Nothing to Lose

I refer to the recent article by Pete about people who decide not to storm the Bastille. Not that I agree with them or agree with Pete. I just want to point out the problem here.

By Ghostbuster

I can share what I feel and what friends around me feel, that it is about "safety", or in other words, "kiasi" (takut mati). Not literally meaning death, but what to do when things go wrong. I always tell friends, "When we go to war, we cannot think of family at home; otherwise this war is going to lose". So to win a war, one has to be prepared with "nothing to lose".

For most Chinese, they always have something to lose. After all, it has been so many decades of fighting. Nobody is happy with it but it has become a fact of life. And I do admire those Indians who go to the street to bathe in chemical water. In my mind, I wondered how they can afford to do so. Do they really have "nothing to lose"? Then I realised, yes: they have lost everything until there is nothing left to lose. If that happened to the Chinese, I am sure we would be on the street too. How about Malays? I use race here to explain groups of people; it does not necessarily have to be Chinese, Indian or Malay.

So people who are still currently well-to-do or, simply put, middle class, they will only bathe in chemical water if they feel that they will lose everything if they do not make a stand.

The next issue is, after bathing, will the government change? We can continue to "test" the government to see if there are encouraging results. For example, if we have vigil nights to get Pete out and we succeed, then we will know that this way works. Next time that happens again, we know what to do. Right now, frankly … everything you voice out you are confronted with deaf ears.

Try this: if you are robbed, are you going to make a police report? You know the police are going to do nothing. You just need to get the paperwork done to get your new IC issued and other things. When I lost my notebook, the inspector just told me it is normal. I knew he was going to close the case: NATO. I even suggested to him to set a trap. He was angry and yelled at me, saying they have tried everything but nothing works. So next time, I will not make a police report if my notebook gets lost. Or make a report if anything gets lost.

If the police is not the correct channel, then we turn to court. But the courts are also compromised. They always seem to be following someone else's agenda. Where or who do we turn to? Bloggers? Yes, we can turn to bloggers. But bloggers are easily arrested and we have to rescue them. Forget about the Media; they will not print nor broadcast anything useful. Is there any other channel left?

There is only one thing left now: Election. And this is also what I fear most – whether the Elections are also too compromised. Look at what the EC has been doing and what happened to the Perak assembly … those are attempts to compromise the last and only available channel.

So far, the common feeling is that we are the boss on election day. They kowtow to us and beg for our vote. They are even willing to buy our vote. They promise to tar the roads and so on. Try this: if next election they don't want to do ANY of that anymore, what do we do? What CAN we do? They have already shown that whoever you vote for, they can always reverse it. What if they also get the Agong to side with them to say that the Agong has rights over who is to be the government? Isn't this happening now?

If Elections is the last resort and that has failed, then we have truly lost everything. We need to therefore identify and create more channels. I don't think we can restore that we have lost.

We need to get political parties to help. Their role must be defined and they need to stand up and tell everyone: if you come under my wind and we walk down the street, you will be alright. Or the political party can assume some role of justice to fight for our concerns including even a lost notebook. You know what I mean: to gain confidence and to set up a new channel for people to trust and to help people.

If such channels are available, then people will automatically be brave. Otherwise, you have to strip them naked until they have nothing to lose, then only will they storm the Bastille.

Most young people have only experienced this for a short time while Pete has been fighting for over 30 years. And the old people have had their hearts broken since May 13, 1969 where the election results were overwritten by the Agong.

We have to restore all this. How can we restore it? Can we have a plan to start training young people to go for peaceful ceremah or attend some assembly (like Chinese assembly and forums) to open their eyes? At least drag them out from their comfort zone. Even a one time experience is good enough. There must always be fresh people. And meanwhile, get political parties to find out how they can help create public confidence in them by setting up something.