The
word macai, according to a very suspicious open dictionary, means a group of
people with low mentality, gullible , and easily influenced by negative
perceptions. This weird dictionary further defines macai as stalwart supporters
of a particular political party. I would prefer to define macai as supporters
of a group , with a loyalty beyond the boundaries of reason, and sometimes seeks to justify the
acts of their leaders, although they are clearly wrong. In Malay, the coin word for the
acts of a macai is "kesetiaan tak berbelah bahagi" .
I have no reason to write something so unpleasant,
but this is just an analysis I made after months of observation.
Macais and the macai
mentality exists everywhere, in every group and party. The very existence of
the macai mentality has succeeded to halt the progress of our nation's
political development. The general
characteristics of a macai is as follows;
1. Seeks to justify
every action and decisions made by their leaders, without trying to question
it.
2. Employs baseless
assumptions , slanders and pointless accusations due to the lack of facts on their side.
3. The ones who swears
on every political Facebook post.
4. Those people who
are going to dance and sing like hooligans tomorrow morning.
5. People who consider
those sodomy cases and sex videos as legit.
6. Every person that
ever said that we should be grateful to the government.
7. ISMA
A macai can either have all of
those above, or even only one of them, to be qualified as a macai. The reason
for their unwavering loyalty is beyond me- I have an idea for it, but that will
take another post for it. Dr Tariq Ramadan wrote about critical loyalty in his
book, What I Believe. Critical loyalty
is the exact opposite of macais' stalwartness. People with a critical loyalty believes in their ideology, but they seek to
question the acts made by their leaders, before they decide to follow. Islam is
the true religion, but that does not mean that I have to justify every act made
by Muslims. If some Muslims decided to bomb people alive for fun, then I should
criticize such actions.
Dan Ariely mentioned about
possessing an ideology in his writings. The concept of possession of ideology
is similar to the possession of our personal assets. Say that I have a bike
that I ride to college every day. I bought that bike with hard-earned cash, and the bike has
done so many things for me. I formed an emotional bond with my bike, and I do
like it very much. Therefore , I put a
great value upon that bike, and when I decide to sell it, it is most probable
that the price that I put is much higher than anyone would want the bike for.
The same goes for an ideology. When one took a liking in an idea, they put more
value on it than anyone else, and they seek to justify every single deficit
that the ideology has. For example, ISMA members enjoyed their activities so
much, for it is so fulfilling, that they decided to accept and justify every
action that their leader took. That is just an example.
Although I support PAS and its
endeavours, that does not mean that I should agree and justify every acts made by the party. The
act of some supporters who seek to justify every single action that PAS took,
for the reason that they are ulama' and
they know more, classifies them as macais. We don't need this kind of people in
our journey. This is a democracy, not a
monarchy. Every single person has the right and the ability to question
everything. Being an underling ,or just a normal member does not reduce our
brain capacity, nor does it take away our rights to question everything.
[And they should consider that] when those who have been followed disassociate themselves from those who followed [them], and they [all] see the punishment, and cut off from them are the ties [of relationship],
Sahih International
Those who followed will say, "If only we had another turn [at worldly life] so we could disassociate ourselves from them as they have disassociated themselves from us." Thus will Allah show them their deeds as regrets upon them. And they are never to emerge from the Fire. (Al-Baqarah, 166-167)
This is not a war , where you either
kill or be killed. This is just an election , where we have choices to make,
and we question ourselves on which choice to make. I need to question myself to
find out whether I understand the ridiculous MRP theory in college. I need to
question myself to see whether this post makes sense or not. Question
everything, my friend.
To question is not to deny, nor does
it seek to reject. To question is to reiterate
our faith and belief in something.
A faith without questions is just
blind love. Remember , my friend, to question is to understand , not to deny.
Ah, what is love without understanding
Be free of the macai
mentality , my friend. Think by yourselves.
