Detoxing myself, with disgust

by azly rahman

I have not had the urge to write for the last three days... at least on my Facebook page. I have decided to digitally detox myself. Here is the reason and my lamentation.

I have been feeling disgusted with the arrests of good Malaysians speaking up for a better world for their children, the blatant abuse of power, the continuing dynastic wars over power and money between the same old same old people, the inability for the leaders of the country to help the people move beyond the intellectual, moral, cultural and spiritual dead ends created by those who have the means to change for the better, and most importantly how fast we are moving towards a police state.

I wrote this as a Facebook status, before detoxing myself for three days:

MADNESS OF BEING GIVEN TOO MUCH POWER

that’s what is happening to my beloved country
and who gave them the power?
the people themselves
from feudal times
and therefore the addiction
Is this our moment of NO EXIT at this point in history...?

We are going down the drain of history with these - bankruptcy, threat of an Isis attack, mass arrests, the rich getting richer and wanting more by choking the poor, denial that our education system needs resuscitation, rise of religious and racial bigotry, and a range of maladies that has a history and that will determine how our future as a nation will be destroyed.

From a political-cultural, political-economic point of view, and the study of soft and raw power the fight between the camp of Mahathir Mohamad and Najib Abdul Razak will be ugly and will be a prolonged war, and will not do any good to the mental and economic health of our beloved country. In other words, I see a darker Spring coming. Yes, bring it on, bring the country down, if that is your plan... I hope not.

But here is the question: Do we have a better choice for a new government?

The current regime has become mad and oppressive, killing what is left of democracy and economic decency; a hunting season and a period of slash and burn we are seeing

But what is the alternative, seriously - with all the strange happenings in the opposition coalition lately? You folks tell me.


The only consolation for each citizen is to be at peace with themselves, to do a ‘personal hartal’ on the goods and services tax (GST) by assessing what one needs and what one wants in life, to reduce, refuse, reuse, to focus on the well-being of the children and family by educating them how to do more with less, to be grateful of what one still have, to look for opportunities in the midst of chaos, to fight the good fight in life, to not neglect the education of the children in hope that they will become good, moral, and productive citizens in a word wherein the filthy rich in power do not care and in fact continue to display arrogance and hideous consumption to show the poor who is in power.

Wealth and power are merely illusions

Most importantly the best consolation is to believe that wealth and power are merely illusions and those fighting for these will perish in ways they have chosen to,  and most importantly to live like a minimalist and an ageing hippie with dignity and to watch less and less TV and to read more and more books and to take care of the well-being of each member of the family... in this crazy world of 1Malaysia run by mad men, mad mullahs, and Mad Max-es in Thunderdomes wearing tanjak and songkok screaming “... Sedition... sedition... sedition... I’m itching all over ... “even for talking bad about Justin Bieber and drawing funny cartoons of Snoop Dogg (now Snoop Lion the Rastafarian) - what a country!!!

But folks... it’s Friday as I am writing this column... a good Friday as well... a Passover Friday... a good Muslim Friday back home, too...  be a vegetarian and that’s a good first step of your war against the GST... stop shopping for things you don’t need... especially those diamond rings, RM1,200 beehive hairdo, new gold plated-toilets in your private jet to ease yourself after torturing the poor, and new gold teeth and a gold bling bling to match your political image...

Come back to our senses. As President John F Kennedy once said, the rich cannot save themselves from the poor if these kinds of arrogance continue. The American Revolution was made out of the slogan ‘taxation without representation’ if one reads the history of the nation. We must learn form other people’s history as well - especially when the poor is not represented in the government of the rich yet taxed heavily to feed the high and mighty.

And for those about to rock, we salute you, as the Australian rock band AC/DC once said.

I wish all of us well, on this good Friday.