Many Will Drop Out But Many More Still Will Join

By batsman 

Although RPK has a somewhat cynical opinion of politicians, not all politicians are cads or opportunists. The political struggle is a complex one and people need to understand some basics.

I like to compare it to a journey. When people go for a tour, there is a very great likelihood that somehow quarrels, dissatisfaction and unhappiness will surface, especially if the tour consists of strangers from all sorts of backgrounds and needs. If the journey is a long one or an expedition, even more complex episodes and stories will occur and people will drop out from exhaustion, desertion, splits and quarrels, differences in timetables, resources and commitments and so on. Not all will complete the expedition from start to end. However, most journeys or expeditions still give good results. A political struggle is somewhat the same. 

I like to classify people into 5 categories for convenience in describing the political journey. 

The first category are the non-starters. They are the silly, the unconcerned, the apathetic, the overly busy, the disinterested, the cynical, the uninformed, the ignorant, the marginalized, the contented, the antagonists and the otherwise occupied, the lost and those without hope. These will only join the bandwagon when some sort of tragedy or earth shaking event knocks on their door. 

The next group are the crooked, the greedy, the corrupt and the opportunistic. They will also drop off quickly depending on their appetite or ambition. Most will turn into frogs very early on (the minute there is some temporary success) although some crooks can cling on to the bandwagon for quite a long length of time depending on how great their ambition is. 

The 3rd group are the weak, the weak-minded, the demoralized, the tired, the small minded, the small hearted, the revengeful, the manipulated, the tricked, the seduced, the satisfied and the self-interested. Most of these people get what they want from whatever small improvements that are achieved whether it is more attention, less suppression, too much pressure, enough goodies thrown their way or a big promotion and they drop out or split. 

The 4th group are the true nationalists and professionals. They are fed up of seeing the country racked by corruption, petty racial and religious quarrels and yearn for a truly united and successful country working as one. If they succeed, these are the people who will form the backbone of the new government and the new order, but they will not go further than working to see the country being competitive, successful and progressing fast, not pulled back by internal quarrels. Most of the strongest people in the PR will be from this group. Further when people see hope that corruption and abuse can be successfully fought, many more will join the fight. The tide will be turned. Those who were non-starters or who had no hope before will be eager to join the fight against prejudice, abuse and corruption. 

The last group are the idealists. They are the ones who will push to go the farthest. They have a vision for the country that goes beyond being competitive, successful, progressing fast and not pulled back by petty internal squabbles. Most of such ideals will be of a spiritual, cultural or social nature. They see it as pointless to be rich and successful but without a soul or to be surrounded by unhappiness. These people will shrink from spiritual and cultural corruption of society especially those imported from what they see as the decadence and sinfulness of the west or inherited from medieval times. Most of these people will be from PAS but will also include other types of idealists including who have no religious backgrounds as well. Some claim that DAP socialists can be included in this category, but I personally doubt very much that DAP socialists are such idealists. I may be wrong. 

The problem with these idealists are that they may actually drop out early in the beginning of the journey especially if they lack patience, when their idealism overrides their judgment, or if their understanding of the struggle is weak. Such people will push for the satisfaction of their ideals even before all the previous stages are achieved – even before the biggest obstacle of all to getting rid of corruption is still entrenched as absolute power in government, wielding all the power it needs to practice corruption and stamp out idealism. 

There are some major problems to achieving idealistic goals, whether religious, cultural or social. The understanding that idealistic goals cannot be achieved by force is badly needed. Once force is employed, idealism goes out the window. Without a good understanding and full appreciation of the difficulty, the subtlety and problems involved, there will be an underestimation of the strength and patience needed for the struggle and short cuts will be attempted. Idealism can only be achieved by respect, consensus, consultation and agreement. It cannot be achieved by trying to force beliefs and practices on lost people who lack ideals, but by example and successful projects and programmes starting with small but convincing projects and exercises. If there are no successful practical models to convince people, it is pointless to force non-believers or beginners to achieve idealistic goals. 

However, even nationalistic governments will not tolerate things like fraud, prostitution and drug abuse. As members of government concerned not only about monetary corruption but corruption of the spirit, culture and society, idealists have the right to demand a minimum of decency in the social environment. Such a minimum is open to interpretation and will have to be negotiated with others of different faiths, culture or ideals on a progressive basis – as an when the situation improves, a new level of decency may be aimed for. 

Idealism is the most difficult and takes the longest to achieve because it involves changing people, their habits, their values and beliefs. Short cuts are appealing but dangerous and apt to backfire. As it stands, people have to be properly briefed, properly motivated and properly informed to get even the most simple agreements, but that is the nature of idealism. If it were not difficult to achieve, it would not be a worthwhile ideal. Not only that, successful real life achievements speak volumes for themselves. 

With this, many who call themselves idealists will also drop out along the way, but many more others still will join up because every new level of decency achieved will serve as encouragement for a multitude. Those who drop out however will turn into impatient cynics skilled in using the language and arguments of idealism but actually practicing short cuts and employing force to get what they want. The struggle will be complex and difficult, but there is little choice in the matter as the present abuse, sin and corruption is beyond the tolerance of even the most patient decent person and there will be no improvements at all without struggle against evil. Once the tide is turned, evil will be on the run.