Struggling with ambiguity

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Wednesday June 22, 2011
Struggling with ambiguity
Musings
By MARINA MAHATHIR


Not everybody assumes the best in other people. Some people say that if you let people demonstrate their wish for clean and fair elections, they will surely riot.

I HAD always assumed that as I become older, things would become much clearer. The whys and wherefores of life’s big questions become obvious, I will have more “Aha!” than “What?!” moments, and I will stop struggling with ambiguity and confusion.

Unfortunately, thanks to a short, fat little man with permed hair and straightened teeth, this is not happening.

I grew up thinking that fairness was a good value to have. Not fair skin, but being fair to one and all. Children have a natural sense of justice; they know when they are being unfairly treated. It’s only when they see people benefiting from injustice that their natural values start to adapt.


Civic-conscious citizens: It’s amazing that one million and more fiery hot-blooded Egyptians could turn up in Tahrir Square to protest against their government peacefully, even in the face of government tanks. Then after they succeeded in ousting their President, they turned up the next day to clean up the square. — EPA
Maybe something happened to that little man in his childhood. Did something happen somewhere in his murky history where he had to resort to underhanded means to get something?

Because it puzzles me enormously why anyone should be opposed to fair and clean elections. Has the world changed so much that dirty and unfair elections are more prized?

Say, if my child wanted to stand for election at school, should I tell her that she should do everything she can to win, including undermining her opponent? Is this the lesson I should be teaching her?

This year, I told her she could have a nice holiday if she did well in school. Lo and behold, she did. So, now, I have to fulfil my promise. This is fair, as my old values tell me. But under these new-fangled values vaunted by some loud people, I should not do this. I should instead find some excuse to not uphold my side of the deal.

Although upholding my promise will be expensive for me, I still win because it confirmed my faith in my daughter, that she can do well in school with a little push. I can’t imagine assuming that she would fail no matter what.

But not everybody assumes the best in other people.

Another thing that befuddles me is how some people say that if you let people demonstrate their wish for clean and fair elections, they will surely riot.

In the first place, I would have assumed that those who want dirty elections are more likely to go crazy in public places. Mostly because the rest of us won’t be able to help laughing at their banners that say “Dirty is good!” or “Who wants to fight fair?”

On the other hand, who would show anything but respect for people who may be shouting “Let us restore our dignity: keep our elections clean”. After all, dirty elections are more associated with very much less-developed countries, which, surely, we are not.

It’s such a Boy Scout thing, wanting fair elections. Have you ever known Boy Scouts to riot? Only thugs who have never sworn to do their best do that.

It is a bit disingenuous to suggest that those simply wanting something good like clean elections are likely to be doing things like throwing stones, overturning cars and maybe looting shops.

There is nothing that drives good things away more than fear-mongering, is there?

So, therefore, to stop this, the forces of, I don’t know, Anti-Clean want to go down there and ensure security. Sounds like the George Bush School of Pre-Emptive Strikes to me. Let’s bomb them before they bomb us.

Equally disingenuous is to say that wanting clean elections is playing politics. But, isn’t everyone playing politics these days? And is politics confined only to politicians?

So, if I wanted to have a big demo to say that “No child should go hungry”, is that or is that not a political act? And therefore, will there be a counter-demo that says “Who cares if some children are undernourished”, just because my demo might cause traffic jams? That’s how crazy the thinking has become.

I find it amazing that in mild-mannered conflict-avoiding Malay­sia, we assume that any gathering of more than five people will naturally turn into a riot.

Yet one million and more fiery hot-blooded Egyptians could turn up in Tahrir Square to protest against their government peacefully, even in the face of government tanks. Then after they succeeded in ousting their President, they turned up the next day to clean up the square!

So why not just make a deal with Bersih 2.0 to bersihkan the street the next day?

The confusion these days arises from the fact that thugs are given lots of leeway while perfectly normal people are made to feel like criminals, even before they do anything.

If that’s the norm these days, can someone make it official that justice and fairness are no longer values we uphold?

Then I’ll know what to teach my child.