Open letter to PMX: For old time’s sake, do honour RPK for one last time

By Nehru Sathiamoorthy

(Focus Malaysia) – Is this not the last time you will have a chance to honour Raja Petra Kamarudin (RPK), Datuk Seri?

Have you forgotten the past?

Do you not remember that RPK was there by your side – fighting in the thick of the battle – when you were on the brink of oblivion?

He might not have fought for you specifically – for it is not the nature of noble men to fight for the sake of mere mortals – but he stood with truth, justice and freedom to fight against the pernicious ideas that wished to annihilate you.

Now that he has departed, would this not be a good time to forget the bitterness that came between the both of you?

Can you recall how once upon a time ago when you stood neck deep in darkness and doom, he was standing on the same side of the battlefield as you fighting for something that you both believed in?

Of all the warriors assembled on your side, was he not among the ones your opponents rued and your soldiers cheered for the most?

Did the sight of him on the battlefield not arouse your soldiers to continue the fight even when the chances of victory appeared dim and the likelihood or defeat seemed certain?

Every time your enemies thought they had secured victory for their side, didn’t RPK with his skills and charms persuade Her to give your side another chance?

‘Break the wall’

Again and again, they fell him but no matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t keep him down. There certainly must have been days in Sungai Buloh (prison) when you must have felt that all is lost.

On those days, can you say with sincerity, that it is solely the strength of your beliefs, and not the actions of men like RPK that kept the light of Hope lit in your heart?

Lawan tetap lawan (literally, a fight is still a fight) is a phrase you love to say. Others love to say it, too, as a catchphrase but who else took it to heart as much as RPK? In action, was RPK not a brother to you in creed as well in arms?

Relationships are an entangled affair. Brothers who stand by us during our darkest hour of the night might leave us at the break of dawn. Friends who feast with us in the sunlight might disappear not long after the arrival of dusk.

The hands that lift us up are often the ones that pull us down. The greater the man, the greater will be the crucible of temptation and circumstances bear upon him.

Who among us has not wavered when put to test, Datuk Seri? Do you know anyone? Has even the man in the mirror been forever steadfast? Why cast stones when we are not free from sin ourselves?

Did your heart not move at all when you first heard of the news that RPK is no more?

If it did, then I put it to you, that maybe it be the case that your conscience wishes to remember what your self-respect wishes to forget.

I am not going to say that when our self-respect and conscience contest, it is always the case that we must favour our conscience.

Self-respect has its right. It is not the measure of a man – much less a great man – to dismiss the injury done to his person, especially by those who sit in his circle.

But saying that, I also have to say that the voice of self-respect only carries weight in as far as it concerns the affairs of us when we are alive in this world.

When one departs, only the words of our conscience will leave an impression in our heart.

Let not your conscience turn into regret, Datuk Seri.

Let him, who you will never see again in this life, know that you regret the wall that was built between the both of you – and that despite it all – you are glad that he was in your life when it mattered.

It might not be your fault that he could not find such a place when he was alive but now that he is gone, it will not be beneath you to give him a place in your reign for which he had bled more than most, to lay the foundations to.

Honour him, Datuk Seri, and may your reign be blessed.

Source: Focus Malaysia