Why I am what I am today, politically...

ZIMA

I used to be someone who has very little interest in politics. In fact, I don't even care about the elections and even though I was very interested in history (reading from books not learning from teachers mind you. And more to international history than local mind you again :)) my interest is more to historical warfare, battles and such, never for the numerous politic articles in the book.

Then came the year 1998. It was the year where Malaysia hosted the Commonwealth Games (I was touched by songs inspired by the games, I kid you not! :P), a Proton Perdana entered our life (ok, that was a little on the personal side but I remembered many moments of 1998 because of that car) and the most famous; the sacking of Anwar Ibrahim; Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister and touted by the West as the next Man of South East Asia.

A short historical summary on Anwar Ibrahim. He was an MCKK student, more to the Islamist activist side. There were many issues championed by him and he cause quite a ruckus to the government of the day by his activity as he was the stauch supporter of the People Power Movement (no doubt influenced by his admiration of the Philippines People Power Movement). All is well for Anwar Ibrahim, for some thought that he will be the champion of this kind of movement and lead the oppositions to the end. The inevitable happens. He was recruited into UMNO by Dr. Mahathir (Dr. M) and jump ranks at astonishing speed and retain the post of Deputy Prime Minister at the tender age of 50 (+ -). I still remember an Asiaweek article about his private life (everyday jobs, family life) and to tell you the truth, I used to respect the man. Here is a young Malaysian leader who has attained the rank of DPM and was both respected by the West and adored by the Islamic nations for his moderate Islamic ways.

But again, all is not well for Anwar Ibrahim. He was sacked by Dr. M (the man who literally brought him up politically) under the account of corruptions and sodomy. It all began when a man decided to write a book called "50 Reasons Why Anwar Cannot Be Prime Minister". Anwar used his power to obtained an injunction to stop the sale of the books and this resulted in the public (to entice people to buy certain products, try banning them :P). Police reports were made against him, investigations started and the rest is history. At first, I believe that he was innocent, but his later actions made me think twice and stick with my stand, until today.

Back to my political activeness, the Anwar Ibrahim case made me what I've become today; politically. Some friend who dubbed themselves Islamist was very vocal in their support for Anwar Ibrahim and against Dr. M and the government. At first, I didn't care at all. Support Anwar and hate the government for all I care. Do what your heart tells you but leave me alone. Then it started. Friends questioned my political belief. Trying to argue with me about the current political issues and on why I supported the government. At first I stave them off as gentle as I can. Every taunts I answered as nicely as possible and try to reasons as positive as I can. However, something in me snapped. If this is the way they wanted, I would fight fire by fire rather than by water. I started to be as sarcastic as I can when arguing and I not only defended myself, but start attacking as well.

And this continues until today, where so far I have "waged war" in Yahoo! groups, other blogs, Facebook and even Friendster. But come to think of it, many of my posting of opinions and writings were intended to defend the action of the governments and merely to counter unproven accusations that I felt harmful. After all, people are susceptible to hearsays and many tends to believe what they heard or read wholeheartedly news that come from unproven resources and many, too many of the accusations against the government have no basis or credibility.

This I believe has became the basis of my fight; to educate and open up people mind so that they will not accept anything that they heard or read without first investigating the sources or the true story.