Sunday, September 30, 2012

Najib's Talk As In The Magic Flute

This is what I've written for the last two years, on this very day because this coincide with the premiere of Mozart's The Magic Flute. Last year I wrote about:

The Queen of the Night - a representation of obscurantism , in other words, the practice of deliberately preventing the facts or the full details of some matter from becoming known. This is ironically what is happening right now, where people are denied the knowledge of what they want to know. Instead, they were threatened with a charge of the Official Secrets Act if information is to be revealed. And this is why many people to this day has either no clue or they acted foolishly without the proper and sufficient knowledge. The aristocracy's obscurantism of the social problem's is the main factor the start of the French Revolution.
 
I also put in the Three Ladies as the agents of the Queen:

The three ladies of the Queen - Represents the agents that will carry out her order. The mainstream media has been ordered to do a smear campaign of Bersih. The main goal is simple: manufacturing consent, to create a consent among the simpleton minded (those like Papageno) that Bersih is a no good thing, without presenting the reasons why Bersih would do such thing. They would also twist to include statements from leaders who are opposed to the idea of clean elections.
 
I've also included a video clip of the opera's famous aria,  "Hell's Vengeance Boils In My Heart"


 
As most of you are not aware, today and this year marks the 220th anniversary of the opera.
It was first debuted on 30 September 1791, just two months before Mozart's untimely death.
 
The problem right now is that fear and threats are spread around, yet people remain ignorant. The character of Papageno is an allegory to such attitude. I wrote:
 
Papageno - Tamino's companion, Papageno represents the foolish and the error of the people. These people are mainly simpletons, those who do not really bother about enlightenment and wisdom but just food, drink and companionship. In Act II Scene 5, the priests scolded Papageno because he will never know the enlightened bliss of the gods, but instead Papageno said, there are many unenlightened but happy. This is the danger of being susceptible to the danger of superstition and groundless fears.

How can we overcome such fear mongering like "eradicated rights" that people from UMNO and some NGOs would say that? It's from proper and right knowledge, enlightenment and not to be a lazy native. We too should start believe that such things spread actually do not exist. It is meant to scare people of going out of the shell and exploring the unexplored.
 
The plot of the opera is somewhat a metaphor of the mankind's progression from naive to enlightened being. To refuse such enlightenment is a one step backwards.

Just before Bersih 2.0, I've broken down the list of characters and its representations:

Sarastro - a representation of the enlightened sovereign who rules according to principles based on reason, wisdom, and nature. The complete anti-thesis of the Queen of the Night. He reveals that she attempts to bewilder people with superstition and groundless fears. The first model that serves the influence of the character was Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II - an ultimately flawed figure despite his attempt on using the principles above.

Pamina - daughter of the Queen of the Night, representing people. Sarastro refused to let her return to her mother because she was not properly guided. As what Mozart and Schikander put in - the people must be guided proper, even if there are mistakes apart.

Tamino - the main protagonist - representing the trials that mankind must go through. At the start of the second act, Sarastro declared that Pamina must be guided by man, Tamino represents the trials that Pamina will faced or in other way round, the people.

Papageno - Tamino's companion, Papageno represents the foolish and the error of the people. These people are mainly simpletons, those who do not really bother about enlightenment and wisdom but just food, drink and companionship. In Act II Scene 5, the priests scolded Papageno because he will never know the enlightened bliss of the gods, but instead Papageno said, there are many unenlightened but happy. This is the danger of being susceptible to the danger of superstition and groundless fears. 

The are three famous numbers for this opera:


1. Hell's Vengeance Boils In My Heart - The most difficult aria, performed by the Queen of the Night. She orders Pamina to kill Sarastro, or risks being disowned in pain by the mother. The pitch notation of this aria can reach up to F6. A few sopranos could perform at such degree, and currently the modern day soprano that could perform that is Diana Damrau. 
 

2. A Girl Or Young Woman - Papageno's number representing his desire for a young woman as a wife, but it is already that he refuses enlightenment, as mentioned at the start of Act II. 
 



3. Papapapa duet - Papageno and Papagena stammer at each other that they started to warm up and eventually got their wish of love.

The storyline or whatsoever is not quite important. The metaphor of the story is. Looking back at the story, and coupled of what is happening right now, it is clear that the government's paranoia over the matter of people demanding for fair and clear elections is akin to what the Queen of The Night would exhort to do. The police, and some ministers like Hishamuddin Hussein are like the Queen's three ladies, doing her bidding. They would harass people, simply arresting people, do all the silly things instead of catching the real scum out on the streets.

