Related articles:
- 'Amok’ Season Again: How We Perpetuate The Myths Of Empire by Dr. Farish Noor
At the 2006 UMNO General Assembly, former UMNO leader Mohamad Rahmat warned: "Don't test the Malays, they know ‘amok’”. Read here for more
[Note: Definition of "amok" - from Dictionary.com: (Among members of certain Southeast Asian cultures) a psychic disturbance characterized by depression followed by a manic urge to murder.] - From The Star (28 July 2008):
ALL 820 students of SMK Tanjung Lumpur in Kuantan may be temporarily transferred to another school if the hysteria situation worsens. Read here
for more - Epidemic Hysteria in Malaysian schools: an illustrative episode. READ HERE
This paper discusses the prevalence and characteristics of epidemic hysteria among predominantly rural MALAY schools in Malaysia. An illustrative episode in a Malay residential girls' school is described, and contributory factors to this outbreak are elaborated. An attempt is made to analyze the complex interweaving of psychological, religious, cultural, and sociological factors in the precipitation of the outbreak..
Quote:
".. What are the Malay characteristics that predispose them to hysteria? (It is) a closed mind and a narrow set of beliefs that is not open to outside inputs to invigorate it.A risible, impressionable character that is easily swayed by tribal sway, (and) unswayed by rationality and science in the formative years and rigor mortis of ideas in the sunset years.
When they are OLDER these risible youngsters grow into quiescent, unquestioning, stodgy (and) unimaginative adults .(Their) predisposition comes out in other more disguised forms such as mental stupor, being adverse to creative work, being abhorrent of scientific knowledge and an intense and intractable complex over the learning and use of the English language, the very tool they need to pulverize their sundry complexities.
The fact that hysteria tends to hit religious schools is an indictment that speaks for itself. It is a trenchant proof of the ineffectualness of religion to deal with life's problems.
It is in the interests of the power and influence seekers and the interests of Malay society at large to see hysteria and a host of other emotional baggage associated with the Malay race NOT to disappear.
There has been NO case so far of a girl who scores an A in English, is a member of the school debating team and who excels in sports - wearing shorts - who has been a victim of hysteria.That in a nutshell is what hysteria is all about and therein lies its solution.
The solution is the Malays simply have to throw out the baby with the bath water. They have to jettison their closed and narrow version of religion and opt for a more dynamic, open and liberal one which is the true religion.
As one pointer in this direction of Malay liberation from the fear of their own shadows, accept the possibility that one day, if not Lim Kit Siang or Koh Tsu Koon, a Chinese will become the prime minister of Malaysia.
For now, can a Malay accept Pairin Kitingan, the Paramount Leader of the Kadazandusun as premier? If you say YES, hysteria will disappear overnight!
For, along with the acceptance, it implies you've got rid of your baggage of hangups including the predisposition and mechanism of hysteria.
That is my formula. Just plain psychological makeover. Overnight it can be done or else be trapped for eternity.
-Zaharan Razak ( "I" of the Storm Blog)
Hysteria: Asking Some Hard Questions, Giving Some Hard Answers
by
Zaharan Razak of {"I" the Storm} Blog
Excerpts: Read here for more
Question:
Why does hysteria occur almost exclusively among the Malays - a particular subset of them - involving more girls than boys and happening mostly at religious schools?Answer: The answers beg another question:
What are the Malay characteristics that predispose them to hysteria?
Let's start from the general to the specific:
Malays are generally mono-linguists and mono-religionists.
What does that imply? A closed mind and a narrow set of beliefs that is not open to outside inputs to invigorate it.
- Fossilized, medieval and feudal with its emphasis on the supernatural, beliefs, myths,
- A rigid, set power system and crass deferment to authority symbols, that is non-egalitarian and not based on meritocracy or authenticity but more of who know who and who got cable,
- Orang-kita, UITM for bumniputras-only, incestuous cousin-kahwin-cousin,
- Referral to same set of medieval kitabs.
So what do you get?
A risible, impressionable character that is:
- easily swayed by tribal sway,
- unswayed by detribalized say, such as rationality and science in the formative years and
- rigor mortis of ideas in the sunset years.
When they are older, these risible youngsters grow into quiescent, unquestioning, stodgy, unimaginative adults whose favorite activity is watching Indian movie reruns on the telly.
Maybe they don't show hysteria in the form shown by youngsters but the predisposition is still lurking in there only it comes out in other more disguised forms such as:
- mental stupor,
- being adverse to creative work,
- being abhorrent of scientific knowledge and
- an intense and intractable complex over the learning and use of the English language, the very tool they need to pulverize their sundry complexities.
It is a trenchant proof of the ineffectualness of religion to deal with life's problems but in fact adds to its woes by being like the dog in the manger or the old man who sat on the shipwrecked sailor's shoulders and insisted on being carried around.
