Revolutions benefit the elite, not the rakyat
And now sit back and watch the political elite and nobles of Malaysia fight it out in various power struggles within and between the many parties and coalitions for control of Malaysia while the rakyat still suffer and live their most pathetic lives thinking that dawn is coming and that before the dawn there will always be darkness.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
When we talk about history, the normal response from Malaysians is: who cares about the past? It is the future that counts. Malaysians somehow appear to hate history and will shut you up if you talk or write about history.
Well, the Bible is history. The Qur’an is also history. Can we also say who cares about the Bible and Qur’an since it is about the past and not the future?
History is the reason why we are here today so we need to understand history to know why we are here and hence where we will be heading for from hereon. If you do not know where you are then you will not know where you are going.
Finally the dictatorship was replaced with a democracy in Myanmar but the suffering of the people just became worse
The misconception most people have is that ‘the people’ or the rakyat bring about change. That is not true and any student of history would know that. Change is affected by a small group of people at the top and the masses are used to bring about that change. So ‘the people’ or the rakyat are just the tools used by the top echelon to trigger this change.
Take the English Civil War of 1642-1651 as an example. There were two groups of privileged people who were behind it. One was the landowners who owned 20% of the land in England. The other group was the church that also owned 20% of the land in England. ‘The people’ or the rakyat owned nothing — they were just serfs, or more or less slave workers for the landowners (whether the church or the elite/nobles).
The church, in this case the Puritans, were not happy that the Queen was a Catholic and that King Charles I was giving too much face to Catholics. The elite/nobles, on the other hand, were not happy that King Charles had raised the taxes on landowners to pay for the expensive wars that England was fighting (which the church did not need to pay but the elite/nobles did).
One million people died in Cambodia as their reward for helping to bring about change
So, basically, it was the English upper-class (and in this case that includes the church) versus the King. The “lower-class” people were just used as soldiers to fight and die for the cause and for the benefit of those at the top.
The same for the French Revolution almost 150 years later. It was the nobles who were opposed to King Louis XVI and it was also about money (the same situation in France as in England where 40% of the land was owned by the church and the nobles).
So, there are two things that cause civil wars and revolutions. Religion and money. And when both are combined, things can get very explosive (sounds familiar?). But it is never ‘the people’ or the rakyat who plan, plot and trigger civil wars and revolutions. The job of the people is just to die in these civil wars and revolutions. ‘The people’ or the rakyat do not really benefit anything. Those who plan, plot and trigger civil wars and revolutions do.
Not always do revolutions bring positive results
Take the Malaysian “civil war” or “revolution” that started in 2015 and that ended with the government being ousted three years later in May 2018. Did ‘the people’ or the rakyat really benefit from it? If so, then what benefit was it? Was it an end to abuse of power and corruption? Was it more jobs for the people? Was it higher salaries? Was it the cost of living became lower and the people now have more disposable income or money in their pockets? Are there more civil liberties and more freedom of choice, lifestyle and religion?
In short, what has changed in the so-called Malaysia Baru compared to before May 2018?
The aftermath of the many revolutions and civil wars all over Europe, Africa, Latin America, Asia, China and the Middle East from 1789 to 1979 have proven that the promised change never happened. Sometimes things even got worse. Those who grabbed power are the political elite while the peoples’ lives remained the same or got worse. That is what 200 years of civil wars and revolutions have taught us.
DAP and Pakatan Harapan shout and scream that after 61 years of Umno “hegemony” Malaysia is finally free. Free from what? Can gays now get married? Can Muslims now leave Islam? Have salaries doubled? Do Malaysians now have more money in their pockets? Has racism and religious intolerance ended? Are we now “Malaysians” or still Malays, Chinese, Indians and “others”? What has changed? Power is still in the hands of the same people who have held power since the 1980s. So, what has changed?
Do you really think Anwar Ibrahim is fighting for the rakyat and not because he wants to become Prime Minister?
Humans seek comfort in fallacies, superstition and unfounded doctrine. We need to believe in the unbelievable because it makes us feel better. If not, we might realise that things are really hopeless and will continue to be hopeless and get more hopeless in time.
Learn history and understand from history. More than 200 years of civil wars and revolutions since the late 1700s did not really bring any benefit to the rakyat. It only brought benefit to the elite and the nobles. And the elite or nobles plotted these civil wars and revolutions for their own benefit, not for the benefit of the rakyat.
And now sit back and watch the political elite and nobles of Malaysia fight it out in various power struggles within and between the many parties and coalitions for control of Malaysia while the rakyat still suffer and live their most pathetic lives thinking that dawn is coming and that before the dawn there will always be darkness.
