Our Failings
Art Harun
“And as the flames climbed high into the night; To light the sacrifical rite; I saw Satan laughing with delight; The day the music died.” — American Pie – Don McLean
And so, this is what has become of us. A nation where the music has long since died.
We have banished our conscience at the foot of political expediency. We have long since been only moved to claim what is ours or what we believe to be ours and ours alone. We have long since been only moved to protect our rights or what we believe to be our rights.
We have been indoctrinated to think and we do think that everything in this land has a proprietary right attached to it. And we draw a line. These are mine. Those are yours. And into my area you should not encroach. We are like wild dogs pissing everywhere to mark our territory.
We have also been taught to differentiate fellow humans based on the colours of the skin. And the faith that we bear. And the language that we speak. And we now believe that only us and us alone are right. Everybody else is wrong. And we also now believe that only us and us alone matter. Everything else does not.
Soon we realise that we even have to own our race and the colour of our skin. We also have to own our language. That is sacrosanct. It cannot be Bahasa Malaysia nor Bahasa Kebangsaan. It has to be Bahasa Melayu. Because that is us. Because that language belongs to us. That is ours. We must possess it. We must not let it go. And we piss and we piss, drawing lines to mark our territory. While others have gone to the moon and back.
Now we own our faith. And our God. We now piss all over to mark and re-mark our territory, again and again. And again, this is our territory. Ours. Mine. Not yours. And don’t you dare encroach into my area. Because you have no right over what is mine. You had better get away from it.
