Not Always Boleh
by Marina Mahathir
for the uninitiated, boleh = can, tak boleh = cannot
Marina Mahathir is Dr. Mahathir's daughter and a vocal social and governmental policy critic.
AS we reach our 46th birthday and cries
of "Malaysia Boleh" ring
out,we should really reflect on this a bit. I am
one of those who
always find these constant shouts of "Malaysia
Boleh" a bit tiresome.
Not to be a spoilsport or anything, it's just
that sometimes our focus
on what we boleh (can) seems rather shallow.
I have great admiration for Malaysians who can
sail solo around the
world, climb Everest, explore Antarctica and
brave the English
Channel. These are truly great feats and the
glory achieved by them
reflects on us, and motivates others to try and
do similar things.
What I have some problem with are the types of
Malaysia Boleh feats
that have to do with creating the longest popiah,
the most number
of teh tarik pulls, the most number of sticks of
satay eaten, etc. No
doubt everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame,
but after that,...what?
Will the person who ate the most number of
durians ever be featured
in Hari Ini dalam Sejarah?
As we all scramble to get into some book of
records for things we
boleh do, I wonder if we ever reflect on the
things we tak boleh
(cannot) do? Here is a partial list, in no
particular order:
We tak boleh talk about many things because they
are deemed too
sensitive for some unknown people's ears. Thus,
there are so many
things swept under the carpet now that we can
hardly walk without
tripping.
We tak boleh complain about how some people in
authority behave.
We tak boleh show affection to our loved ones in
public because
some people think it's obscene.
The women among us tak boleh feel safe in public
because if
something happens to us, it's always our fault.
We tak boleh be trusted to decide for ourselves
whether a movie is
good or bad.
We women tak boleh look at pictures of women's
bodies in women's
magazines; they have to be blacked out.
Young people tak boleh be given information about
the many bad things
that could happen to them even though this could
save their lives.
Universities tak boleh be left with more women
students because this
may lead to a very empowered population of women.
And what's more
they may start demanding that women be given vice-
chancellor posts!
We tak boleh ask why the authorities have some
ruling or other
because then they may actually have to think of a
good reason for
them.
We tak boleh, tak boleh, tak boleh talk about
religion even though
sometimes the implementation of religious rulings
can make our
lives miserable.
We tak boleh complain when cars are triple parked
on Fridays because,
hey, what is a human law when they're breaking it
to commune with God?
We tak boleh be sure anything we do will be
judged on its own merits;
we must get some VIP to help us.
We tak boleh excel in many things, including
sports, because someone
will tell us why we tak boleh do it (too
difficult, not nice, not
feminine, too much work, no money in it, etc).
We tak boleh point out the contradictions in our
society because
it's, well, embarrassing (like, how come we're so
religious and so
superstitious at the same time?).
We tak boleh teach our kids to think because then
they may ask us
too many questions.
We tak boleh act as if we would like to think
about things too, and
then give our opinion.
We tak boleh trust our young people even though
one day, whether we
like it or not, they will take over the country
(unless we turn
them into clones of us of course).
We tak boleh deny the fact that Siti Nurhaliza is
a lot more
influential than most politicians (who else can
sell out a lipstick
by just mentioning it?). But then Siti tak boleh
make our lives
miserable.
We tak boleh talk back, unless we couch it in
polite terms. Never
mind that the person we want to talk back to has
been very rude.
Every day it seems we are encouraged to do things
to prove we are the
best, biggest, brightest. But rarely are we ever
encouraged to be
thinking and compassionate human beings with
opinions of our own,
especially if those opinions are different from
the norm. Are we to
show Malaysia Boleh only in harmless non-
threatening ways even
though these often have no long-term benefit? Or
should we really be
challenging ourselves in our minds and hearts?
