Kam Raslan’s Talking Edge

(Reprinted from The Edge – Options pullout, 12 December 2016 issue)

Is it my imagination or was there once a thing called the American Century?
Perplexed

I was in PJ’s Amcorp Mall looking for vinyl records one Sunday. Many of you will know that the flea market held there on Sundays is the place to go not just for records but for all things unusual and antique. While I was trying to decide whether or not to buy that old Duran Duran album that I really didn’t need or would ever listen to, I came across an old magazine. It was from 1960, was produced by the US State Department and had a photo on the cover of the then new US president Jack Kennedy. I’ve since lost the magazine and I can’t remember its name but it was meant to be read not by Americans but by people from around the world. It had articles extolling the virtues of US foreign policy and how foreign nations were joining their vision of a global fraternity of democracies against the evils of communism. Jack Kennedy was the young, idealistic and handsome face of this moral mission and in the magazine were articles about the history and beauty of Vietnamese culture and about Malaysian troops embarking for their first UN peacekeeping mission in Congo.

Reading the magazine, it struck me that 1960 and the beginning of the Kennedy presidency was the high-water mark of America’s global moral authority. This was before the disastrous CIA-sponsored attempt to invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, before the Vietnam War really kicked into full gear, and before Kennedy was assassinated.

Many countries believed in America’s moral mission in the innocent days of 1960, especially Malaysia. Back in 1960, the newly independent Malaysia didn’t just want to be America’s friend, it wanted to become like America. After all, it is surely no coincidence that the design chosen for the Malaysia flag is almost exactly like America’s Stars and Stripes (which has caused trouble for many of Malaysia’s subsequent peacekeepers because from a distance, our flag makes a tempting target). Many of my father’s generation were sent to America to make connections with and learn from the fresh, young and energetic military and economic superpower, and some of them brought back a brief fad for building miniature versions of the White House. But things change.

Fast-forward to 2016 and I briefly attended an event held by the US Embassy to watch the recent presidential election results. It was a big event in a five-star hotel and, as soon as the lift door opened, I saw a group of rather bored Malaysian schoolgirls who had been invited to watch the excitement of a true democracy in action, but very quickly, it became apparent that democracy was under threat and that Trump would win. I did not stay for long and went back home because I needed to be alone to try to understand this new age, an age without America but with the real victors of the US presidential election: China. with Trump comes the final collapse of an American moral authority that had been, despite the many flaws, briefly reignited by Obama.

1960 had its problems: Just about everybody assumed that the world would be destroyed in a nuclear holocaust and the Beatles had not yet been invented. But if there was an optimism in the virtues of the American way in 1960 that in 2016 feels like a distant and stupid dream. Malaysia did not become like that American dream. Instead, what the schoolgirls witnessed at the US Embassy event was that America had become like Malaysia.

All my friends are doing some kind of “detox” therapy. Is it nonsense or should I do it?
Anonymous

I’ve been doing a detox and the results have been amazing. For the last few weeks (from the day Trump won), I have taken barely any notice of local or foreign news and I have stopped reading my Facebook feed, and I feel so much better already. Obviously, an important part of the detox regime was to avoid reading anything about the recent Umno General Assembly and instead enjoy the Malaysia that I saw around me, which still looks pretty good. I realise that my detox regime sounds defeatist and like I’m simply trying to avoid reality, but 99% of the things that happen I can’t write about anyway and, instead, these toxins just eat away at me. But we all know what they are and we all know who they are. When the time comes, I’ll leap into action.

My body is not built for receiving these toxins 24 hours a day. I came of age before the internet, when news happened once or twice a day on TV or in the newspapers, if I could be bothered to read, watch or listen. Now with the internet, I am exposed to toxic politics, toxic words and toxic people all day long. My body cannot handle the toxic overload. Younger internet-age people must be built differently. They are presumably conditioned to be able to deal with the toxins by simply not noticing them at all. I’m guessing that they assume that these disgusting toxins have nothing to do with them, which is probably why so few of them are registered to vote.

I don’t think there’s any harm in pursuing my detox regime. It’s not like I’ve forgotten who the idiots are and what they’re trying to do just to save themselves. But I also don’t think it’s healthy to let myself drown in the toxic slime pool. But having said that I’m ignoring the news, I will say that I think the way we push around the Orang Asli is utterly disgraceful. What kind of people are we if we find it so enjoyable to pick on the weak?

My question is simple: The Beatles or the Stones?
Sixties Child

I have a friend who is a well-respected physician and he told me something that I find very disturbing. He said he does not like The Beatles. He says he does not like The Beatles because he likes the Rolling Stones instead. I find this to be disturbing because 1) How can you not like The Beatles? And, 2) Why should liking the Stones preclude you from liking The Beatles? I love The Beatles and the Stones. They are not mutually exclusive. And how can you not like The Beatles? I mean, they’re The Beatles. My friend’s assertion makes me deeply suspicious of the entire medical profession.

I had assumed that in a deeply divided world, there was at least one thing we could all agree upon and that is that The Beatles are the best thing ever. And yet there are people out there who don’t like them or who think they’re just meh. Are these people right or are they stupid and wrong? Perhaps the operation I need to perform is not to agree with them or persuade them otherwise but to understand their unfortunate condition. For instance, I may not agree with Trump supporters but I can try to understand them.

Could I ever persuade a non-believer that The Beatles are the best? No. But one day they might be feeling down and they might hear Here Comes The Sun and then they might smile again.

Reprinted with the kind permission of