Its no shocking when people may admit they wanted to be forensics because CSI looked like a rugged job with applied intelligence. Some may want to become filmmaker after seeing how Amir Muhammad or Yasmin Ahmad led a cultured lifestyle surrounded by refreshingly creative people or DSLR wielding youngster venturing into photography because they’re simply impressed by graceful photograph. But one thing I believe about these great people that inspire others. The great things they had achieved today were not the first thought they had in mind, initially.
Datuk Lat, a local cartoonist famous for kampong boy admitted he never had ambitions of becoming a cartoonist. He was keen on becoming a trainman because it gave a sense of adventure going about here and there. Yet, he ended becoming a brilliant cartoonist, sensitive to his surrounding and supporter of ethnic integration.
My political consciousness never kicked in when I saw UMNO people walking into venues and project such a tremendously vibrant halo of influence. Never had I put myself in politic alter-ego as a result of disillusion due to UMNOs elitism and connection with istanas inner sanctum. Neither when my Pokok Sena Khidmat Negara comrades reffered me as ‘Datuk’ (since I was bald and I resembled Datuk Hishamuddin Tun Hussein), and never did I become politic-conscious during the Reformasi uprising of 98’/99’
My knowledge of politics is never due to any family connections. Neither members are of silver spoon fed or related to the istanas. If I could trace back, I would see on my mother’s side, they are mostly from Penang and moved up to Southern Kedah taking jobs as government servants. I inherited the tastebuds of everything spicy through the mamak (Indian muslim) blood which might have flowed into me. On my father’s side which originates from as far as Northern Kedah, mostly rice farming or farming, they speak thick northern accent which I assume my Mongolian eyes were of the Siamese genome. None had been active in politics.
My father is a banker and he neither keeps books related to politics (not until recently). He subscribed to Utusan and stopped doing so since 2000 due to economic constraints. I wasn’t keen reader of Utusan either since its relatively huge size and limited cartoon section compared to those featured on The Star and Straits Times. No reading materials inside our home would have brought me into the realm of politic consciousness.
Neither statehood pride did bring me to become a keen analyst of politics. Even if I knew Tunku Abdul Rahman, the Malaysian first prime minister, amongst spear headers of the Malaysia formation hails from Kedah. Not forgetting, Tun Mahathir Mohammad that braved the uncertainties of politics for 22 years and had tons of admirers till today, that has not become the prime reason to persuade me into putting my line of sight into politics.
As of today, I had taken time pondering back into my past. This is due to some quarters which justified my interest of political subject was a result of mere disillusionment.Then; I would realize my path towards politics pointed towards the wonderful web of knowledge. I used to joke around with my housemates about the wrath of Wikipedia and their sets of hyperlinks. It made our little research on single subject of architecture a devastating procrastination routine. You would know how Wikipedia would take hours of time when we ‘accidentally’ clicked hyperlinks related to thesubject we originally wanted to study.
My precursor to politic interest began with something which is out of this world. As early as 1995, my interest at the time was for Astronomy. I gazed upon the stars during the night and wondered how the mechanism of universe worked. I read a lot about Neutron stars (a super dense star which rotates quickly to emit radio waves) and nebulas (packed gases masses that eventually give birth to stars). I remembered a few stars, Sirius A and B, the red supergiant Betelgeuse, The blue giant Polaris and a few stars named after Muslim scholars; Altair (probably Al-Tahir) and Aldebaran. On the other side, I was busy drawing cartoons, I fondly remember naming one of my female characters as ‘Andromeda’ - named after our neighboring galaxy. At primary school I joined the Astronomy Club which did nothing but meetings at certain intervals
After studying distant objects, I read about close objects, like our moon, sun and comets together about space probes that were sent to explore them. I knew about the US-made Pioneer space probes going to the outer extent of our solar system with a golden plaque depicting humans in their naked form. American Mariners went to Mars and heavy and bulky Russian Venera went to Venus. American Galileo and Cassini went to explore our gassy giants; Jupiter and Saturn respectively. Then, I knew something very peculiar about space exploration: They were initiated by either the Americans or Soviet Union (present day Russia); with little contribution by European Space Agency (ESA)
Then, I began to delve into human space exploration. I was introduced to the word space race. A series of space exploration achievement made by both Soviet and United States. It all started with Soviet simple yet significant foray into space through the launch of beach ball sized Sputnik in 1957. The US, shamed and time constrained launched Explorer which merely orbited the earth. Sputnik2 brought Laika into orbit but sadly the dog perished. Yet it provided vital information life support system in space which later paved way for Vostok1. The weird name spacecraft successfully transported Yuri Gagarin into orbit for a complete six rounds around earth in 1961. A few months later, in a hasty bid to show its capability, US Alan Shepherd was sent to space for a trans-America mission (his mission is actually venturing from East to West America, not orbiting). Vostok6 mission sees Valentina Tereshkova made into the first woman into space and finally Voskhod1 conducted the first spacewalk in 1965 completing a series of blow towards US lagged capability in space technology.
