You can’t stop progress
Najib and Umno can try to resist the march forward. Malaysia may not quite be the Europe of 1848 or the Arab Spring of late. But progress has come to Malaysia’s shores. And I am not talking merely of economic progress. This is progress of the mind. This is a mental revolution a la that of Europe from 1815 to 1848. And just like what happened in Europe in 1848, the same thing is going to happen in Malaysia. You can either march with Malaysians or Malaysians will march right over you.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
What is progress? That word would mean different things to different people, and also depending on which age and which region that word is being applied to. To some, progress translates merely to economic development. To others, it would have to include the right to same-sex marriages. I suppose progress comes in various degrees and where your boundary ends would be determined by whether you consider we have exceeded the boundaries of decency. Then again, decency itself is subjective. Nude sunbathing would be decent to some and downright indecent to others.
For example, while some societies may consider same-sex marriages as immoral, others would consider polygamy as more immoral than same-sex marriages. A Muslim may argue that polygamy is allowed in Islam and, in fact, is the ‘example’ of the Prophet Muhammad. Some Muslims even go so far as to argue that it is the duty of a Muslim who has the financial means to marry more than one wife. Not to do so when you can financially afford to do so is a sin — as then you are ‘collaborating’ in the sin of unmarried women indulging in extra-marital sex because they are not able to get married.
Whatever it may be, just as morals are subjective, so too would be the concept of progress. But one thing that we can all agree on is: you can’t stop progress. Either you change or change will sweep you aside. And this is what the rulers of Europe found out the hard way in 1848 when the world was rocked by more than 50 revolutions all over Europe and Latin America.
The history of the 1848 revolutions is a most complex story that needs to be traced back to 1789, the date of the First French Revolution. The 1789 French Revolution itself is not really the catalyst for change. It is the indirect result of that Revolution which is. And allow me to explain why.
The French Revolution has always been romanticised and dramatised, mainly because of the influence of Hollywood and the many books that were written about it. But there is a dark side to that Revolution. It was, in fact, a period of many counter-revolutions occurring sometimes mere months apart. Thus the need of a strong leader to end the Reign of Terror and stop the blood that flowed through the gutters of Paris.
We must remember that most of the leaders had already been sent to the guillotine and those who sent these leaders to the guillotine were themselves executed. In a way, over those ten years or so, a leadership vacuum had been created.
Along came Napoleon Bonaparte who had proven himself in a couple of battles. Some were actually not really that impressive but the result of a very successful PR campaign aimed at portraying Napoleon as a larger than life figure. Yes, Napoleon was an excellent spin-doctor and probably invented the concept that politicians today are very much dependent upon.
Napoleon was put in charge of quelling the Paris riots and he not only used the military to do so but also to grab power. In those days, you would not be able to reach the pinnacle of power unless you were born from nobility. Power was inherited and you had to be born into this inheritance. Napoleon proved that that was the ‘old order’. Under the ‘new order’, someone born not from nobility can become the leader of a nation if he knew how to grab power.
To ensure that no one would question his low birth, and hence his legitimacy to rule, he got the Pope to crown him Emperor. The fact that the Pope himself endorsed Napoleon meant that God approved of his Emperorship. Napoleon then grabbed the crown from the Pope’s hands and crowned his wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais, as the Empress. Josephine was a widow, the wife of Alexandre de Beauharnais who was guillotined during the Reign of Terror. Josephine herself was imprisoned in the Carmes prison until her release five days after Alexandre’s execution. Hence that made her a ‘traitor’ to the Revolution and now she was the Empress of France. (It is said that Josephine took on many lovers when Napoleon was away waging war in Europe).
After he took power, Napoleon embarked on enlarging France’s territory and managed to conquer almost the whole of Europe. His mistake was in taking on Russia and that eventually ended his career of trying to become Alexander the Great Version 2.
France’s occupation of Europe brought many changes in attitudes and thinking. Firstly, this triggered nationalist sentiments — Europeans began to aspire for self-rule and independence and the end of foreign rule. Secondly, Europeans began to see how a republican system of government works better and is more just, fair, democratic, etc., compared to an absolute monarchy. Thirdly, Europe went through a period called ‘The Age of Romanticism’ where art, literature, architecture, music, etc., flourished and people were able to express themselves with less censorship (mostly through their works). Debating societies and clubs sprang up where discussions and discourses on politics flourished. Newspapers mushroomed. Fourthly, education was reformed. In the past, education was only available to the elite and not to the masses, and schools were mainly run by the church. Now, everyone was able to receive an education, and under Napoleon, students were encouraged to seek, research and question and not just absorb what they were taught like a sponge.
Napoleon’s occupation of Europe and the reforms he brought to those countries that France occupied planted the seeds for reforms. The old order was rejected in favour of the new order. Progress had finally come to Europe after more than 2,000 years of the ‘dark ages’ since Roman times. And it was Napoleon who brought this progress by conquering Europe and by exporting France’s concept of liberty, freedom, equality, and peoples’ power to those countries.
After Napoleon’s defeat, the nobility tried to reverse the damage that Napoleon had done. And they tried to do this through the 1815 Congress of Vienna. One of the objectives of the Congress was to achieve a balance of power so that no nation can ever again harbour expansionist aspirations. In the event that what Napoleon did ever happens again, then the other countries would unite against that country. It was a sort of United Nations or European Union.
The second objective of the Congress was to challenge the rise of liberalism and bring Europe back to the pre-1789 days of conservatism where, under the old order, the monarch and not the people ruled. The nobility in 1815 underestimated the peoples’ resolve. The old order no longer worked. The people wanted the new order. And in 1848, when the economy and many banks collapsed and unemployment grew, the people rose and the world saw more than 50 revolutions all over Europe and Latin America.
Yes, the post-1815 era saw progress. But with progress came new ideas and aspirations. If Europe had been kept in the dark and the people remained uneducated and ignorant like in the pre-Napoleon days, then the nobility could have perpetuated the old order and could have continued to rule.
Hence progress and education are bad. It opens the minds of the people. It allows them to think. It offers them a dream. It breeds aspirations for better living conditions, better working conditions, a better future, a just society, more freedom of thought and expression, less censorship, and more importantly, freedom to choose.
Hence, you can’t stop progress. And once you achieve progress you can’t stop the ‘ills’ that come with progress. Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and Umno had better understand this. What you are seeing today in Malaysia is what Europe saw from 1789 to 1803, from 1803 to 1815, and again from 1815 to 1848, the various periods of change in Europe — The Age of Romanticism, The Napoleonic Wars, The Industrial Revolution, and the Age of Revolutions.
Najib and Umno can try to resist the march forward. Malaysia may not quite be the Europe of 1848 or the Arab Spring of late. But progress has come to Malaysia’s shores. And I am not talking merely of economic progress. This is progress of the mind. This is a mental revolution a la that of Europe from 1815 to 1848. And just like what happened in Europe in 1848, the same thing is going to happen in Malaysia. You can either march with Malaysians or Malaysians will march right over you.
This is my message to Naijb, Umno, Barisan Nasional, Pakatan Rakyat, and all 28 million Malaysians. The monarchs and nobility leadership of Europe slept from 1815 to 1848. And when they finally woke up it was too late. The march had begun. And they found that they had been left behind as the people marched forward.
No, it was not the politicians who brought this change to Europe in 1848. Of course, some people had to lead the march and events were not really as spontaneous as what some might think. But it was not as coordinated either. And there was no real organisation to speak about. It was just hordes of people, who had had enough, getting together to take matters into their own hands and forced change upon a leadership that was resisting change.
