Brave new world

By Helen Ang

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The headline I’ve chosen comes from the title of a book by Aldous Huxley. I love science fiction and its grandmasters Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov, and the genre’s vintage era authors.  

Lately though, I’ve been feeling rather more like the character drawn by younger and contemporary writer Orson Scott Card. The little boy in his Hugo and Nebula-wining novel Ender’s Game is fighting real battles in a ‘cyber’ war. In the book’s sequel Speaker for the Dead, a grown-up Ender learns to give voice to people who can no longer speak for themselves.  

One thing I’ve noticed about sci-fi fans: We have imagination. Haris has chosen Martin Luther King as the People’s Parliament icon – the small red-and-blue portrait above “We are many colours” – while our tag alludes to King daring to “have a dream”.  

I commend PP participant Kean who said “Being able to take the first step is a big deal for me”. Like the Chinese saying goes, it’s the first step that begins the journey of a thousand li. That’s why my friend Chin Huat was urging that Hartal must encompass a wider and a more long-term vision that keeps the destination in mind, i.e. to take our country back.  

Reclaim our rights and our institutions – including MSM – from the rot! 

Like Kean, I’m taking steps in new directions too, going to the ground and publicly putting my name to the Hartal campaign. I’ve today chosen the theme ‘Brave New World’ because 2008 is our Year of Courage. 

Kean also asked that the older guys, like Birdseye who has 30 years on him, “should encourage the youngsters to join this battle, not the opposite way”. I’m years older than you Kean and I do en‘courage’ you. I’ll walk with you as Haris has walked me to cross the Rubicon.  

And you Kean have in turn encouraged me with your support. I like your idea of designing a T-Shirt like Bersih’s. You say: “It will be damn cool to wear them every day and to tell others that we, the MSM boycotter exist and fully support this campaign!!” I say: Koolness … so what colours would you pick?  

When a door closes, a window opens.  

This year has been something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue for me. I’m swapping the old lamp (negative people) for new, i.e. those who understand why we must pursue this course. I’ve got feedback that some people are indeed taking up the Boycott and Vijay joked that if he could read Tamil, he’d have boycotted Samy Vellu’s newspapers too. 

Birdseye has teased I’m Helen of Penang. Urm, not quite lah. My birth cert states I was born in KL, my IC has a Selangor address and I’m a registered voter in PJ Utara. No prizes for guessing who I WON’T be casting my ballot for. 

So you see Kean, our big bro Birdseye though possessing 55 years of wisdom is not infallibly correct. The young still have something to teach the not-that-olds.  

Penang has an aged parochial mind. It’s the mentality that decrees while you can vote Opposition for Parliament you should retain the incumbents for state seats. The Penangite, it seems, cares a darn sight more about things his assemblyman might deliver, such as street lamps, tarred roads, RM1 million sculptures along these roads and neon-lit coconut trees erected at roundabouts.  

This is a mindset that hedges its bets. I’m a risk taker, so emphatically NOT! “Helen of [cautious, conservative, complacent, complaisant, complaint and complicit Chinese] Penang” and I’m glad Kean is one who dares to dream too as he says he’ll lend me a hand.  

When a bunch of guys share a common interest, say in soccer, they get together, form a team, organise a game and play ball. I consider Kean as part of the First 11 and we’ll take to the field.  

I also consider the average Penangite having little common ground with me and this is the “something blue” of my new year but I’ll just leave them cocooned in their Safe Old World while we seek our brave new one.  

Yet I do say their ‘safe’ haven island is an illusionary bubble because they are pretending not to see the 800lb gorilla in the room. That’s why I feel we’re in a guerrilla war because the odds are so stacked against us. The BN scale is assuredly very imbalanced, so much so that we, the people, have reached tipping point.  

BN warlocks and their MSM whining familiars must be tipped out.