From Malaysiakini: 10.55am - Police have chased off about 80 supporters outside the building, back behind the security tape. The supporters obliged, but are taunting the cops, with some shouting: "1 Malaysia, 2 Perak, 3 Katak!"RESPECT must be earned. It cannot be bought or demanded at gunpoint. Surely, the former Lord President and present Sultan of Perak knows this simple truth. If so, why does he not enlighten his friend, the Umno crime minister, Dato Seri Najib Razak (aka Pink Lips) about the responsibilities of true leadership?
Is the Sultan of Perak the victim of BN blackmail, as this controversial report in Malaysia Today suggests? Allow me to quote a couple of paragraphs:
Nazrin’s succession to the Perak throne depends on the goodwill of the federal government. But only if the state government is a Barisan Nasional government will there be this goodwill. If Pakatan Rakyat remains the state government, then expect Nazrin to pay the price when his time comes to succeed his father.
Furthermore, the Sultan and his family has asked for a lot of things from the Pakatan Rakyat state government, all of which they rejected. Umno will ensure that the Sultan and his family get whatever they want if Barisan Nasional takes over as the Perak state government.
If there is any truth to what Raja Petra Kamarudin has written, this nation is indeed in dire straits. It would mean that the symbols of highest authority in the land - the Sultans who serve as defenders and upholders of Islam - are as corruptibly human as you and I; and some may actually be no better than the third-rate hoodlums who have infiltrated Umno over the decades and taken complete control of the country's once abundant resources.
My personal take on the contentious issue of royalty is very straightforward. Since a very tender age I have been aware that some people I meet are naturally endowed with a certain quality I choose to call "noble" (as opposed to "base"). They make a point of upholding essential values such as honesty, compassion, generosity and wisdom; and they constantly endeavor to attain an inclusive and comprehensive perspective on the world around them.These naturally noble souls have long outgrown narrow definitions of ethnicity and their allegiance is always to truth - not rigid religious dogma. They would never go along with a political ideology as patently false, petty-minded and self-serving as "Ketuanan Melayu." Indeed, they would be fully conscious that the word "Tuan" is a contraction of "Tuhan" (or "Lord" in English); and if anyone addressed them as such, they would instinctively flinch. Pretending to be superior to others is a silly child's game, unbefitting of any mature and intelligent soul.
Of course, the world is full of examples of idiots, pretenders and usurpers who have fallen into the trap of believing themselves superior. To reinforce their grand delusion, they invariably acquire the trappings of obscene wealth and become overly fond of pomp and circumstance. These souls are at best immature; at worst a parasitic infection of the human psyche.By playing along with their foolish game, we are equally responsible for all the injustices and imbalances we constantly complain about. Only by consciously reclaiming our dignity, sovereignty and power as divinely inspired individuals can we free ourselves of this deleterious scam that has been inflicted on the inhabitants of this edenic planet since the advent of the "creator gods" who colonized the Earth many eons ago and whose "blueblooded" descendants persist in perpetuating this great hoax.
Are we still trapped in the limited worldview of a bunch of cannibals cowering before the arrival of White Gods in flying machines who sometimes bear gifts of colorful trinkets and firewater - and at other times rape our women and massacre us with their death-dealing weaponry?
Those are events that occurred many millennia ago, although the inertia of the ancient past continues to hold sway over our traditional hierarchies. We need not be ashamed that our ancestors were awed and shocked by the so-called gods' display of military might (thunderbolt-hurling deities can be very scary). In this day and age, despite the apparent might of the plutocrats and their puerile secret societies, we have the option of uninstalling dysfunctional software and upgrading our operating systems, so that we can step boldly towards the fulfilment of our glorious destiny as free and fearless kings and queens (and princes and princesses) of our own personal domains.
[Images courtesy of The Malaysian Insider, Malaysiakini, The New Straits Times and Google]
RPK ON THE ARCHAIC SEDITION ACT AS A WEAPON OF CRASS DESTRUCTION
Published on Malaysia Today 28 October 2009
