Debunking the Myth of a Revolution and the Gen-Y Mindset
The point is, 1) Revolution doesn’t have to be aggressive, 2) It takes a whole lot of time to do, 3) A movement leader is not actually needed, and 4) All these examples are actually reformations happen throughout the time, where we could say it’s more like hundreds of reformations pilling up to be a revolution. But what do these have to do with Gen-Y?
Abdul Rahman Shah
Of late, recent news have been shaking the media about sweeping revolutions, the Arab Spring is one. As a result, in Malaysia, the Generation-Y (Gen-Y) is also anticipating one to happen here. It did not. But what is a revolution? This article will try to explore into the myths of revolution and try to explain why some revolutions are mistakenly a “revolution”. I will also try to separate the word revolution and reformation.
Semantics out of the way, a revolution is an act of revolting against the current system, whatever the system might be, for a new system, anticipated better system to be established. By this definition, the Arab Spring, the Renaissance, the French Revolution, the American Revolution and the Malaya’s independence can be seen as a revolution, despite no bloodshed spilled.
Reformation on the other hand, is the improvements made to the current system, it doesn’t have to be changed top-down, but just few things, by this definition we can put civil rights movements, association policies that enforces minimum wage plus maximum working hours, the change in education approach and others. Revolution is wanting to destroy the streets to build a new one, reformation is wanting to improve and change the street.
What are the myths in revolution? 1) It have to be bloody, 2) It have to be quick, and 3) A dominating leader needs to step up to lead the way. Yes, if one looks at the past, successful revolutions such as the French and American revolution are bloody, relatively quick (approximately 10 years) and have their own leaders, Napoleon Bonaparte, and several high profile leaders from America, most notably George Washington. But look at these two examples, both doesn’t fit the second myth, and the American one doesn’t have one dominating leader, more like a whole group of people, the revolutionary minds of The Patriots.
Now let’s look at some more successful revolutions from the past, the Agricultural revolution during the Neolithic period, where suddenly humans realized they can domesticate plants, animals and improving the technology along the way. This revolution by no means happens in a year or two, it happens all around the world in approximately 5000 to 6000 years, not to mention even today we are still improving our technology in agriculture. A second example is the Italian Renaissance which became European Renaissance, somewhere around 13th to 15th century, 200 years between them, the revolution of the mind. And lastly the Industrial revolution 1760 to 1840; 80 years of new technology and advancement of science. Yes I’m aware of the negative impacts of each examples, but why not look at the positive impacts before dismissing everything into negative impacts?
The point is, 1) Revolution doesn’t have to be aggressive, 2) It takes a whole lot of time to do, 3) A movement leader is not actually needed, and 4) All these examples are actually reformations happen throughout the time, where we could say it’s more like hundreds of reformations pilling up to be a revolution. But what do these have to do with Gen-Y?
Gen-Y today in Malaysia are very lucky, especially university students. We have education, facilities, great foods, sponsorships and much more. But does this mean we should sit back and relax? Just finish our studies, get a stable job, get married, buy a house, have kids, pay off our debts till we die, and live the quiet life? Are we just the 5 years once “revolutionist” that gets angry only during election period while never really doing anything constructive to the country?
Like I mentioned before, the best revolution is hundreds of reformations piles up together. It’s more enduring, and it addresses the problem, not tearing down the streets and building just to build a new one. Saying that, we Gen-Y have a responsibility to start a reformation, starting with the reformation of the mind, an education reformation.
Go out and teach the kids, teach about proper language use, philosophy, updated science, technology, morals and ethics, and many more. Sacrifice our life a little for the creation of a new philosophy, the freedom of human beings, and the protection of the earth.
Join in volunteerism, read books, write books, short stories, poems, fiction, non-fiction, write articles, and write research papers; all in the area of reformation of education. Get into open discussions, try to see the world from another’s perspectives, change “toleration” into understanding, working together to a common goal. Changing the mindset of teachers, parents and especially students on school, education and exams.
Once this small reformation takes place, in 10 to 30 years, we can start with reforming the whole education system, get involved with the ministry, bring in new education system, the current system in Sweden and Japan seems to be good, try to influence the ministry by being part of the ministry, so regardless of who wins the election, regardless of who is the government, regardless of politics, the reformation movement will still happen.
Then after the success of education reformation, move on to the next one, civil rights, or a better distribution of the taxes (including zakat), and many more areas. Which all of them can happen simultaneously because the reformation of the mind have already happened, people now are aware of the future, not just for themselves, but for everyone.
Start slow, start on one small part, but start now. The movement have already started actually, look at the number of volunteering groups out there (e.g. Teach For The Needs), the number of open discussions, the number of open discourses (e.g. Alumni Sekolah Politik, Projek Dialog), the number of independent publishers (e.g. Buku FIXI, Dubook Press, Lejen Press) and the number of books they publish. We just need more and more to join in to make it a reality, don’t get too hasty, don’t get too selfish, we all are together in this, we all are going to succeed.
I will not end this with an inspiring quote from any revolutionist/reformist, author or director, or my favorite, “do or do not, there is no try” by Yoda (Star Wars episode IV) because it is not time to be contemplating or to wait for inspiration, it is time to move, and be the inspiration.
* Abdul Rahman Shah is an undergraduate of IIUM and is a member of Kelab Mahasiswa TFTN. This article is written in responding to a challenge by Anas Alam Faizli that IIUM students are Mahasiswa Donut.
