Ambiga : Not just brave but Great

The threats of arrests, the intimidating burger-protests in front of her home and the degrading butt-exercise by ex-army veterans failed to force Bersih Co-chairman Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan to submit to the demands of the powers to be. Now the suspected attempts to break in into her office and more to come we have just wait and see. Will all these underhand tactics shatter this brave and unwavering fighter for justice?

All great people were harassed and intimated into submission which they resisted. Ambiga is one such great person who will triumph in the end, with the support of the people. Ambiga is just not brave but great in willing to tread where many fear to do so, all for sake of the country, for you and I. By not fighting back against those chose to insult and disgrace her in ways that are inhuman, she has gained the respect of all Malaysians. She stands out as the conscience in the hearts of right thinking Malaysians.

By requesting to call off the "Thosai protect" as a tit-for-tat reaction to the burger-protest, she has indicated that she does not want to confront one wrong with another, which is a beautiful lesson for us as we are preparing for the most important elections. Confronting one wrong with another in a will make us no different from those doing wrong. In fact as Mahatma Gandhi said, “An eye for eye will only make the whole world blind”, which is not we want for our country.

Let's heed her example to uphold the rule of law and continue to do the right thing and the people will see the justice and goodness in what we do. The people are not stupid anymore. They are watching those in power making one mistake after another which they will pay for dearly at the right time.

Instead let's be patient and when the time is right, show our support for Ambiga and Bersih by going out in full force to cast our votes to indicate in no uncertain terms that we are not going to tolerate those who resort to undemocratic, unjust and racist tactics to cling to power. Let our choice be clear, ”Enough is enough”

Meanwhile let us send this message to her loud and clear, “We understand your anxieties and fears and we continue to pray for your safety and the victory of the principles which you are standing up for - JUSTICE. We will do our part to make to make Malaysia a better place not just for us but for our children"

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One Eyed Mother

A Mother's Sacrifice

 

The story of the one-eyed mother

My mom only had one eye. I hated her... she was such an embarrassment. My mom ran a small shop at a flea market. She collected little weeds and such to sell... anything for the money we needed she was such an embarrassment. There was this one day during elementary school.

I remember that it was field day, and my mom came. I was so embarrassed.

How could she do this to me? I threw her a hateful look and ran out. The next day at school..."Your mom only has one eye?!" and they taunted me.

I wished that my mom would just disappear from this world so I said to my mom, "Mom, why don't you have the other eye?! You're only going to make me a laughingstock. Why don't you just die?" My mom did not respond. I guess I felt a little bad, but at the same time, it felt good to think that I had said what I'd wanted to say all this time.

Maybe it was because my mom hadn't punished me, but I didn't think that I had hurt her feelings very badly.

That night...I woke up, and went to the kitchen to get a glass of water. My mom was crying there, so quietly, as if she was afraid that she might wake me. I took a look at her, and then turned away.

Because of the thing I had said to her earlier, there was something pinching at me in the corner of my heart. Even so, I hated my mother who was crying out of her one eye. So I told myself that I would grow up and become successful, because I hated my one-eyed mom and our desperate poverty.

Then I studied really hard. I left my mother and came to Seoul and studied, and got accepted in the Seoul University with all the confidence I had. Then, I got married. I bought a house of my own. Then I had kids, too. Now I'm living happily as a successful man. I like it here because it's a place that doesn't remind me of my mom.

This happiness was getting bigger and bigger, when someone unexpected came to see me "What?! Who's this?!" ...It was my mother...Still with her one eye. It felt as if the whole sky was falling apart on me. My little girl ran away, scared of my mom's eye.

And I asked her, "Who are you? I don't know you!!!" as if I tried to make that real. I screamed at her "How dare you come to my house and scare my daughter! GET OUT OF HERE! NOW!!!" And to this, my mother quietly answered, "oh, I'm so sorry. I may have gotten the wrong address," and she disappeared. Thank good ness... she doesn't recognize me. I was quite relieved. I told myself that I wasn't going to care, or think about this for the rest of my life.

Then a wave of relief came upon me...one day, a letter regarding a school reunion came to my house. I lied to my wife saying that I was going on a business trip. After the reunion, I went down to the old shack, that I used to call a house...just out of curiosity there, I found my mother fallen on the cold ground. But I did not shed a single tear. She had a piece of paper in her hand.... it was a letter to me.


She wrote:

My son...

I think my life has been long enough now. And... I won't visit Seoul anymore... but would it be too much to ask if I wanted you to come visit me once in a while? I miss you so much. And I was so glad when I heard you were coming for the reunion. But I decided not to go to the school.... For you... I'm sorry that I only have one eye, and I was an embarrassment for you.

You see, when you were very little, you got into an accident, and lost your eye. As a mother, I couldn't stand watching you having to grow up with only one eye... so I gave you mine...I was so proud of my son that was seeing a whole new world for me, in my place, with that eye. I was never upset at you for anything you did. The couple times that you were angry with me.

I thought to myself, 'it's because he loves me.' I miss the times when you were still young around me

I miss you so much. I love you. You mean the world to me.

My world shattered!!!