But that did not hinder United States from retooling its space program and intended to put the first man on the moon through Apollo mission. By 1968, the Soviets had been busy launching series of Zond/N1 test rockets, a humongous 24-engined rocket set to bring first communist citizen to the moon. On the other side, United States had prepared to test the-most-powerful-rocket-engine-in-the-world (should have been accompanied with drum rolls?) The Saturn-V engines. Only four of these needed thus reducing chances of failure in respect to Soviet smaller but numerous rocket engines. By July 1969, the US overtook Soviet in the space race by putting the first human on lunar surface. Soviet manned moon landing program crippled with technical faults and test-fire mishaps were put to an end months later without any men brought to the moon.
Soviet reluctantly admitted to a defeat in the space race. Yet, space race is only a small picture when in fact, its part of a larger scheme of things. Back on solid ground, United States and Soviet Union were involved in the brewing Cold War. The infamous Nikita Khrushchev “We will bury you” punch line had provoked both superpower intensify propaganda. The space race they indulged in is a showpiece to smaller nations that their ideologies are more dominant than the other. Imagine two men trying to win heart of a girl, its akin to The Illusionist as both were determine to proof they are better than the other, yet, they never got involved into fist to fist fight. Not because they were afraid, but its something in the dictionary of diplomacy called deterrence.
In deterrence (or détente), both Soviet and US had been stockpiling nuclear warheads. In event of whoever struck first, the latter is determined to retaliate with a larger magnitude of damage. Both superpowers knew this and decided to formulate MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) programs. They wanted to assure the survivability of their weapons in an event of full-scale nuclear war. This means nuclear delivery had been diversified, they can be launched from land, air and sea and nuclear weapons became ludicrously portable that they can be mobilized by foot infantry Although these two nation had capacity to annihilate the other, they had been patiently waiting for whomever to throw the stone first. As the rest of the world hold their breath in suspense. The Doomsday clock was introduced in the US. It’s a clock face showing 5 minutes into midnight, hypothecally means that humanity was in the brink of extinction.
Outside their geopolitical borders, Cold War showed its true face through Korean War. Its here when two superpower nations sold their weapon at dirt cheap price just to have it tested against foes military equipment. Soviet MIGs doing dogfights with American F/Hawk jets. American cruisers avoiding soviet-made torpedos. During Cold War, pledges of smaller nations were never to fall on deaf ear. Egypt seek Soviet help to build its Aswan dam as America refused to offer help. Germany was split into two due to incoherent ideologies. The peak of this war is when Soviet covertly transported nuclear missile to communist Cuba which lies few hundred miles to southeast US coast of Florida. I was crazy about Cuban missile crisis that I persuaded my father to buy a book on it, my father replied: Ini konflik zaman tok nenek, dah habis dah, lagi mau baca ka?
Series of Interest
On the other side, I remained physically passive – which is never a choice. As my thirst for knowledge kept spinning through series-of-interest (from astronomy to international relations), my appetite for sports had been shunned by my father attitude that could never accept interest is disposable.
He initially bought me a pair of football boots. Yet, as sports became seasonal among the kids, never in a year we played the same sport. But my father firm belief that I should remain dedicated to a single sport rather than hopping around had left me singled out as my friends move to another sport/activities. My father might have regard my voyeur of sports hoping as a wastage since I had yet to find my type of sport through exploration, thus, my interest in physical activity ended prematurely instead developing parallel with what I have gained through reading.
My father strongly disagree that interest is something disposable and replaced with something else. He perhaps had adapted the idea that a man found their interest through some sort of osmosis, which I myself am perplexed.
Imagine, if my interest in astronomy needed a specialized apparatus/gear instead of mere reading, I would have stuck there and would never move gain a single inch of access into other subject related to space exploration. Since then, I had pledged to myself to become more lenient to let my kids (if I had one) to indulge into ‘series-of-interest’ provided it is self-initiated and self-motivated. It’s the unavoidable human nature of trial and error.
Yet, it’s better late than never. Rather than bickering about the past, I shall make learning a lifelong process. Cold War led me read more about Malaysia taking side in the bloc (Malaysia declared its neutral, yet sided with the affluent West bloc), which later joined in the formation of created-to-doom SEATO and eventually a more peaceful allegiance of Mapfilindo (Malaysian, Philipines and Indonesian pact) which today matured into ASEAN. Years before cold war ended, glasnost was conducted to let Soviet become less secretive about its economy, military and relationship plans. Cold War ended with the collapse of Soviet Union,
Cold War made me read about communism and capitalism. And subsequently the usage of prefix ‘–ism’. A complicated term which I simply understood as differences in managing state wealth. Former, strictly lets the state own all resources and manages accordingly, while latter let private riches to trickle down the hands of citizen. My father famously termed capitalism as ‘you are hardworking, you’ll get rich’ while communism as ‘either hardworking or lazy, you’ll earn your wage/pay’.
I later read about socialism, the significance of proletariat and human responses towards power and rules. Eventually thrived my superficial interest in social sciences, thus this includes politics. Here I am today, 14 years entertaining my series-of-interest. Now where did my architecture interest branches out? I need another day to think about that.
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