Thursday, June 21, 2007

Kunta Kinte Is Alive!

I have been preaching about "Slave Mentality" for a few days now. It is not due to my ill feelings towards anyone in particular. Rather, it was all out of frustration. And, this writing is not intended to put blame on any specific person or persons and I mean no harm to anyone (or maybe I do). I am just angry about the whole enchiladas, the society as a whole. It’s just that it’s becoming a stumbling block to any progress that we are working hard for. All the sweats and tears of some people means nothing and worth not even a cent with the people that subscribe to the mentality around. What more if they are the leaders. It’s counter productive to the max, to say the least.

Surprisingly, it happens in a work place surrounded with self-proclaimed high performance culture like mine. And, for some pathetic reasons, it even exists in our so-called modern society, in our beloved nation that has been a free and independent state for half a century.

All these while, even without the assistance of a sophisticated refrigeration system in the early days, the mentality has been well-preserved. We still keep it intact until today even when the Portuguese, English and Japanese colonials are long gone.

Come to think of it, the pre-requisite is rather simple. If you are a Malaysian, no matter what your origin and race is, chances are you have this mentality. Either it comes to a surface or submerges under your thick skin cover, that's another story. It is hereditary or genetically being passed down by our fathers who got it from their fathers who got it from their fathers. Maybe it started way back in 1511 when the Portuguese armada set down their sails, lowered down their anchors and decided that they should colonize and take possession of the Malay kingdom of Malacca.

Being Malaysians, it's this mentality that stands in our way to be extraordinary person and our ability to create extraordinary results and achieve greatness. It's this slave mentality that prevents each one of us from standing tall as a free and independent man. With this mentality clinging on to our minds and blocking our view of ourselves, we always play ourselves small and at the same time, appear small and weak in the eyes of others.

We worship certain people of certain race and we bow down to people born with certain color of skin or hair. With the mentality, we are deprived of our ability to make our own decision without having to think what others think about it.

If we are not born with blonde hair and blue eyes, are we of lesser beings? For all that matters, all men are created equal in the eyes of God. And, no matter what shapes, sizes and colors we are, we breathe the same air. And, we have the same color of blood flowing underneath our skins.

Whoever we are, it’s time to wake up and smell the coffee. It’s time to wake up and look in the mirror and be proud of who we are. It’s time for us to stand up and be counted. And, pinch yourselves hard and believe it: the colonial era is over.

Chazz

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Death and Dying

I guess no matter who you are, we are still humans after all. No matter what background you came from, who you are in society or in corporate world and who your circles of friends are, you are still a human being. Whether you are a member of a royal family, a super rich corporate figure, an award-winning movie star or a powerful politician, deep down you are still the same human being. Even if you are surrounded by tons of gold or world’s best doctors and surgeons, you still cannot escape death. Nothing is certain except death. That I totally agree.

Reading through thoughts and experience of Allahyarham Zulrushdi (Al Fatihah) in his blog zulrushdi.net has got me thinking about it. God, I am afraid of death. And for that, I admire his strength and courage to accept and face the fact that he’s dying. I’m too small compared to him. I mean I know that I will die some day and I know that there’s nothing that can stop death from getting to me. But somehow, I always think that death is far, perhaps too far from me. Not me. Not today, at least. I have a lot more to do. I have tons of things I want to achieve. I have a lot of unfinished businesses I have to handle. I need more time. The inner part of me cries,”Oh God, don’t make me die today. My kids are still in school. My kids are not married. I have to see my grandchildren before I die. I have not told my mother, my wife, my kids and people around me that I love them. I have a lot more to achieve. And, my book…oh no, not today.” Then, I realize that I don’t have the power to either stop or delay death. And that I have to accept when and how it comes.

The most difficult part of dying is to part us with our worldly affairs. It’s our money, our job, our wives, our children, our friends, our bungalows, our cars, our investment portfolios and the list goes on and on. All those things hold us back and prevent us from accepting that death is just around the corner. Unlike Zulrushdi, we are not willing to let go all those. And unlike Zulrushdi, we don’t have enough strength to accept death. If today, I know that I would only one month to live, honestly, I wouldn’t know what to do.

The world has trapped us in our own little games. We are enslaved by the pressure to satisfy ourselves to the standards, which we think the world has set us to achieve. And every time, without fail, for some funny humanly reasons, we always think what others are getting is more than what we have. We always look out for greatness in other people. We never appreciate what we already have. And, we end up spending the rest of our life pushing ourselves to get more. And as we have more money, more power, higher status and higher ranks, we realize that we don’t have enough and there are a lot more that we want. And we work for more. At the same time, we develop stronger love to the world and we form unbreakable tie to the worldly things. We love this world too much to let it go.

Little that we realize, the world doesn’t really need us. When we die, we are gonna be forgotten unless we left something for people to remember us by. And, the love and contributions (good deeds) that we have given others, those will survive the test of time and stay forever.

ZulRushdi, Thank you for allowing me to be in your space. Thank you for teaching me to remember death. Thank you for making me realize the value of life.

Chazz