Then I cried for the person who lived for me... My Mother

 

Comments

This a very touching story of a man who realized the value of his mother a little too late.

It should be a lesson to us that we should value our mother when she is still with us. All the sacrifice she made for us should be appreciated every day when she is still with us, not when she is dead and gone. All the tears we shed and all the remorse we have after that is useless.

Let us use this story to reflect on our own dealings and attitude towards our mother. One of the greatest virtues that a human should behold is gratitude to those who have lent a hand in times of trouble. A  man who   is not grateful to his own mother, is not worthy to call himself a son and one who ill-treats her  is not worthy to be called a HUMAN, as even lower animals care for their mothers.  

Lessons from Bersih 3.0

Confronting the people will lead to defeat

Bersih 3.0 - Duduk Bantah

Bersih 3.0 rally may be over but its effects on the people continue to reverberate among the people till today and I am sure it will do so for weeks and months to come. Although by enlarge it was a peaceful assembly but at the final moments it became violent which was indeed unfortunate and ugly. Many reasons were given for the rally to become ugly, with each party pointing a finger at the other as the culprit.

The facts and images of the cause of the violence are there for everyone to see but it needs a matured mind to see them in an unbiased way. Unfortunately there are not many with such unbiased minds today among politicians in particular those from the ruling party who continue to be in a state of denial. There are calls for an independent inquiry to get to the cause of the violence but most Malaysians with unbiased minds don’t see the need for that as the evidence is there clearly for all to see who the real culprits were. Furthermore experience as shown we can never have a truly independent panel in Malaysia. Even the Election commission which is supposed to be apolitical is headed by members of the ruling party, severely undermining its neutrality although the EC chairman ridiculously claims he will be impartial.

The recent panel set up by the government, headed by the former IGP Tun Mohammad Hanif Omar to look into the violence at the Bersih rally clearly shows the fears the government has for a truly independent inquiry. How can Hanif, having condemned the Bersih rally as being communist, be impartial as the Chairman of the panel? Moreever being the former police chief how can he investigate police brutality?

If the government is sincere in wanting to find the real culprits behind the violence it must accept Suhakam or the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Frank La Rue, who offered to conduct an independent investigation into the Bersih 3.0 rally on April 28.However as expected the government refused to accept either of them. Can a former IGP can be more neutral than an official representative from the UN, the most respected world body?   

The major issue of the Bersih 3.0 is the demand for clean and fair election. In spending so much time and energy into finding out who is the cause of the violence, which many believe was provoked, the government is misdirecting its attention away from the main issue at hand. It was not  a few hundred people taking to the streets but more than 100,000,some say as much as 300,000, ordinary people from all races and all walks of life. The large turnout on the day is the most significant sign that the BN government seemed to have missed. For every one who turned up, there could be at least a hundred who couldn’t.

The other important fact was that this time around there were more highly qualified people who freely chose to take to the streets hand in hand with the common man and youths. There were many professionals, lecturers, professors and other respected people and the many dedicated people from the various NGOs besides the politicians. They were not people ignorant on what is going on in the country but people who know what they were asking of their government. They were not asking for something extraordinary but something very basic as citizens and provided for in the constitution with which they were well versed; a clean, fair and free elections to choose a government for the next 5 years. Is that wrong? 

By confronting them with water cannons and tear gas and even arresting and manhandling them the authorities have done a great disservice to the ruling party. What they have done is pitting the government against the people, failing to realize that in any battle between the people and the government, the former will always be the final winner. History has shown that no government, however powerful, that takes arms against its own citizens has survived for long.

Instead of studying the calls of the protesters, the government and the EC are mocking and ridiculing the people for demanding for electoral reforms. They are threatening the people with all sorts of underhand tactics. Who were the petty traders who staged a burger protest in front the home of Bersih co-chairman Ambiga Sreenevasan? Who were the people who protested with a mock funeral service for Penang Chief Minister at the gates of his residence? Why did the police not intervene to stop these illegal and un-Malaysian practices of intimidating respected national leaders? Who are these people with special immunity?

The solution is easy for the government. Be on the side of the people, listen and address their grouses fairly and it will win their hearts. It should engage and not confront Bersih which represents millions of ordinary non-political citizens who will be voters in the coming 13GE. By ignoring the voices of the people the government has seriously cast doubts in the minds of the people on its willingness to reform which it has promised. Why the reluctance to bring electoral reforms? By adopting a confrontational stance and going against the very people they are elected to serve, they have indeed lost more support from the people who were still undecided on who to vote.

For the people the solution is also easy. They have sent Bersih to negotiate with the government for clean elections which it has not only turned but treated its leaders and participants like criminals, even calling them communists trying to topple the government. If the government continues to ignore them the people will resort to the power of their votes to bring in the party that will be sympathetic to their demands. 

The BN must come to its senses that at present the sentiment among the people at large is for change and this feeling is spreading fast with each progressive day as it continue to make more and more mistakes. The increasing anti-BN sentiments is not because of Bersih, Anwar Ibrahim or Pakatan Rakyat but solely due to its own folly and state of denial. Political change is inevitable as that is what the people going to do come the 13GE.