Marsh Hero Mentality

This is the famous kiasu and kiasi mentality. It is built into the culture by centuries of conditioning and even if some modern Malaysians think themselves well educated and free of it in a modern sense, it still manifests itself in a hundred ways in current thinking and behaviour of daily life. 

By batsman

When I was studying for my degree, a good friend gave me a copy of a translated version of the Heroes of the Marshes. I found it fascinating and was not surprised Mao himself was a fan. As it turned out however, Mao never imprisoned himself inside the ideas and attitudes of a centuries old docu-drama. In his head, he formed the strategic ideas of guerrilla war transforming into mobile war and finally into conventional war in successive stages of the Chinese Revolution. 

In Malaysia, we too need to think of going through successive stages in our reform movement. There is altogether too much static thinking. 

I cite as an example the fact that there is a perceptible increase in chauvinistic comments after MT opened itself to new commentators and especially so after Ridhuan Tee came up with his own article. This is in addition to the old battle axes who are only very slowly beginning to open up their oxygen deprived narrow minds. 

I see this as an inability to go beyond the confines of the initial tsunami of the 12th GE. There are too many free-ranging anarchistic Marsh Heroes out there and it is this, I would like to discuss. 

Chinese culture throughout the ages has been shaped and characterized by conditions of a corrupt and oppressive Confucian bureaucracy in league with wealthy and rapacious nobles and landlords. Ordinary people handled such suffocating oppression by bowing their heads and learning to look the other way. Others handled this inescapable misery by cooperating with the rascals and betraying their neighbours and friends. This is the famous kiasu and kiasi mentality. It is built into the culture by centuries of conditioning and even if some modern Malaysians think themselves well educated and free of it in a modern sense, it still manifests itself in a hundred ways in current thinking and behaviour of daily life. 

This is important because Malaysian conditions of corruption, abuse of power and oppression now closely resemble those of ancient China and Malaysia is becoming a despotic state of the kind that encourages kiasu and kiasi behaviour from its citizens. 

On the other hand, Chinese classical literature is just the opposite. It is characterized by unselfish heroic deeds and dare-devil rebels such as those of the Marsh Heroes. One could say that the reality of daily life in Chinese culture is dominated by females while Chinese literature is dominated by the male warrior hero. 

This jarring contradiction of centuries old Chinese culture between the real oppressive misery of daily life and the fantasy of heroic literature can only be manifested in some people developing a kiasu and kiasi mentality but with big mouths spewing chauvinism and self-glory. Such characters are even described in modern Chinese literature by writers such as Lu Xun in his classical depiction of the traditional Chinese fool called Ah Q. 

In making such an appraisal, I hope that I do not seem to be picking on Chinese culture as such. After all, Malay culture managed to create and sustain UMNO and Indian culture managed to come up with the MIC. So I hope silly people do not continue to harp on this. 

In Malaysia, it is time to break out of the heroic expression of millions of individuals of the 12th GE period and recognize that it is time to start serious organizing efforts. The time for free-ranging anarchistic individual heroes is coming to an end and must give way to the discipline and organization of political parties for it to be possible to go on to the next stage of the reform movement in Malaysia. 

After all, the political parties of the PR have done their jobs up to this stage by putting aside their differences and promising to cooperate under a common agenda. This is in line with the demand of the people for a healthy 2 party political system that is responsive to the needs and voice of the people. 

It is also true that the organizational structures of the political parties are still weak with some branches existing only in name and with very little activity and money to do anything useful or important. 

Most members at the branches have their jobs and the daily struggle to put food on the table to distract them from spending more time with party work. In addition any activity often involves spending hard earned money out of their own pockets. 

This is in sharp contrast with UMNO grass roots organizations which have plenty of money to pay for volunteers and those who are able to push themselves forward can look towards a life of ease and plenty with profitable contacts and contracts to exploit. 

If the organizational foundations of PR political parties are still weak, it is no surprise that there will still be some difficulty finding good candidates for the upcoming elections and even if candidates are found, there is no strength of discipline and close ties and bonds at the grass roots to make sure these candidates do not turn into frogs. 

Yet there are still free-ranging individualistic heroes who think it is a grand thing not to be associated with any political party and claim independence to criticise whosoever they so wish. Unfortunately most of the time they spew ill disciplined chauvinistic vehemence and filth. Such kiasu and kiasi individuals who are too fearful and too cowardly to commit themselves to discipline and concerted effort can only play a destructive role at the present stage of the struggle especially if they open their big mouths and spew forth chauvinistic comments and ideas that are at odds with the policies and ideals of the PR. 

For this Malaysia Today must carry some of the blame because RPK himself is in many ways the ultimate Marsh Hero and warrior and his admirers here on MT try to emulate his model of independence from any political party and criticizing all and sundry. 

This is a tragedy because while RPK and MT have a definite role to play as independent webmasters, websites and NGOs, their fan base are hardly an organized disciplined lot and exist only as a loose gaggle of confused individuals drawn towards the attraction of a charismatic and heroic character. They do not even exhibit the coherence of ideas that these independent websites try to foster let alone discipline and commonality of effort and purpose. What they do exhibit is a propensity for self glory and anarchistic heroism which when it crosses a certain boundary begins to turn into delusion and fantasy. 

The greater the tragedy when such delusional individuals actually seem to be people of means, education and talent. Apart from their aversion to discipline and commitment, they have quite a lot of potential to contribute substantially towards the reformation. 

I hope that by now most people will realise the urgency of turning the struggle from one of individualistic effort and aversion to organization and discipline to one of submitting to organization and discipline. This is the best way now to make sure the struggle carries the momentum of the tsunami of 2008 forward successfully. 

This is the time of the political parties, so people, go forth and choose a party to submit yourself to.