The Art of Debate and the Search for Truth
In eastern tradition, the debate is started and everybody ignores the topic and sings his own separate song. There is absolutely no commitment to the topic and when the song ends, everybody is exhausted and defeated at the same time. The achievement in terms of the search for the truth is nil or maybe even negative.
By batsman
The search for Truth and questioning self both often have to go through painful processes of experience, understanding and realization. I suspect both are related even though this is difficult to prove. So it is that the art of debate may also have its revelations in the long and winding search for the Truth.
In western tradition, the debate is started and everybody concentrates on the topic whether in support or in opposition. This way, everybody sings the same song and stay focused and when the song ends, there is a sense of achievement perhaps even a few revelations. This is related to western traditions in many other aspects of life e.g. the advocacy system in law and legislation or even the philosophical concepts of the unity of opposites and especially in their application of checks and balances.
In eastern tradition, the debate is started and everybody ignores the topic and sings his own separate song. There is absolutely no commitment to the topic and when the song ends, everybody is exhausted and defeated at the same time. The achievement in terms of the search for the truth is nil or maybe even negative. Again this is related to many other aspects of eastern traditions and behaviour of which we discuss some below.
This observation is made by some other and not me – “I witnessed a meeting which included every kind of group: Sunni Muslims and heretics, and all kinds of … materialists, atheists, Jews and Christians. Each group had a leader who would speak on its doctrine and debate about it. … I never went back.”
Maybe even the claim that there is no commitment to the topic or to the truth is too much and the conclusion should be a simpler “There is no commitment”. Is this why Chaplain Yusof Estes says that although he loves Islam, the best examples of good Muslim behaviour can only be found in the west?
In religion, most can be said to be sincere, but a few join just to enjoy the protection of the Ummah and to make and profit from business contacts – typical crony behaviour. There is no real commitment even when these same people claim loudly for the whole world to hear that they are willing to die for Islam to support their championship. I am sure this behaviour is found not just in other religions, but in other institutions such as political parties. It is all too common to hear comments such as “Hudud Law may be applied in Malaysia only over my dead body”. Everybody likes to sing his/her own favourite song. Unfortunately it kills debate every effectively.
So it is that in the east, there is the common phenomenon of the “Great Betrayal”. After a hard fight where many sacrifices are made to achieve some small victory, some of the fighters turn into frogs or turn corrupt. This can be seen in all the liberation struggles of the east against western colonialism. This can also be seen not only in opposition parties but also in UMNO where the fight to uplift the Malays has been turned into a dirty crony grab after monopoly of power is achieved.
Can it be said then that the commitment to the Truth is greater in the west and the commitment to anything at all is weaker in the east? Does this conclusion mean that the westerners do everything better than the easterners, including the art of government, the art of debate and maybe even the art of love?
The sad part is that this conclusion actually justifies the ISA. It also gives strength to some westerners’ belief that easterners can compete only by selling their cheap labour or selling their bodies and souls. What do you think? Are you a positivist or a negativist? heeheehee
