In the last few days, my conversations with a friend had been rather revealing.

Friend said: “All I want is peace and prosperity in this country. What is important is I can still earn a living and my family is safe. All that protests do is destroy our country’s image and it does not change anything but only affects business. Of course, there is corruption and discrimination- which country doesn’t have this problem. We must accept the reality and work around the system. As long as I can work, earn a living why change the system. “

Sounds familiar isn’t it. It is a sentiment I hear in many circles. In fact it reveals a core value or world-view. Ideals.

This ideal is one of a “Self-centered passive-realist” - it is the ideology that says you can’t change the system, its bigger than you. Work with and around the system. All you can do is care for your immediate needs and family. Fighting for equality, rights and clean government is all wishful thinking and should not be pursued if you value your family safety.

I just wonder how many of us has ever put into paper our value system so blatantly. Is this your value system?

What makes some of us go to the Bersih rally, write blogs like an activists and some even arrested for standing up for a cause? As my friend asked, “what made you an activist?”

Who wouldn’t want peace and prosperity? We all want security for ourselves and our family.
We all want to earn a living - to have our business grow and our professions develop.
Who amongst us - don’t care for our children’s future or safety?
And who amongst us don’t hope for a better tomorrow.
These are all hopes and ideals we share.

It doesn’t take a guru to tell you that life is all about trade-offs. You don’t always get what you want and you don’t always get all you want in life. In fact, it is a battle to keep what you have and a battle to get what you want. I am not just talking about achieving sales targets or business profits. It applies to all of life.

You trade off what is less valuable to obtain what is more valuable if life.

Example: A man works long hours in the office, trading off spending time with his 2 year old daughter 5 days a week. Weekends, his is on the phone constantly busy with sales figures, reporting, updating and checking. He trades off his weekend time of watching TV and visiting relatives for the pursuit of profits.

Familiar? This man values the pursuit of money, more than developing family relationship. I am not saying he is wrong or right, but it is his choice based on his value system or world view. Ask him if he thinks his family is important to him, he will answer without a beat: “Of course. I work hard to earn money for my family so that they can be happy.” For him, money is the ultimate source of all happiness. Interaction or quality time is not as valuable as money.

Applying this analogy to my question above - you can see that a lot of us who turn up at the Bersih rally, use plenty of time to write about issues of justice, equality, rights and freedom and becoming activist-bloggers have traded upwards.

We have traded our fears, our selfish wants, our personal interests and our familiar comfort zones for ideals that transcends ourselves.

Yes we want peace, prosperity and security. But at what price? What is traded off? The price of freedom, equality and justice?

No? Are you saying that you can have peace prosperity and security without a price?

So far, Malaysians in general have accepted this ideology - that as long as you don’t challenge the system, you can have peace prosperity and security. Isn’t that what the BN government have been saying? Stable government is good for business.

Stable government that has governed this country has also been sucking dry its resources via corruption and misuse of funds. A fair price to pay for peace?

What about prosperity? How long can this country prosper if the brain drain continues, discriminatory practices abound to promote those less deserving and the economy managed by what Tun Mahathir describes as ‘half-past six cabitnet’? Will we be able to compete with the big China or even rising Vietnam?

Activists believe that ideals such as righteousness, equality and justice are fundamental values for nation building. It is the bed rock for any nation to prosper and grow. And we honestly want to see our nation grow and prosper for all Malaysians.
Idealistic? Yes. Cynics don’t change the world. Name me one cynic who has ever made the world a better place, or invented something useful? You want to be a cynic?

These ideals are for us more important than our fears, our selfish needs or our familiar comfort zones. It is not to say we don’t value family, or professional progress or peace. It is just that these ideals are far more valuable in the long run than these. In a sense it is on a higher rung of a value system.

I suspect that many amongst us has fallen to the defeatist thinking of a passive-realist. Deep inside us, we want a better Malaysia. Our blood boil when we see injustice. Our blood is too Malaysian to migrate. Migration is our last resort because we know deep inside it doesn’t solve anything. But we fear. We fear for our lives, we fear arrest. We fear imprisonment. We fear speaking. We fear hoping. We dont want to have wishful thinking. We dont want to be labeled a Silly Idealist.

I also suspect that some of us have become cynical. “We have given up fighting. It is no use. Better to migrate. Better to think about the family first. No point dying for a cause too great to bear. No point being a Malaysian when we are second class citizens. All that is important is me, myself, my family. All those who keep protesting and being idealistic are just immature and inexperienced. They will all turn around one day and become like us. Cynics. We don’t change the world. But we have the world.”

Which are you? Which values do you hold?
Are you a Malaysian that will fight for righteousness, equality and justice?
Are these your ideals? Or is the Twin towers all that you are proud of being a Malaysian?

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