Malaysians are an emotional lot

So carry on and be emotional. That is your right. You can be emotional about your religion. You can be emotional about your language. You can be emotional about your culture, customs and traditions. You can be emotional about your prejudices and superstitions. You can be emotional about your gender. You can be emotional about your sexual orientation and preferences.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

A reader by the name of ‘Joseph George’ posted a comment in my article ‘Where the fuck is Anwar Ibrahim’s statement?’ saying that I get very emotional when the subject (or discussion) is regarding the Monarchy (or Rulers).

I would have thought that passionate (and not emotional) is the correct word to use considering that I have been carrying the cause for change for about 35 years when most Malaysians such as Joseph George woke up only very recently in 2008. To be able to stay with a cause for 35 years you certainly have to be very passionate about that cause. If not you would have moved on a long time ago.

Anyway, most if not all Malaysians are emotional about one thing or another. Hence it is not surprising that I would be emotional about the subject of the Monarchy if that is how Joseph George would like to describe it. After all, I have never denied that I am a Royalist at heart and offer no apologies for being one. I mean, would I condemn you for being a Republican and should you apologise for being one?

I respect your right to be a Republican, as you should respect mine to be a Royalist. This is what a democratic and civil society is all about — something I have been propagating for a long time now and which appears to escape most people.

As I said, most if not all Malaysians are emotional about one thing or another. Hence allow me to be emotional (although I would claim to be passionate rather than emotional) about my cause and you can be emotional about yours as well. That is called respect for each other’s fundamental liberties.

The Malaysian Hindus are emotional about their temples and would masuk hantu (go berserk) if the authorities demolish any of their temples even though that temple may be squatting on other people’s land.

The Malaysian Chinese would also masuk hantu if the government denies them what they consider as their right to Chinese schools and Chinese education although some people regard mother-tongue education as a hindrance to racial harmony and national unity and although in other countries such as the UK mother-tongue education is not an issue to the Chinese.

The Malaysian Christians are emotional about being allowed to use the Kalimah Allah (the Allah word) although Christians in other parts of the world would not be emotional about this issue and, in fact, would refuse to use Allah for God and would even consider it an insult if, say, the Church of England uses Allah in its sermons in church.

The Malaysian Muslims are emotional about the Christians wanting to use the Allah word because they regard it as a clandestine move by Christians to proselytise Muslims.

The Umno members are emotional about the ABU (Anything But Umno) movement because they regard this as an attempt to end Malay political dominance and thereafter abolish Malay privileges and remove Islam as the religion of the Federation and later abolish the Constitutional Monarchy in favour of a Republic.

The Penang Chinese are emotional about maintaining a Chinese government in Penang and they switched from MCA to Gerakan and now to DAP every time they see an erosion of Chinese political power and Umno becoming too strong in Penang. (Anwar Ibrahim himself said so).

And Anwar Ibrahim is emotional about becoming the Prime Minister of Malaysia and he would work with anybody who can assure him that his dream can materialise.

Some say that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is emotional about maintaining his legacy and in assuring that his dynasty would continue in the spirit that Malaysian politics is very dynastic in nature for both the ruling party and the opposition.

So you see, at the end of the day, everyone is emotional about one thing or another. And this is the beauty of a democratic and civil society. You are allowed the right to be emotional about your cause.

The Bersih activists and supporters are allowed to be emotional about the general elections and even allowed to declare the present government illegal although in the Westminster first-past-the-post system the party that gets to form the government is the one that wins the most number of seats and not the one that wins the most popular votes.

So carry on and be emotional. That is your right. You can be emotional about your religion. You can be emotional about your language. You can be emotional about your culture, customs and traditions. You can be emotional about your prejudices and superstitions. You can be emotional about your gender. You can be emotional about your sexual orientation and preferences.

In short, you can be emotional about anything under the sun and even believe that the sun revolves around the earth or that the earth is flat, like what Christians used to believe (and would kill those who believed otherwise), if you so wish.

And as for me, I am ‘emotional’ (to quote Joseph George) about maintaining the Constitutional Monarchy because I am not convinced that an American-type Republic can work seeing that the political corruption in the US is far, far worse than in the UK. Hence, as the Pakatan Rakyat supporters would say, I choose the lesser of the two evils (yes, this is what Pakatan Rakyat supporters believe).