerful country in the world gives me hope that people CAN evolve out of fear into a state where the nation matters more than the community.

2. The politics and campaign of Barack Obama has been centred around unity, hope, oneness. The same cannot be said of McCain. He championed difference and division. There was a “real” America, according to McCain which automatically implied that there are other parts which are not as authentic. While Obama campaigned for “all” America, black, white, native american, gay, straight, male, female. In a word, inclusion.

We’ve seen that the people of America have rejected that vision of division. But rather opted for the hope of change and the audacity of hope (if I may borrow a phrase). I realise that at present we have leaders who would rather us be divided by race (divide and conquer) but why don’t we try this? Try hoping against hope, not giving in to fear and doing what needs to be done to tell them (our leaders)  that we want a better quality of leader who will lead with hope and NOT with fear. Would it be dreaming too much to ask that for our country as well?

Oh dear. What with princes of the realm fighting each other (http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/11495-malaysian-princes-come-to-blows), fatwa’s on tomboy-ism and yoga, you would think that the country is coming apart at the seams. When we have to pick on threads of the very hemline of the social fabric, you realise that something is horribly wrong in Camelot!

However, with the tone and tenor of the UMNO nominations being maintenance of the status quo in fact and only lip service to change is paid, how does one hope? The easiest thing to do would be to leave. To find another country and settle over there. OR to hope against all hope and understand that sometimes, this message of hope needs to come out of a deepest, darkest sewage of our failed ideas. Leaving the country is something that is only available to a few. The majority will have to stick it out here. And that includes members of my family and yours.

I cannot and will not abandon them until it becomes physically impossible to stay here. When I fear for my life. That’s the line I’ve drawn.

The sheer idiocy and small (in every sense of the word) mindedness of individuals who have the time and “breath” to publish rulings on issues like tomboy-ism and yoga are symptomatic of people who basically are grasping at straws to try and control the environment they live in when the perception is that very environment is OUT of control.

I know that the majority of people are more sensible than that. And I hope they (the religious authorities) realise that Muslims AND non-muslims are laughing at these rulings on tomboys and yoga in the sheer derision they deserve. Islam, a great, peaceful, harmonious spirituality, deserves better.

This is a comment I posted on Marina’s blog. It was in response to an article about Obama and McCain and racism.

“Sigh…racism is pretty much the politics of fear. The fear that one group will have hegemony over another. Uncertainty that the group that takes over or the group in power will be unfair to those because of their race/creed/sex…gosh, you name it…

I do believe there is a lesson to be learnt from Obama’s campaign versus McCain’s.

And that is, it is up to the leaders to draw the line. To tell those they lead that it is unacceptable. And unfortunately, in this country it’s not possible only because we do have a racial system.

My belief is that when you have a system predicated on race as a primary measure of governance, then race WILL BE a factor in everythng we do.

The flip side of the coin is also true. That if you have a system predicated on merit/sex/any criteria then the arguments for betterment will also be framed in that criteria.”

The question therefore is; what is it that WE want? Is race the most important determinant and the fear ? Or is it being Malaysians and looking after EVERYONE?

There is a sense that what is said is not necessarily what is meant. Which is why there is a huge credibility gap in what the government and UMNO espouse as to what the man in the street believes. It’s called institutionalised hypocrisy.

To put it in plain english; “let’s say anything and do anything to make sure we keep ourselves in power so that we can safeguard our own rights and privileges and to hell with everything else. Who cares about what the voters want. We can make up excuses about why we couldn’t do it later.”

Looking at the UMNO nominations that seems to be the case. Fear, Anxiety and suspicion. Everything as negative as it can be. Fear of a loss of power (“Malays will lose their political power and be forever colonised again” or words to that effect). Fear of a loss of money and privilege keep people in UMNO voting for those who are so called, “sanctioned” by the Supreme Council. And to further play up the fear card, SMS-es to people as high up as Datuk Sharir Samad, threatening violence if the “sanctioned” two are not nominated. Fear.

