Who will go amok?

Who will go amok?
Sim Kwang Yang , Malaysiakini
Nov 25, 06 11:51am

SIM KWANG YANG was DAP MP for Bandar Kuching in Sarawak 1982-1995.
Since retiring in 1995, he has become a freelance writer in the
Chinese-language press, and taught philosophy in a local college for
three years.

He is now working with an NGO in Kuala Lumpur, the Omnicron Learning
Circle, which is aimed at continuing learning for working adults and
college students. Suggestions and feedback can reach him at:
kenyalang578@hotmail.com.

'An Examined Life' appears in Malaysiakini every Saturday.
OF all our human emotions, rage is probably the basest, the most
destructive, and the least understood element of our psyche.

Psychotic rage is indeed fearsome, being a precursor to, and a
compulsive driving force for inexplicable unspeakable acts of
violence. Springing forth from the darkest nadir of his being,
somewhere deep in the pit of his stomach, nameless broiling rage can
drive a man to strike out blindly, without consideration to the
consequences to others and to himself. In that one instance, all the
teaching of family upbringing, law and ethics evaporates, and the
civilised person turns into savage beast.

Therefore, rage is a little like temporary insanity; the trouble is
to define ‘insanity’.

Rage is a demon that dwells in the darkest crevices of our heart.
Some individuals seem more prone to its seductive power, and we call
them ‘hot-tempered’. Frankly, I do not think any human being is
ever spared its spell completely.

Exactly what sows the seeds of seething festering rage is not fully
known, although numerous psychologists have done numerous studies on
this human emotion. Perhaps it has its roots in some sub-conscious
fear of being grievously hurt. When the physical survival of the
human organism is threatened, or worse still, when the integrity of
the ego-complex faces the possibility of disintegration and
annihilation, the energy of will to life explodes out of desperation,
frustration, or simply defiance.

In the face of death for instance, the first reaction of the dying
person is probably rage, and hence the immortal opening lines of
Dylon Thomas' poem:

‘Do not go gently into the good night
Rage rages against the dying of the light’

Thomas' noble sentiment aside, rage does manifest itself as a
psychological disorder on the social dimension. It does lead to
anomaly in behaviour that threatens law and order, and often insults
our sense of human decency.

Violence begets violence

Domestic violence is one salient instance of rage proceeding beyond
the limits of civilised tolerance. Behind closed door, greater
violence can be inflicted upon a spouse or the children by the
perpetrator than can be visited upon wild beasts or pet animals. The
wounds to the soul of the victims are bound to stay for life.

What triggers and releases the wild beast in the otherwise rational
man is a mystery. Psychiatrist can point to some distant hurtful
childhood experience as the source of the smoldering fury repressed
in the heart. Violence begets violence. Behind every culprit of
domestic violence, lies
the story of an abused childhood. The unloved becomes the unloving.

Then again, the story of the infamous Malaysian road rage is harder
to explain satisfactorily,

You know the usual story. You stick your middle finger at the driver
who has just rudely and dangerously overtaken your car. Perhaps the
corner of your car bumper has brushed against his so ever slightly,
requiring a repair bill of RM20. He forces you to stop. The he gets
down with a baseball bat, smashes your windscreen, and proceeds to
beat you into a pulp.

One Saturday evening, I was inching forward in the stifling traffic
along Jalan Sultan Ismail when I saw a biker weaving in and out of
the snarling traffic. In his haste to get ahead, his leg brushed
against the side rear view window of a car next to mine. His face
contorting with fury and hatred, he tried to kick the offending car
driven by a young lady. Fortunately for everyone, he sped off,
looking back with venom at his imagined enemy.

On another occasion, I was inching forward somewhere near China town
in KL. There was a commotion on the oncoming lane. Two drivers were
involved in a violent fisticuff on the road, spinning in circles at
great speed, just like some bad Hollywood movie. What would the
tourists think!

