Call it a series
of coincidences but several things happened that led to this blog post. First
it was a WhatsApp conversation with my favourite Young Pork Guzzling Muslim Politician
(“YPGMP”) on why people in Myanmar should not have been protesting military
rule. Then, over the weekend, India celebrated 75-years of Independence from
British Rule. Say what you like about India and Indian nationals but as anyone
who has seen the movie Gandhi will tell you, was a hard-fought battle and
despite the attempts of being “non-violent,” you had some unforgettably violent
moments like the partition between India and Pakistan. Without the struggles of
Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru, Lee Kuan Yew and his Gang would have had a much
harder fight on their hands. Then, I started binge watching Fauda, an Israeli
drama about a unit that infiltrates the Palestinian territories and finally,
there was the conquest of Kabul by the Taliban.
All these
events got me thinking of one key question. – Why do people fight and protest,
particularly when they’re on the side that will most likely lose? As the famous
military saying goes “God is on the side of the Big Battalions,” which meant
that the bigger force inevitably wins the wars. In a confrontation, the bigger
guy inevitably crushes the small guy. Size, as they say matters. Hence, big
animals like elephants don’t have predators and combat sports like boxing are
inevitably separated into weight categories. The only time in recorded history
when a small guy went ahead to take on a giant was when David took on Goliath
and he only did so because he had someone bigger in his corner (God).
Nature has
shown consistently that the guy with the greater force inevitably wins and the
small guy either flees or learns to cooperate with the big guy. Take the basics
of Singapore politics. We had Lee Kuan Yew who branded himself as God within Singapore.
However, if you read his biography, you’ll notice that the late Mr. Lee’s
greatest skill was being an insect that could work with bigger animals. In the
early days, he was careful to stay on the good side of the British. Then as the
Americans became more prominent, he’d rush to Washington to be the regional
consultant to US Presidents. When China started coming up, he ran off to Beijing
to become their development consultant. The plan was simple, it was to ensure
that all the big animals of the geopolitical jungle had a stake of sorts in
keeping Singapore safe and sound.
However, Mr.
Lee made one crucial mistake. Whilst he was busy showing the beast of the geopolitical
jungle that Singapore was a valuable insect, he also went out of his way to
remind his people that they were nothing more than insects that could be
crushed should they get any pesky ideas. Mr. Lee then sold the Singaporean
worker to the multinationals as being wonderfully compliant. The selling point was
not so much the fact that our workforce was well educated but that it would
never go on strike. In his book, Mr. Lee attributes to fall of the British to strikes.
To be fair, Mr.
Lee’s initial strategy was successful and made Singapore a wonderfully prosperous
place. However, there was one problem. Mr. Lee drilled it into us that all forms
of protest and civic participation was bad. If you talk to enough Singaporeans,
you’ll notice that they have a chronic inability to understand why people from
other parts of the world would ever risk things like protest and confrontation,
particularly against a more powerful force.
The YPGMP
brought this home to me when he started telling me about why he felt that his employer’s
workers in their Myanmar outlet should not protest:
He dismissed it
as people getting involved in things that didn’t involve them. I tried to
explain that whilst this may be the case in Singapore, it’s not necessarily in
the case elsewhere. He argued that it was the protesters against military rule
that were ruining the country, as opposed to military rule itself.
According to a
friend, who is the marketing director of an insurance company in Myanmar, this
attitude is common amongst Singaporeans. He told me of a Singaporean who was
the CEO of local Myanmar Bank who tried to explain how the killing of the first
protestor was justified and how everything would be fine if people stopped
protesting.
As far as the
late Mr. Lee was concerned, all forms of protest were bad. I take myself as a
sad example. I tend to avoid arguments with people like bosses. Answer is
simple, what is an argument going to get me. The stress of confrontation is not
worth it as long as the money is in my bank account when I expect it to be.
However, that’s
because I live and operate in the Singapore context. Losing a source of income
will be tough and as long as my various employers don’t get involved in dubious
stuff, I’m OK. I take care of my family and myself as long as I have a job. So,
what do I really have to fight against? Sure, I have difficult days at work
and deal with difficult people but that’s about it.
This isn’t
necessarily the case outside of Singapore. It’s definitely not the case in the
Gaza strip or in Kabul or in Myanmar. It’s
a case of what is your life worth and an extent, who are you living it for. I
worry about making a living and having money to help the kid make her life a
little better. However, there are parts of the world where money isn’t the only
issue. As much as I might complain about the Singapore government, I don’t
worry that some official will one day decide to screw everything up for my kid
and her kids. There are, funnily enough, parts of the world where people are
screwed for the crime of being born. Parents have the option of trying to flee
or trying to change the system even if it costs them their lives.
Singaporeans are
lucky in the sense that we are nominally a democracy. Hence, we can get heard
every so often. However, what’s to stop a rogue from coming into power and
making sure that we live through the same situation that the people in Kabul or
the Gaza Strip live in?
Nobody is
asking for a revolution and as long as the people are willing to stand up for
themselves and communicate with those in power and those in power are willing
to listen, we can ensure that the scenes in Yangon don’t happen here. However,
if the people are not heard and made powerless, then who is to say when revolutions
become a necessity.
Insects when
they gather together can make life very uncomfortable for the biggest beast.
Nasty
Insects made the Elephant Flee in Kabul and Saigon – Copyright Al Jazera.
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