Malaysians are really, the most colourful bunch of truly Asians that I'm really proud of. If my newsfeed had a colour, it would be yellow and it's been ongoing up till now. Been reading a lot of people's opinion about what happened. Been watching a lot of videos on people's action during the protest. And here's my humble summary of what type of Malaysians are there :) This is... a hypothetical truth and purely my personal opinion. Please don't shoot. The 'x' button is at the corner right, in case you need to reach out for it!
1) The political hijackers: Opportunists who sidetrack the participants to other causes (e.g voting for them) by taking advantage of the high spirits. The strategy is to sell, "If you don't want BN, means you want XYZ". Mixing people's motivation to create a new logic. Smart-nya.
2) The chant leader: Comprehends the facts about the cause and understand why they are there for. They lead in songs and war-cries to lift and maintain the spirit of the people during the protest. May or may not be neutral in their political stance but they are definitely cause focused.
3) The hardcore 'blind' protester type: Almost the jihad kind without a cause. Look for every opportunity to cari gaduh with the authorities. Must have been rejected many times to be an extra in movie shoots.
4) The neutral type: Participates because of a single reason (e.g need electoral reforms), and understand basic supporting facts (e.g why need electoral reforms) but not the iceberg details. Basically peaceful. Not there to be a hero, but there to support others to make a point. Usually quite level-headed and prefer to not scuffle (e.g peaceful come, peaceful go).
5) The tourist type: Participates because it's a one in a lifetime national event. May have initially gone for the cause, but got sidetracked by the carnival-ish atmosphere. But when things turn ugly, they go home with a lot of photos and suddenly remember why they were angry in the first place.
6) The accidental hero: Their instinct is to get people out of trouble because they are wise enough to know some of them will get into serious trouble. They sometimes appear in photographs helping others to get to safety. But there are many unsung ones too. Those who helped indirectly, feeding and giving refuge to teargassed protesters in their shop, letting down the shutters to keep them safe. Whoa~ gooseys! x
7) ThePERKA... 'buat-kacau' infiltrators: 'nuff said.
8) The samseng police: Police who feels a snowballed oppression (may come from the government but he cannot identify the source anymore). So when protesters taunt them, they feel the need to 'teach them a lesson' and to show the citizens, who's the boss. So they group up and beat em' like a boss.
9) The neutral police: He doesn't have a choice but to uphold the orders of his superior. He doesn't agree nor disagree with the protests but generally prefers things to be kept in order. Therefore he doesn't respond nor react to taunters.
10) The undercover police 1: He pretends to be one of the protesters and creates a drama to give the authorities a reason to do a 'Die Hard' (minus the explosion) clamp down.
11) The undercover police 2: Actually, he really wants to be a protester, wearing his yellow spirit under his uniform. He looks at the situation and tries to be strong. He feels the spirit of the people yet he cannot defy the orders that came with his FRU uniform. Normally, these type will sit and start questioning themselves, post-event. Amazed by what happened and what he saw today.
12) The citizen journalist: They take themselves as independent media recording the event from their perspectives. But without training and experience, they easily misunderstand the situation without further investigation, taking only what they see as proof of events. Objective contexts are usually absent from most of their reporting causing bias. But they are the strongest advocates of the event.
13) The independent media versus mainstream media: 'nuff said. They only see what their own medium aims to report. No matter what happened, there will always be two sides to a story pro their own beliefs.
14) The convenient Malaysian: Fairly oblivious to what's happening in KL. Continues their shopping spree in 1U, Mid Valley, staying out of KL because there are 'road blocks'. Curse when it's jammed and blame the protesters, oblivious to the fact that LDP is jammed every day at every hour.
15) The outposters: Malaysians who are in other countries, sat down and chat with other Malaysians to give their home country support. They may or may not realize their fellow citizens are running for their lives, while they meet new friends and set new 'makan-makan' appointments should there be a next gathering.
16) The quiet supporters: Secretly, they want to be there but due to unforeseen circumstances (or whatever circumstances), they can't. Normally, they have at least one or two close friends who are participating. They are generally affected by the turn of events, providing encouragement to those who participated, secretly promising to themselves, I WILL BE THERE NEXT YEAR DAMNIT!
17) The commentators: Those who were not there and experienced nothing but share their opinion based on photographs and for/against write-ups online. Usually after one or two monumental artefact then they will fly into judgement. Read: No.12 + No. 17 = Pretty potent.
18) The I'm-greater-than-you-oh-who-are-stupid: Those who did not participate but are greatly inconvenient (e.g my FB feeds are all about Bersih, you guys are getting in between me and my other content you know!) by what happened. So they start calling protesters and all who support the event, names. Oblivious to the fact that what the participants fight for, also benefit them.
19) The born again Malaysian: They transformed and became REAL Malaysians post-event. Because they finally experienced first hand a united spirit and kindness extended by other races (albeit living in this country all their lives). Their birthright and nationality renewed and now they want to fight even more for their country.
20) The VIPs: Political figure, NGO figure, celebs, someone's daughter, someone's son, whatever. They are a spirit-booster to the protesters. When they turn up, they heighten the spirit of the people. They may be with the crowd but somehow always have an exit planned (that no one knows).
And finally...
21) The blur nut: "What happened last weekend? Haaa, got meh~"
OH AND ONE MORE!
22) The I'm-not-a-Malaysian-anymore Malaysian: "I'm a ___________" (e.g Londoner, New Yorker, Australian, whatever).
So which one are you? Not part of the list? Then let me know, I'll add on.
