So, of course everyone has an agenda, and sometime more than one agenda. So who are you to question other people’s agenda? Are you trying to say that you too do not have any agenda? Of course you too have an agenda, and maybe more than one. But do we question you on what your agenda is? Your agenda is your business. And most times your agenda is also a very selfish agenda, as most agendas are.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

When I write my essays, they are very strict about the word count. If the instruction is 500 words then it must strictly be 500 words. If it is 1,000 words then you must keep it at 1,000 words. If you do more than that then you lose points. So far I have been able to meet the word count in all the essays I submitted to my tutor.

But then my tutors are well versed in the subject matter. Most times they are professors with a PhD. So they are not dumb. What they do is to test you -- on whether you understood what you learned over the last three months and whether you can summarise in 500 or 1,000 words what you read in the two or three books totalling more than 1,000 pages.

And that is the real test -- whether in 500 or 1,000 words you can summarise everything that you have learned. So it is to test you, not to try to make the tutor understand the subject matter. The tutor already understands the subject matter better than you. After all, it is the tutor who is teaching you and not the other way around.

But this does not work on the Malaysian man-in-the-street. The comments posted in Malaysia Today show that many do not get the message even when I try to deliver that message in 2,000 words or 3,000 words or more. Most times the comments are off tangent and have absolutely nothing to do with the article.

For example, when I write about how I saw someone cruelly kill a dog with a red collar by putting the poor creature in a plastic bag and drowning it, the debate would be about the colour of the dog collar and not about cruelty to animals and about how Malaysians have no compassion whatsoever towards animals.

Okay, that five-paragraph mukhadimah (opening statement) alone was 313 words. So how can I write a 500-word essay to deliver my message to you? I have less than 200 words left to say what I want to say. And this would be impossible considering the intellectual level of some our readers -- that is, if you go by the comments they post in Malaysia Today.

Okay, now let’s get to what I want to say today.

Agenda, motive, cause, purpose, intention, aim, end-game, goal, target, objective, reason, raison d'être, whatever you want call it, which are more or less all the same in the end, we all have one. Show me a person without an agenda and I will show you a person who is dead and is no longer breathing.

Even when you kill someone there must be a motive. It could be an act of war or an act of revenge. It could be out of jealousy, anger, fear, panic or desperation. Maybe you were trying to rob that person or you are a hired assassin. It could be because of your religious belief. You could be carrying out a sentence under capital punishment. It could have even been just for kicks and because you enjoy killing. Or you could be an insane serial killer driven by lunacy. Whatever it may be something drives you to kill a fellow human. There is always a reason, whether justified or not.

There is nothing worse than taking a human life. But even the worse act possible is always driven by a reason. There is always a motive. Even when you kill someone it is based on an agenda. Hence everything is agenda-driven and everyone has an agenda. So there is nothing wrong with having an agenda. And whether this agenda is right or wrong is merely a matter of opinion.

So, yes, I too have an agenda. In fact, I may even have more than one agenda because life is not so simple that you can reduce what you do into just one agenda. There are many agendas that drive us. And sometimes these different agendas may overlap or contradict. But the agenda would be there. If not we would not do what we do.

Some people go to the mosque, church or temple to pray. There would be an agenda for them doing this. So what is the agenda? Let’s say the imam tells the congregation that if you go to the mosque to pray you gain nothing. There is no reward or pahala for praying in the mosque. If you do not go to the mosque to pay you also lose nothing. You are not punished or commit dosa if you do not go to the mosque to pray.

If this were the scenario, how many people would bother going to the mosque to pray? If you do you gain nothing. If you don’t you also lose nothing. So why bother going to the mosque to pray? It is because you are rewarded if you do and punished if you don’t that you go to the mosque to pray. If not you would just stay home, especially on Fridays when you have to endure the heat and traffic jams and take time off from work to fulfil your Friday prayer obligation.

So, even when you go to the mosque to pray you are driven by an agenda. And what drives you is the punishment and reward system that is attached to praying in the mosque. No doubt, some people pray in a mosque to be seen. It has nothing to do with pahala or dosa. They are not worried about pahala and dosa. They want people to notice that they are holy or they are worried if they do not go to the mosque people might talk and say they are bad Muslims.

But then even this is an agenda. The agenda is to be seen and have people say what a good Muslim they are and to avoid being labelled as a bad Muslim. That itself is an agenda.

A Christian evangelist or Muslim dā‘ī (those who do missionary work) too have an agenda. Their agenda is to convert you to Christianity or Islam. They believe they are going God’s work and will receive God’s reward for this effort. If they gain nothing would they bother doing this missionary work?