And yet the very victims who need the most succor are the biggest perpetrators of the self-deception and scam, barking at the wrong tree and representing no less than a red herring to divert attention away from the need to face up to reality.
The more you tell them the more they will say "Dah Tau!", you're trying to poison their minds or that you yourself have gone astray!
The potential helper has been made an honorary enemy.
Why is this so?
Because like drug or pacifier, belief in the false but fascinating gives them comfort, an identity, a Peanuts security blanket and satisfies a deep and inchoate longing to which they have been pandering for turun-temurun so much so that it is not only entrenched in their synapses but in their genes as well by some yet-to-be studied process of sympathetic magic or crossover osmosis from mental state to cellular trait to genetic coding.
Of course traditional power and influence seekers are happy with this mass deception because they derive power, influence and even remuneration by being relied upon to provide temporary, pseudo palliatives which may dispel the symptoms but do not treat the causes (or rake over the soil in which the predisposition to hysteria takes root and sprouts its tentacles.)
The traditional figures, the bomohs and pseudo religious drones, who menangguk di air keruh, fish in trouble waters, in fact make hysteria and the cultural and belief system which subsumes it become self-propagating, self-feeding and self-conducive by their mere presence, influence, misguided ministrations.
They do it all on purpose so as not to kill the market without which the very base they draw their power and influence from would be pulled away from under their feet and without which the very raison d'etre for their role would cease to exist along with them too.
So it is in the interests of the power and influence seekers and the interests of Malay society at large to see hysteria and a host of other emotional baggage associated with the Malay race not to disappear.
As a counter formation, they love to nurse their psychological complexes and hangups in the same way as a dog love to lick its wounds.
Without these psychological fleas what else are there to scratch? Without his panau, what tattoo could Malim Mawar Merah Muda his body flaunt?
What excuse for failure, for mediocrity, for under-achieving?
Like a hypochondriac or a patient who refuses to seek treatment lest she loses her source of power to gain sympathy and attention or lacking in something to moan about, Malay society does not want to incise off the malignancy in their body politic and psyche.
Denials are part and parcel of the syndrome. Being a lame duck, hobbling around with an elephantiasis of a leg may be at the far end of the spectrum of being an Olympic and world women's pole vault record holder such as Yelena Isinbayeva, but, believe me, however perversely, it is just as satisfying - such being the convolutions the human psyche - iqraq, the Malay psyche - can contort to consort with the cohort of the besotted and the Satanic.
There! Not quite. Here's more salvos.
Fact of the matter is hysteria is merely an individual and collective projection of memories fearful, triggered by psychological mechanisms, a re-enactment of the ghost stories and momoks the poor girl had been subjected to since small in the name of religious indoctrination.
It is fundamentally a play on elemental fear much resorted to by harassed mums and jealous aunts telling tales by the serambi as bored campers telling ghost stories by a campfire.
The word TAKUT, HANTU, TAK MALU and others of its repressive ilk have been part of the diet she was fed on to knead her into a malleable, manageable, little prune and twit of a good Muslim girl.
The result? The girl is a walking zombie of
- hangups,
- personality disorders,
- stuckupness,
- shyness,
- with repressed emotions,
- identity confusion,
- with little or no imagination,
- no interest in the arts, literature or scientific knowledge.
There has been NO case so far of a girl who scores an A in English, is a member of the school debating team and who excels in sports - wearing shorts - who has been a victim of hysteria.
That in a nutshell is what hysteria is all about and therein lies its solution.
But I'm not quite done yet!
The solution is the Malays simply have to throw out the baby with the bath water. They have to jettison their closed and narrow version of religion and opt for a more dynamic, open and liberal one which is the true religion. Call it any name you like -hadiri, kadiri, ismaili, teapotti, zveloyaki - eheng, eheng - so long as you don't get stuck at naming only.
Thus my solution to hysteria is:
Go to China to study wushu, tai chi, mandarin, kung fu, chi kung and Kung Fu Tze's art of governance, or even more practically, from the Chinese who are already in OUR midst.As one pointer in this direction of Malay liberation from the fear of their own shadows, ACCEPT the POSSIBILITY that one day, if not Lim Kit Siang or Koh Tsu Koon, a Chinese will become the prime minister of Malaysia.
For now, can a Malay accept Pairin Kitingan, the Paramount Leader of the Kadazandusun as premier?
If you say YES, hysteria will disappear OVERNIGHT!
For, along with the acceptance, it implies you've got rid of your baggage of hangups including the predisposition and mechanism of hysteria.
That is my formula. No jampi, no bomoh, no self-serving recitals or rituals to pukau the crowd or appease resident spirits.
Just plain psychological makeover. Overnight it can be done or else be trapped for eternity.
Those who oppose this idea are either victims turned perpetrators or power and influence holders, seekers and their hangers-on who fear they will lose their moorings and bearings, their hoot and toot.
-Zaharan Razak
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