The sad thing is the very thing you fear has a habit of coming to pass. That has been my experience. To play with people’s fears is I believe the lowest you can stoop to. And if you have to pay someone to vote for you…well…that’s just…I don’t have the words to describe the disgust and revulsion I feel.

As for those who want another option, there is still one. There is ALWAYS another option however bleak it may be. Remember this moment and if they truly don’t do anything,  in the next General Election, vote them out!

“A great change is at hand, and our task, our obligation, is to make that revolution, that change, peaceful and constructive for all. Those who do nothing are inviting shame, as well as violence. Those who act boldly are recognizing right, as well as reality.”

This is a quote from John F Kennedy’s Civil Rights Address delivered in 1963. Does this sound about right as to what we citizens need to do?

From that font of eknowledge, wikipeadia; A Zero Sum Game is described and defined as

“In game theory and economic theory, zero-sum describes a situation in which a participant’s gain or loss is exactly balanced by the losses or gains of the other participant(s). If the total gains of the participants are added up, and the total losses are subtracted, they will sum to zero. Zero-sum can be thought of more generally as constant sum where the benefits and losses to all players sum to the same value of money and pride and dignity. Cutting a cake is zero- or constant-sum because taking a larger piece reduces the amount of cake available for others. In contrast, non-zero-sum describes a situation in which the interacting parties’ aggregate gains and losses is either less than or more than zero. Zero sum games are also called strictly competitive.”

Sound familiar? No?

OK, let me then put it this way. Remember our so called “social contract” in Malaysia? The one where the non-malays have to accept “sacrifices” in the name of helping our Malay brothers to achieve parity and therefore reducing the imbalance between the races so that we can all live in harmony?

This is an example of a zero sum game. It presupposes that by race alone, Malays are not able to study hard and aren’t intelligent. That the pie is limited and that we need to carve it up by taking from those who have and redistribute it to the others by “affirmative action.” This led to the NEP which, as part of it’s original mission, undertook to “eventually eradicat[e] poverty…irrespective of race.”A noble one.

But the arbitrary nature in which our top-down system handed out the largesse contributed to it’s failure. Although there are some UMNOputras who would talk it up, in a large part, it’s weaknesses were never addressed. No real institutions were given the authority to administer it in neutrality. Instead, it was open to a whole era of Mahathirism abuse, with our ex – PM and his cronies arbitrarily handing it out to people who were judged to be suitable by a criteria only known to them.

It’s been almost 5 months since I last wrote anything.

Frankly, it’s been a personally challenging time. Work had been a large part of that but things at home could have been better. And of course, what was happening was so confused and tumultous that one more voice in the wilderness was just that…another voice.

But what with the obstinate ignoring of a clamouring public by an increasingly beligerent UMNO, I figured it’s time to revive this blog. Like rantingsbymm.blogspot.com and those who perhaps don’t have such illustrious antecedents, it’s time again to add my voice. Hopefully, like the butterfly effect, this may add to the growing chorus which will eventually get through to some thick skulls.

It’s absolutely ridiculous that our duly elected representatives are more interested in what their PARTY says than what the larger electorate is saying.

I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised as they’re in CYA mode; that is “Cover Your Ass.” UMNO now has the dubious honour of being the party MOST associated with corruption, scandal, ignorance, and total disregard for the grassroots. I say “MOST” because the perception is that ALL political parties within the ruling coalition are tarred with the same brush. But as they say in Cantonese, the “big ghost head” is UMNO.

I mean, any party that can make decisions at the Supreme Council level that can ignore the wishes of the actual party members deserves to lose its place in history.

When you’re an infant and learn how to walk, you trip, you stumble, you waddle unsteadily.

When you have trained your legs and your torso to exercise that peculiar, deliberate un-balancing act we call walking, you eventually get quite good at it. To the point where you can jog, or even run.

For every step we take, we unbalance ourselves, then catch ourselves with the other foot, then unbalance ourselves again and so on. It is an exercise in timing, balance, strength, and muscle memory practice that people, after awhile, forget doing.

Similarly with media freedom.

The cons simply say that too much freedom to discuss anything will give rise to hatred, unneccesary ill will and can even foment violence and a host of other reasons.