It's the government's paranoia - the fear of losing power, to divert the internal fighting among themselves, and all the things that are considered to be a bane as well as how the society will go against them prompted them to be in such obscurantism. 

The mainstream media, like one of the three ladies have been on the smearing Bersih campaign. The main goal is obviously to manufacture consent among the audience, particularly simpletons and those in the rural land area. They are the ones ignorant or do not have alternative access to other channels. Manufacturing consent is one of the things the acclaimed Noam Chomsky spoke about in several of his books. I am very critical on the attitude of many Papagenos online. I have seen many people who seem to be very ignorant of those and have yet to understand the realities of the fragile present election system. Many claimed that Bersih is opposition. On the contrary no. It is natural for them to support for they have been victims of fraud. The instance of fraud in Sarawak or Hulu Selangor is the case in point.

Monostatos is the big henchman of the Queen of the Night. Perkasa can the example

Obviously, Pamina is representing the people themselves and the actions of trial and error will determine whether she would either go back to her mother or follow the guidance of Sarastro and the marriage of trial / Tamino. 

The problem with Malaysia is there are lack of enlightened leaders to lead the way. By the antics of how they deal, Najib and his most team of ministers are mere showman, but not with people with quality. They could have handled the situation well, give Bersih 3 hours for the day and solving the problem. Unfortunately, because of paranoia, they decided to play hard. Can Anwar be under the group of enlightened leaders like Sarastro? No, given of the present skeletons in his closet. 

The Saturday's rally will be a trial that Malaysians who have realized the importance of fair playing field of the election game that will determine the outcome in generations to come. It will be one step towards enlightenment or one step backwards to obscurantism as what the present government of the day is advocating, by playing dirty. And it has already attracted an international audience, with human rights groups in particular paying attention. 

I am certain that the Vatican and London is also watching as Najib will be visiting these places from tomorrow and next week. Many said that Najib is a laughing stock now given of his handling of the situation. I bet it would be.
 
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Any one of you who have listened to that famous aria would notice some similarity to what Najib talks below. They should also reveal who in the agency that wrote it. :
 
KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak today urged Malaysians to be wary of the opposition’s three main “weapons” which were condemning, instigating and making all sorts of promises in trying woo the people.
 “They must condemn (the government), they must knock you (government) down. After that, they must instigate (the people) and then they will promise. Like I said, they’ll promise the sun, the moon, and even the galaxy,” he said when opening Gerakan’s 41st National Delegates Conference here.

Najib, who is also Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman, said the people should ponder about the sweet promises made by the Pakatan Rakyat opposition coalition which in the end were actually nothing more than venomous poison for them.

“Is it really something good for the people or will it lead to some catastrophic outcome for the nation. This is something the people must think about, because to become the opposition, the arsenal is three things  — condemn, instigate, promise,” stressed Najib.

Najib said that to be a credible opposition in a parliamentary democracy, a few fundamental conditions must be fulfilled, one of which is having a common symbol.

“In other words, you must register as a party. But Pakatan Rakyat is not registered as a common party nor do they have a common symbol,” Najib said.

The prime minister pointed out BN had been using a common symbol, with electoral candidates contesting under the BN banner.

“We go and face the people as BN, but the opposition will go to the people with different faces.

“Symbol not the same …we are not sure whether they will table a common manifesto ,” he said, noting that squabbles over (the implementation of) hudud (Syariah laws) among the opposition pact had been conducted openly.

Unfulfilled promises

Najib said this demonstrated that they did not have a common position and common policy on how this country was going to be administered.


He also took a swipe at the opposition’s failure in unveiling its ‘shadow cabinet’.

Najib said the country should not be governed by the opposition pact who kept on making unfulfilled promises.

He noted that 75 per cent of promises in PKR-led Selangor, remained unfulfilled while the BN had to step in to resolve the Kampung Buah Pala (eviction of villagers) issue in DAP-dominated Penang.

The prime minister also said that a leader must be fair and just, traits which had apparently escaped an opposition leader when he tried to deprive a competent senior state Education official from being promoted in Penang some time ago because he was a non-Malay.

“When I checked on it, I took a risk. He was the deputy prime minister, I was the Education Minister…I said no, that man must be given the Pengarah Pelajaran (atate education director) post. And I was prepared to face the consequences because of principle. A leader must be fair and just,” he said.

Touching on the 2013 Budget he tabled on Friday, Najib said the underlying philosophy in its preparation was that the people must come first and all steps taken were for them.

“This budget is about the people as well as about moving the economy. You can’t just talk about the rakyat (people) without moving the economy, without attracting foreign investment, domestic investment, innovation and productivity.

“There are 111 initiatives or touch points in Budget 2013. Read them one by one,” he said.
 

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