The Macai Mentality

            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.