The (I wanted to use “detractors and protractors” but that makes them seem like set-squares) pros on the other hand argue that press freedoms or “the fourth estate” are an integral part of a fully functioning democracy to provide checks and balances and, also, a host of other reasons.

Which is true?

As a person muddling through life, I believe (and maybe this is very “Buddhist” of me) that everything seems to be more intertwined than ever. An individual’s life can mirror a country’s. Or vice versa, as it were.

As an individual, we need to be accepting of critique our entire lives. Or we will never improve or become all that we can be. No, this is not an US Army ad. As a child, we’re guided positively by our parents. As young adults, we’re guided by people of influence; teachers, our superiors at work. As people who achieve positions of higher responsibility, then perhaps in the case of politicians, the “rakyat.” Or in the case of those who have a more spiritual bent, God/The Universe.

And even then, you will have some good advice and some bad advice. Not from God. But from more earthly manifestations. Poor God already has so much laid at his doorstep with all the God Willing/Insyaalah’s that he get’s due to car accidents to motorcycle pile ups when in actual fact the person was just plain careless or unthinking.

Similarly, with the bigger picture, everything communities do is subject to critique. Some of it good. Some of it bad. It’s up to us to sort out the “chaff from the wheat.” And then decide what to do with it.

There are people in this world who live in fear of criticism. These are the individuals who lash out at every perceived slight. Who change friends like their underwear because on one day you’re in and the next you’re out because of the slightest disagreement. In individuals, this is considered most childish. Why is it then ok when our government does this? Why does the government live in that suspicion and fear? Because that’s what it is. The funny thing about fear is that when you live in fear about something, it usually happens. Weird, right? But it’s true. It’s like a self fulfilling prophecy.

Try it next time and see.

Everyone, the “kerajaan,” public bodies, communities, mat rempit, everyone, can benefit from an open press. Things, like the first televised parliament, will be chaotic to begin with, like the time we learned to walk as kids, but will eventually settle down to an equilibrium of pros and cons. Our people will start debating the issues intelligently and understanding what it is that they themselves need rather than be told what they need like a child. At which point, you will have a more informed populace who will then take responsibility for their own actions rather than rely on the “nanny state.” And a First World Government.

Had a glimpse of Parliament on TV yesterday.

For those who have not seen British, Australian, or even Taiwanese Parliaments in action, it would have been shocking.

Even for Parliamentarians who have grown up over the last generation, unused as they are to the rough and tumble of parliamentary politics, it would have been an experience which would not have been a happy one.

I feel that most of us would expect our country’s highest legislative body to have decorum in spades and also very polite people discoursing and debating in very civil terms about the future of the country.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Parliament IS a fish market. Especially first world parliaments.

The British Parliament, if viewed from the so called Strangers Gallery is nothing more than an avenue for show. There are boos, hisses, catcalls, name calling of the most incisive nature, and all in all, it is a free for all.

Our Information Minister Dato’ Shabery Cheek has basically said that they will do away with the televising of this spectacle as our parliamentarians particularly the opposition don’t know how to behave themselves. What a laugh. Perhaps we should do away with the post of information minister and have a department of information wholly subject to parliament which will then pass on news about the information of government.

First World Parliaments get broadcasted all the time. There’s even a channel in the US that broadcasts ONLY House debates. It’s called CSPAN.

Ever seen the Taiwanese Parliament in action? And I MEAN action…

And Taiwan is a  first world developed nation.

Basically, our government, through it’s information minister mouthpiece has shown again, it’s total lack of understanding of what a democracy is. The politics of fear, of face, of anxiety rule again. What utter silliness.

Yes, there is a lot of nonsense that goes on. Yes, sometimes Bills get delayed due to Filibustering. Yes, sometimes the stuff that get’s debated is procedural. Yes, much of what is said in Parliament is nonsense. But that is the process of a First World Parliament. This happens in developed Parliaments WORLDWIDE. The British are masters of the surgical insult.

It will be messy. Democracy is messy. And the mess should be welcomed, embraced even. Because out of that mess gems and diamonds will be polished and will emerge.

Long live broadcasting of Parliament proceedings.