Angkat Tangan! - A Lesson in Democracy

I don't know what democracy means to you. I thought to write about what democracy means to me. 

When I was a small girl of age 3, 4 or 5 (not 6), I recall I answered my dad but he took it wrongly and so I had this chili paste brutally rubbed on my baby soft lips! It stung so badly that I couldn't even cry! I was then made to lie in a dry 'drain' inside our Banda Hilir house and let the sting fade by itself - it took 3 days for the sting to disappear, mind you. That was the democracy I had learned from presumably speaking up. That was democracy learned first-hand. I later learned that that 'mouth torture' was called 'chili mulut'. So I have avoided all chili and hot & spicy for life, just based on that ugly experience. But I grow chili for people, FOC, and minus the chili mulut thingy.

When I went to Standard 1E at Sultanah Asma Primary School in Jalan Langgar, Alor Setar, there was another experience of democracy. This time it involved a teacher reading out our position in class. One by one, she read out our position in class. I waited a long time for my name to be called and to know my position in class. I was the last name called and I was the last girl in my class, which was also the last class in my school! That meant I was an idiot! Of course, I cried when I knew I was the last girl in my class, even though I couldn't even count from 1 to 10 or write my full name. I wasn't ashamed but I was surprised that I was indeed the last girl. If I had my way, then I would have asked the teacher to tell me in private that I was the last girl in the last class and in the entire prestigious girls' school. There was no privacy for girls like me - the 'last of the best'. It is thus very surprising that I have rose against all odds and become a professor in at least 5 fields. Who would ever dream that this little girl who was the 'last of the last of the last' would ever become a world-class professor and much admired? What am I admired for? You can ask all my admirers - there are >600 of them in Facebook alone, and >30,000 who were my students. Ask them. 

So what is democracy? Democracy is looking at how others do things wrong and trying to do things right my own way. Is democracy really democracy today? In politics? At work? At home? Depends on whose side you are and which flag you choose to put on your flagpole. My parents and siblings all chose the blue flag and 'paksa-rela' that I too choose the blue flag. Till today, I don't have a flag. What is a flag for anyway when things are fatally wrong and I can't make them right? I have heard all the propaganda from radio to TV (and on 2 TVs and so many channels). I think I have come to a point of 'burnt out from endless stupid propaganda'. Come to think of it, what are brains for? There are so many problems affecting humans and our lives today and yet we are quarrelling even about the tiny specs of tahi kelawar dust that drift into our houses from our old roofs. Money politics aside, I think we have to use our 250g-brains and start to think. Think hard and see what we want and what we need to do. Think hard to see how we need to do things better for ourselves and others. Much talk leads to more lies and the idle minds wants wine, women and songs, forever. 

I think we are all lazy bumps! We all want an easy life without much brain, effort, ATP and muscle activity. We have become very lazy Malaysians. So lazy that all we want to do is find fault and quarrel, doesn't matter whether it is about the bees being constipated and not producing enough honey or why the pisang tastes like durians, why the world goes round and round, why the moon didn't shine last night, why the world is so hot, etc. We can find endless topics to fight about but how many are thinking and trying to put this world right? What is right and what is wrong? Even my 13-year old daughter can tell you what you think is right is definitely wrong. So why do seemingly mature adult fight? Fight where? Everywhere! In Parliament is the worst I have ever witnessed on TV! Ini kah dikatakan negara aman dan maju? Being the idiot I was in the 'last of the last of the last' .... I think I am not an idoit anymore. The ones who can't make proper use of their brains and fight and bash all the time from morn till dark, they are the actual idiots. They can take my place as 'the last of the last of the last'. I graduated from being an idiot to a professor.

I saw all the green and blue flags and the keris on 2 tones, etc... I think we are wasting a lot of money printing and staging those. Save all your money and don't stage anymore flags anywhere. They make you feel great when you drive past them on country-side drives but the ugly politics don't disappear at all. I have lived so long in this country and outside, I don't like dirty politics and all the propaganda and hitting out at each other. Feels like the cannibals are back for a village fight. Have some sense of responsibility and make our country a truly democratic one. That is my wish for the upcoming 13GE. I don't want to be a politician as it is less glamorous than being a professor, and has nothing to do with self-worth and a worthy brain, unless we all work hard to clean up our politics. I don't like it at all and I'm not going out to vote at the 13GE - I will eat, sleep and read my books at home, forget the stupid people and stupid politics out there. I want to be different as that is what I call 'democracy'.

WASTE THY TIME NOT. THE FIRE BURNS FOR WHOM ARE NITS!

IF YOU CAN'T BEAT THEM, DO IT YOUR SIMPLE WAY!

SUCCESS COMES WITH BEAUTIFUL WORDS AND AN OPEN MIND

A LIFE LIVED EASY IS A MEADOW FOR THE BRAIN TO GROW

Our brain is plastic; use it, nurture it, let it grow and grow and grow....until you die! Then it will stop growing because you are no longer there, and you don't need it anymore.

Never believe what others do are always right. They do wrong rightfully.
Never believe what others say are always from the heart. They lie the very minute their mouths open!

Believe in yourself. That's D * E * M * O * C * R * A * C * Y.
Democracy is the rightful use of your brain willfully, for right things.

Knowing where you stand among 28 million Malaysians is the greatest and happiest feeling a child could ever have at age 53! You read that right!