Going through some of my previous writings, I came across a poem I wrote at the height of Tun Mahathir’s bashing some ten years ago, when about everyone in Pak Lah’s cabinet were out for his blood. Interestingly, Pak Lah himself was silent, distancing himself unconvincingly from the brutal verbal onslaught on his predecessor by his henchmen with the one-liner logic that “he personally had never taken part in it”.
Today, Tun Mahathir is again under attack – this time led by no less than the incumbent PM himself, together with his whole cabinet and almost every one of those in key positions. Unlike before, the unrelenting attacks have not only taken on such unspeakable crudeness never thought possible of an incumbent PM, but they have also been extended to innocent family members. Even grandchildren are not spared; consistent with Najib’s fierce clarion call and unhesitatingly open incitement of, some might even say, un-Islamic “Attack, attack, attack… NOTHING IS SACRED”.
Of course, Tun Mahathir is also very much on the attack himself. By all accounts, he and his opposition team are literally nailing Najib and his cohorts to the wall at every turn but, for now, kept safe and untouched by dubious legal roadblocks.
Thank you, Tun, for all that you have done and are still striving to do, for our country…... of course you were, and are, not perfect. No one is – and many, for their own reasons, just cannot help revisiting your ancient and long overgrown controversial trails. Yet all said, no one had done more; and not many possibly love this country as you do, or are as willing and ready as you are to sacrifice yourself in its cause.
This poem, first posted on my blog ten years ago, is for you – and all loyal Malaysians.
MY LAYMAN QUANDARY
He had achieved so much; way much more than many had ever thought possible
He made us believe the things we can do and gave such confidence to our people
He was relentless and determined fighting for those issues of telling significance
Just as he was uncompromising and fearless in pursuing the interest of our nation
Had he really been all these? I had thought so, like the many others in the millions
As they beseeched him to remain in his position; chanting his virtues and brilliance
Yet today it seems he had become so different, spewing venom at every utterance
Drawing heated condemnations even from those he had tutored and championed
How could I have been so wrong to believe in him for all those great things he did?
How could he be so irresponsible; outright traitorous even as the many have said?
The audacity of him to criticize with such arrogance; what right did he think he had?
He should be muzzled, his rights removed, expelled from the team he recently led!
It is confusing for me, the thoroughly unconnected to reason all these out sensibly
To feel such debt to someone so deeply only to be told he is such knave suddenly
Yet such seems to be the views of the informed, spouted with such fierce emotion
As if competing with one another for the most scathing, vile, daring condemnation
Such strong words and emotions, as they were, must come from strong motivation
Only unprincipled minds, lofty ambition, or untold bounty can arouse such passion
And more so if the person attacked had our dizzy approval during his recent tenure
Who had our respect, who toiled and worked endlessly to make the country better
Yet today they say he is bent on attacking and destroying our newly added edifice
Out of sheer jealousy, missing the glory or whatever; since he voluntarily left office
All making no sense, but the competing gladiators must know what they’re saying
For like Anthony said “……Brutus is a wise man, and so are they all, all wise men”
Yet like Anthony, I worry when righteousness is assumed by those such as them
When logic and fairness are smothered silent with such unthinking fierce emotion
When wanton condemnations are readily made without sober fair considerations
When everything is just black or white with nothing in between, leaving no options
And so I remain in this quandary – trust these so-called wise men, or my instinct?
Join this feeding frenzy or perhaps use my God-given faculty and for myself think
For I remember a recent poem that might have bearing on this unhappy sad state
Strongly urging the silent many to awaken and to start thinking before it is too late
Kamaruddin Mohd Jamal
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