(Don't lar angry, joke joke aje...)
The moral of the story is... there are many kinds of us and it's okay to be who you are, so long your conscience is clean and you stick to your guns, instead of poking it at other Malaysians who simply fall into a different category. No?
1) The political hijackers: Opportunists who sidetrack the participants to other causes (e.g voting for them) by taking advantage of the high spirits. The strategy is to sell, "If you don't want BN, means you want XYZ". Mixing people's motivation to create a new logic. Smart-nya.
2) The chant leader: Comprehends the facts about the cause and understand why they are there for. They lead in songs and war-cries to lift and maintain the spirit of the people during the protest. May or may not be neutral in their political stance but they are definitely cause focused.
3) The hardcore 'blind' protester type: Almost the jihad kind without a cause. Look for every opportunity to cari gaduh with the authorities. Must have been rejected many times to be an extra in movie shoots.
4) The neutral type: Participates because of a single reason (e.g need electoral reforms), and understand basic supporting facts (e.g why need electoral reforms) but not the iceberg details. Basically peaceful. Not there to be a hero, but there to support others to make a point. Usually quite level-headed and prefer to not scuffle (e.g peaceful come, peaceful go).
5) The tourist type: Participates because it's a one in a lifetime national event. May have initially gone for the cause, but got sidetracked by the carnival-ish atmosphere. But when things turn ugly, they go home with a lot of photos and suddenly remember why they were angry in the first place.
6) The accidental hero: Their instinct is to get people out of trouble because they are wise enough to know some of them will get into serious trouble. They sometimes appear in photographs helping others to get to safety. But there are many unsung ones too. Those who helped indirectly, feeding and giving refuge to teargassed protesters in their shop, letting down the shutters to keep them safe. Whoa~ gooseys! x
7) The
8) The samseng police: Police who feels a snowballed oppression (may come from the government but he cannot identify the source anymore). So when protesters taunt them, they feel the need to 'teach them a lesson' and to show the citizens, who's the boss. So they group up and beat em' like a boss.
9) The neutral police: He doesn't have a choice but to uphold the orders of his superior. He doesn't agree nor disagree with the protests but generally prefers things to be kept in order. Therefore he doesn't respond nor react to taunters.
10) The undercover police 1: He pretends to be one of the protesters and creates a drama to give the authorities a reason to do a 'Die Hard' (minus the explosion) clamp down.
11) The undercover police 2: Actually, he really wants to be a protester, wearing his yellow spirit under his uniform. He looks at the situation and tries to be strong. He feels the spirit of the people yet he cannot defy the orders that came with his FRU uniform. Normally, these type will sit and start questioning themselves, post-event. Amazed by what happened and what he saw today.
12) The citizen journalist: They take themselves as independent media recording the event from their perspectives. But without training and experience, they easily misunderstand the situation without further investigation, taking only what they see as proof of events. Objective contexts are usually absent from most of their reporting causing bias. But they are the strongest advocates of the event.
13) The independent media versus mainstream media: 'nuff said. They only see what their own medium aims to report. No matter what happened, there will always be two sides to a story pro their own beliefs.
14) The convenient Malaysian: Fairly oblivious to what's happening in KL. Continues their shopping spree in 1U, Mid Valley, staying out of KL because there are 'road blocks'. Curse when it's jammed and blame the protesters, oblivious to the fact that LDP is jammed every day at every hour.
15) The outposters: Malaysians who are in other countries, sat down and chat with other Malaysians to give their home country support. They may or may not realize their fellow citizens are running for their lives, while they meet new friends and set new 'makan-makan' appointments should there be a next gathering.
16) The quiet supporters: Secretly, they want to be there but due to unforeseen circumstances (or whatever circumstances), they can't. Normally, they have at least one or two close friends who are participating. They are generally affected by the turn of events, providing encouragement to those who participated, secretly promising to themselves, I WILL BE THERE NEXT YEAR DAMNIT!
17) The commentators: Those who were not there and experienced nothing but share their opinion based on photographs and for/against write-ups online. Usually after one or two monumental artefact then they will fly into judgement. Read: No.12 + No. 17 = Pretty potent.
18) The I'm-greater-than-you-oh-who-are-stupid: Those who did not participate but are greatly inconvenient (e.g my FB feeds are all about Bersih, you guys are getting in between me and my other content you know!) by what happened. So they start calling protesters and all who support the event, names. Oblivious to the fact that what the participants fight for, also benefit them.
19) The born again Malaysian: They transformed and became REAL Malaysians post-event. Because they finally experienced first hand a united spirit and kindness extended by other races (albeit living in this country all their lives). Their birthright and nationality renewed and now they want to fight even more for their country.
20) The VIPs: Political figure, NGO figure, celebs, someone's daughter, someone's son, whatever. They are a spirit-booster to the protesters. When they turn up, they heighten the spirit of the people. They may be with the crowd but somehow always have an exit planned (that no one knows).
And finally...
21) The blur nut: "What happened last weekend? Haaa, got meh~"
OH AND ONE MORE!
22) The I'm-not-a-Malaysian-anymore Malaysian: "I'm a ___________" (e.g Londoner, New Yorker, Australian, whatever).
So which one are you? Not part of the list? Then let me know, I'll add on.
(Don't lar angry, joke joke aje...)
The moral of the story is... there are many kinds of us and it's okay to be who you are, so long your conscience is clean and you stick to your guns, instead of poking it at other Malaysians who simply fall into a different category. No?
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment