The Politics: What's Wrong With Them?

Two days ago I received a text message from my beloved father in Malaysia. He said he love to see that I had a new blog and started writing again. But he suggested that it may be good if I can write more on the current issue in Malaysia or in the whole wide world. He also suggest for me to write about politics. That really sent me into 2 days of deep thinking about a new blog post and I finally comes up with this one.

To be honest, I am an "anak abah" (daddy's son). I tends to get interested in everything that my dad interested. Besides, I also looked very similar with my dad which I'm really proud of because back in my school and college everybody could recognise my father so easily. Finally since my dad was really interested in Malaysian politics, he loves to tell me about them, thus exposed me to politics.

The first political issue that I can remember was when Mohamad Sabu, the current Vice President of opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) was caught by the authority for alleged close proximity with another women. This happened around 1993, when I was just 7 years old. At that time, my family still living in Kelantan. PAS and another opposition party, Semangat 46 was the government in Kelantan. At that time Kelantan was really poor state compared to other states which governed by the National Front (BN) who formed the majority in Malaysian Parliament.

Then in 1994, we were facing general election. The BN government really stepped up to fifth gear in a bid to win back Kelantan from PAS/Semangat 46 to whom they lose in the previous general election. I remembered the Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir Mohamad appears on the news and tell people that Kelantan will be a role model state because a lot of development will be made if they win in Kelantan. I remembered thinking how good Kelantan will be if it is as developed as Kuala Lumpur because even their state capital, Kota Bharu was clearly underdeveloped. Finally when the results came, I was shocked to see PAS retained Kelantan and not only that, Mohamad Sabu was also elected as parliament member.

Then in 1998, just after my UPSR examination, the whole country was shocked when the Vice Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim was axed from the office by Tun Mahathir for alleged sexual misconduct and bribery. The whole nation was thrown into chaos, streets demonstrations were everywhere especially in KL. I remembers the day Anwar was detained under Internal Security Act (ISA). My dad took me on his motorbike to KL. On the way there, I saw a lot of Federal Reserves Unit (FRU) vehicles parked across roads to block access to KL. Since we were riding motorbike, we got to Masjid Negara easily. There I witnessed Anwar's fiery speech against Tun Mahathir in front of thousands of his supporters. The crowd then moved to Dataran Merdeka before finally dispersed by the police and the FRUs. That night, Anwar was taken into custody and never seen free again until 2007 in current Prime Minister tenure, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

All those incidents triggers my interests in politics. Since I grew up listening to my dad, my political view really shaped by him. Somehow I was inclined towards believing that the government was very corrupted and something had to be done to stop them in a way of opposition victory. I also made a lot of friends with opposition-minded people. I went to religious boarding school where the students believed the country should be governed the Islamic way, thus told me that PAS is the correct party to support. To be honest I don't have a strong view myself, I tends to follow the popular belief.

When I'm finally here in Belfast, I realised that politics cannot be taken for granted. I realised it is indeed a very sensitive issue. Politics divide people, cause disharmony, breaking people down into smaller cliques, send them catfighting over simple issue. At this stage, a few commentaries about politics could change the opinion of peoples around you. The most worrying part of it is, when their opinion about you has changed, they will stay like that forever. Some people will love you after that, but remember that a good number of others will hate you forever.

So when my dad asked me to write about politics, I have to be honest and say I couldn't do that. It is not because it will makes me look uncool, it is just not right to write about them at the moment. I am a sponsored student, and my obligation is to finish my studies and serve the country after that. There are a lot of undercover personnel out there who would judge me whether I am fit to serve the country. If they found out that I am not, I may get my scholarship suspended. It would be a total disaster that I really wanted to avoid.

But don't worry abah, Amir is still your son and I know that you knew me better than anybody in this world. I wont let you down, okay? I'll be home next June and we can have long chat then. For the time being, lets just keep it between you and me. Can't wait until June, abah :,)