Trying to cure the symptoms instead of the cause

By MT Webmaster Last updated Dec 24, 2014

In short, to be successful, the ‘prominent 25 Malays’ and their support group, KamiJuga25, must be seen as a third force and not an anti-government or pro-government movement. Their aim has to be to keep politicians from both sides of the political divide honest because that is what Malaysia lacks, honest politicians.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Recently, a movement dubbed the ‘prominent 25 Malays’ was launched to speak out against racial and religious extremism, intolerance, divisive politics, and much more that ails Malaysia.

Yesterday, another movement was launched called KamiJuga25, which basically is a movement in support of the ‘prominent 25 Malays’. So far it has about 200 supporters and I suspect it will increase as the days go on (SEE HERE).

It appears like Zaid Ibrahim’s Malaysian Civil Liberties Society mooted ten years ago that never got off the ground (because the RoS did not approve its registration) and the Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement launched four years ago in 2010 has been reborn under different names.

Anyway, at a risk of sounding like a broken record, I would like to repeat, to be able to cure the ills of society we need to attack the cause and not the symptoms of the disease. And this is what I fear we may be doing — trying to cure the symptoms rather than the cause.

For example, it is not easy to cure HIV. AIDS or HIV is the symptom of another disease or other diseases. About 30 years ago I attended a talk held by the Terengganu Family Planning Department and we were told that there are two main reasons for HIV. One reason is sex and the other reason is drugs (mainly the sharing of needles).

So, to solve the problem of HIV, we need to stop Malaysians from injecting themselves with dirty needles and/or to stop them engaging in unprotected sex, especially with prostitutes or high-risk partners.

But how do we do that? If we cannot stop Malaysians from indulging in ‘immoral’ activities such as drugs and sex, how are we going to solve the problem of HIV? One way, probably, would be if you cannot beat them then you join them. Instead of tying to stop the impossible — such as stopping people from injecting themselves with dirty needles or from having unprotected sex — we make it safe for them.

And we do this by handing out free condoms and syringes.

The religionists are certainly going to scream at this idea (Muslims and Christians alike). They will accuse us of encouraging or propagating immorality. We are not trying to encourage immorality. People are still going to do what they want to do even if Malaysia introduces the most stringent Islamic laws of Hudud. What we want to do is to combat the problem of AIDS.

We are not going to waste our time preaching to these people. We will leave that to the religionists. What we want instead is to make it safe for people who still insist on being immoral in spite of what religion tells them and in spite of the risk to their mortal bodies and immortal souls.

Hence we get volunteers to walk the streets and back alleys and to stand at border crossings to dish our free condoms and syringes with pamphlets advising those who still wish to inject themselves or to ‘inject’ prostitutes to do so wisely and safely to avoid getting AIDS.

That is how we combat HIV or AIDS when preaching and strict laws (even Hudud) fail to do the job. So we are attacking the cause instead of the symptoms of the problem. We cannot cure the symptoms. But we can cure the cause. And the cause of AIDS and HIV is dirty needles and unprotected sex.

The law of karma is very clear. There is a reason why something happens. If we get sick there is a reason why we get sick. Not always can we cure that sickness once we are inflicted. But there are ways to prevent the sickness. So we attack what causes the sickness. Reduce our fat intake. Reduce our sugar intake. Take care of our diet. Stop smoking. Stop getting drunk every night. Stop sharing needles. Stop unprotected sex with high-risk sex partners. And so on.

So now we have the ‘prominent 25 Malays’ and their support group, KamiJuga25. And they, too, want to cure the other ills inflicting Malaysian society — such as racial and religious extremism, intolerance, divisive politics, etc. Good for them. But are they attempting to attack the symptoms or the cause of what ails Malaysian society? This is what we need to discuss today.

The racial and religious extremism, intolerance, divisive politics, and much more that ails Malaysia is not what is the problem with Malaysia. These are merely signs that there is something wrong. These are the symptoms that Malaysia is sick. So we cannot cure those that are the symptoms. We need to cure the disease and once that is done the symptoms will disappear.

And what is the disease? The disease is politics. Both sides of the political divide play the race and religion card. Yes, both sides are equally guilty of this. No doubt Umno will blame DAP and DAP will blame Umno while MCA will blame PAS and PAS will blame MCA, etc. But the truth is everyone is equally guilty of this crime.

There is this fallacy that religions cause wars. This is not true. Since before the time of Jesus Christ humankind has been warring with one another. It is all about politics and the pursuit of territory, power and economic domination. Religion is merely the excuse to go to war, as is nationalism and other ideologies (isms) invented by humankind.

In Malaysia it is no different. One side of the political divide wants to retain power and the other side wants to gain power. And they will use anything they can to achieve this objective. And the most potent weapon in the game of thrones is race and religion. Hence race and religion are exploited and used to gain political mileage.

Hence if the ‘prominent 25 Malays’ and their support group, KamiJuga25, want to achieve what they hope to achieve, they need to be apolitical, or at the very least bipartisan. As long as they are seen as supporting one political grouping or the other, then they will be seen as serving a political agenda.

They must not support either Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat. And they have to be very careful that they do not allow the politicians from either side to hijack the movement, as what will very quickly happen in Malaysia.

Sisters in Islam is a case in point. They speak out against both sides and both sides criticise them. PERKASA, which was initially perceived as a wing of Umno, is now being whacked by the very party that they were accused of serving.

BERSIH, which initially was supposed to be independent, unfortunately, is now seen as a member of Pakatan Rakyat. And this is sad because when we launched BERSIH in 2007 even those from Umno supported us and even helped finance the November 2007 rally and the march to the Agong’s palace.

Raja Petra Kamarudin RPK