So are these people really sincere and noble? Let us take Perkim (the Malaysian missionary organisation) as an example. It is a well-funded organisation that was set up by Malaysia’s First Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, and is now headed by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who took over from Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr Abdul Taib Mahmud. Perkim is 52 years old and is staffed by many people, all who are salaried employees.

Let us say that Perkim announces they are no longer going to pay their staff any salary. Since Perkim is a missionary movement doing God’s work then everyone should work for free and not expect any salary. God will reward you in the afterlife. You do not need monetary rewards in this life. How many people will turn up for work the next day? Isn’t God’s reward enough? Do you still need to be paid a salary on top of God’s reward?

Hence even those who work for Perkim are not entirely doing God’s work. Their agenda is not pure. Their agenda is still to earn a salary so that they can eat and feed their family. Are the employees of Perkin munafiq (hypocrites)? They do not have one agenda. They have two agendas. And the second (or maybe the first) agenda is to earn a living.

So, of course everyone has an agenda, and sometime more than one agenda. So who are you to question other people’s agenda? Are you trying to say that you too do not have any agenda? Of course you too have an agenda, and maybe more than one. But do we question you on what your agenda is? Your agenda is your business. And most times your agenda is also a very selfish agenda, as most agendas are.

Even if you are doing God’s work for no salary or monetary gain, you still have an agenda. And your agenda would be to receive God’s blessing and His reward in the afterlife. If there were no blessing or reward you would not bother to lift a finger. So even when you do not receive money you are still selfish in your reasons for doing God’s work. It is still about how it is going to benefit you.

Barisan Nasional has an agenda. Its agenda is to stay in power.

Pakatan Rakyat has an agenda. Its agenda is to get into power.

The voters have an agenda. Their agenda is to ensure they can benefit from the government they vote into office.

Religionists have an agenda. Their agenda is to avoid going to hell and try to get into heaven.

Those who work or are employed have an agenda. Their agenda is to earn a living with, hopefully, a satisfactory or comfortable income.

You who come to Malaysia Today to read what is posted in this site have an agenda. And each person may have a different agenda from the next.

You who are sick and go to hospital or go see a doctor have an agenda. Your agenda it to get cured and to avoid death.

Hindraf, Suaram, Bersih, Perkasa, Aliran, ABIM, JIM, etc., all have an agenda. If they did not have an agenda they would not have been formed in the first place.

So, show me a person without an agenda and I will show you a dead person who is no longer breathing.

Okay, you might think your agenda is a noble agenda while the other chap’s agenda is selfish or not noble. Who are you to define the agenda of others? Are you measuring things using your yardstick, the other person’s yardstick, religious values, universal values, or what?

The agenda of some Muslims is to block the Christians from preaching to Muslims. They will not allow Bibles in Bahasa Malaysia or allow Muslims to leave Islam to become Christians. They also want laws that make it a criminal offense for Christians to preach to Muslims or for Muslims to leave Islam.

At the same time they want to preach Islam to the non-Muslims. And they will not allow laws that make it a criminal offense for Muslims to preach Islam to the non-Muslims. They will print millions of copies of Qur’ans in the English language for distribution free-of-charge to the non-Muslims in the hope that some of these non-Muslims will embrace Islam. They want more government funding for mosques, religious schools and missionary or dakwah work.

Are what these Muslims doing just, right, fair, noble, etc? To you who are non-Muslims, of course you will say no. But to the Muslims, there is nothing wrong with this. The Muslims are doing the correct thing. The Muslims are doing a noble thing. The Muslims are doing God’s work. There is nothing wrong with what they are doing even if you may think otherwise.

You think it is wrong because you are a non-believer, an infidel or kafir. In fact, if they could, they would like to ban churches and temples throughout Malaysia. Unfortunately, for political reasons, they can’t do this because the Muslims are only 50-60% of the population and not 90-95% like in some other Muslim countries. If not, then churches and temples could all be demolished.

So, yes, the Muslims have an agenda. And to the Muslims there is nothing wrong with this agenda. You only think it is wrong because you are not a Muslim. If you were a non-Muslim Chinese who converted to Islam you would probably be more radical than the Malays themselves. And isn’t Riduan Tee proof of this?

You might think that my agenda is not noble or highly suspect. Well, I too am suspicious of your agenda. So that makes two of us. What you may be saying is one thing. It is what you hope to achieve that concerns me more. How do I know you are sincere? How do I know you are noble? How do I know you don’t actually have a hidden agenda and what you are saying and doing is not what you really have in mind? How do I know you are not just pretending and are trying to mislead me while the truth is you actually have an ulterior motive?

And this ‘essay’ is more than 2,000 words long and still many of you will not get the message. God help me if I attempt this in only 500 words.