Gangsters are known for great acts of cruel violent acts when they
come under the spell of an overwhelming rage. Actually that is a
myth. I have known of gangsters going very high on alcohol and drugs
before they go on the warpath.

Beneath their aggressive bravado, gangsters are often fearful for
their lives. They know very well the dictum that ‘those who live by
the parang shall die by the parang’. But as any friendly samseng
would tell you, they are forced by circumstances to cari makan with
their parang. They would use force only as a last resort. So when two
gangs are about to go to war, there is always a way to talk things
over, and to settle their dispute according to their clandestine
rules. Rare are the ones who kill out of an explosion of rage.

Talk things over

By and large, violent acts committed out of rage are considered to be
anomalies, exceptions rather than the rules. That kind of rage that
leads to violence is frowned upon by all the religions and ethical
systems that I know. Good breeding consists precisely in keeping our
beastly rage under control. Any person who gives in to his rage for
whatever reason is considered weak, if not now downright barbaric.
Getting yours under control is the essence of maturity of character.
Whatever the problem, we can always talk things over.

The kind of rage that drives a person to become berserk is still
understandable to some extent. What is difficult to understand is the
kind of collective rage whipped by a mass hysteria. Donald Horowitz
has studied 150 race riots of the world, including the Malaysian May
13 incident. He has given very valuable insights into the numerous
factors that fermented racial conflicts all over the world. One thing
he has not resolved is how perfectly reasonable human beings can
suddenly go berserk and turn into mass murderers overnight.

By now, we know that racial conflicts are a social fact, just like
warfare or religion. But prostitution, incest, murder and theft are
also social facts. Being social facts does not make anything
ethically acceptable.



By now, the world has seen enough innocent lives perish in numerous
conflicts and genocidal massacres. I dare say they are the worst
crimes against humanity and the biggest killers of the world's
population.

Strangely enough, in Malaysia, the sort of rage that drives mobs to
go on a killing spree has been elevated to the status of an
ideological tool. In a book written by a former prime minister
entitled The Malay Dilemma, going amok has been described as the
racial characteristic of the Malay people. According to this theory,
when the otherwise mild mannered Malays feel threatened, they give
vent to their rage and go berserk. That, according to the former PM,
is what caused the disturbance in 1969.

Great unease

That theory cannot be correct of course. It lacks scientific
credibility. I have many Malay friends, and they are no more likely
to go berserk as described by that infamous book than your average
Chinese, Indian, or Iban. Unfortunately, that faulty theory has since
become an integral part of the Malay nationalist myth as embodied by
Umno.

As far as I can remember, during every Umno general assembly, some
fools are bound to stand up and insinuate the myth of the Malay going
amok if they do not get what they want. The recent most Umno general
assembly is no exception. A sufficient number of seditious statements
have been made by Umno delegates for their arrest under the ISA
justifiably for the first time!

Of course this sort of open threat causes great unease among members
of the other ethnic communities. Even non-Malay journalists covering
the event were aghast at the audacity of Umno delegates in uttering
the unutterable in multi-racial Malaysia. One Chinese reporter
confessed that she could not sleep at night.

But the greatest victims of these extremist sentiments are the Malays
themselves. Those wayward Umno delegates have painted a picture of
the good Malay people as falling easy prey to irrational rage, at the
mere mention of insult to their race and religion, when in fact,
patience, courtesy and respect for others have always been the most
important virtues in Malay customs.

In recent days, Umno leading lights have been busy trying to put out
the fire set ablaze during the recent party assembly. Unfortunately
for them, the damage may have been done. Fortunately for the nation,
Malaysians of all races are very reasonable people. They may not want
to turn the other cheek, but they would not adhere strictly to the
dictum of ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’ either.

Unlike those Umno individuals who believe that going berserk is the
most effective means of achieving their political goals, most
Malaysians still know very well in their heart that giving way to
their basest emotion is shameful, cowardly and barbaric.