Pages

Saturday, July 22, 2006

A page from a woman's diary (3)

Dearest Diary,

It’s time again to share with you my personal thoughts that aren't about women’s rights or the great scourge AIDS, both of which I am expected by the public to dwell exclusively upon.


But neither am I not going to indulge on culinary fantasies such as how to improve my style of Penang laksa by varying the ulam that goes with it – the slightly astringent pucuk janggus would be a novel introduction – or kueh lapis miraculously and lavishly having alternative layers of rich kaya, an idea that I am currently entertaining – well, how about that for wicked indulgence but then, didn't we just say we aren’t writing all that tonight.

Tonight I want to discuss with you, dearest confidante, the immortal words of William Shakespeare, in particular Act 3, Scene 2 of his play Julius Caesar, and I want to examine the speech of Caesar’s ally and friend, Marc Anthony.

Why, you may ask? Because it’s rather relevant when Dad’s Brutus, his once-son and heir, had made much ado about Shakespeare while continuing to perpetrate verbal Ides of March, that Marc Anthony should come to Dad’s rescue. Shakespeare had portrayed Marc Anthony saying:

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him;
The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interréd with their bones,


With his clever snake oil salesman’s talk, Brutus has lambasted Dad’s evil as if those were not collectively made or at least supported too by Brutus himself. But I ask myself, should people allow Dad’s good deeds to be interred with his bones? Si monumentum requiris, circumspice - if you seek his monument, look around (in our nation)

So let it be with Caesar … The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answered it ...

So what did my ‘ambitious’ Dad do? He retired, yes, voluntarily retired with clear handing over of the reins of power. He didn’t make himself perpetual dictator or for that matter, senior state minister like someone in a neighbouring nation. And in retiring, he witnessed how those who once fawned on him now ignore him as someone no longer useful, a political dead, yet continuing to accuse him of being an ‘ambitious Caesar’.

Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest,
(For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all; all honourable men)
Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral …
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:

Yes, dearest diary, I speak for Dad, my friend, always faithful and just to me. As for Brutus the honourable man, once The Honourable So-and-So, a former Malaysian Yang Berhormat, well ... what can I say, but then don’t we have Yg Berhormats like Cyclops, Tebuans and Gatal.

But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man …
He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?

So when they were both serving the people, recall what positive things had Dad achieved for the people, and compare those with what positive things the honourable Brutus had.

When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.

People laughed at Dad when he wept in public because he felt he failed to transform some people. They called him a hypocrite, but did that make him ‘ambitious’? I related his
motive for feting one who swam across the English Channel while another wasn’t. It should explain why Dad had cried for his sense of failure.

You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable man.

If he was ambitious, would he have resigned? And hand the reins to a man who once was against him, like Cassius and Brutus were against Caesar, yet forgiven?

I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?

Oh, the fickle-mindedness of the Romans, but most certainly a characteristic not unique to them.

O judgement! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason … Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.

O men! Aren't they such paradoxical creatures, emotional yet cold-bloodedly practical, swayed principally by their personal interests, thus allowing their balanced judgements to flee from their conscience.


Good night, dearest diary.
M


Related:
(1)
A page from a woman's diary
(2)
A page from a woman's diary (2)

6 comments:

  1. Finally! A use for the Shakespear my lecturer made us recite in class!

    Can't really comment too much on it because of my limited knowledge of ?Roman? history...

    ?Not even sure if I got the Roman part right...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Are you from Venus then that you do not know the truth of the matter?

    Poor dad had to go, otherwise the party would had collapsed and lost. He made himself an embarassment and a liability. He was not wanted as a speaker in case he spoilt the party's chances. The people were so much against dad that they willingly gave his sucessor a big mandate. Nobody stabbed him. Nobody betrayed him. Dad fumbled and betrayed himself. He knew it. He left knowing that if he did not, he would face the blame for an election result worse than 1969. Of course he had not forgotten his story.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Why, you're really sweet to know that women are from Venus (and men from Mars). I'll think of you when I make that kueh lapis ;-)

    And tsk tsk, naughty of you to peep into a girl's diary ;-) but I don't really mind if you keep it a secret just between us ;-)

    Glad you agree with me he left voluntarily, though you disagree that much earlier to his resignation, 'someone' did try to 'stab' him but failed miserably, and instead 'stab' himself.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dad committed political harakiri with a series of serious blunders which alienated him more from his supporters from the voting public early into his last term. His people on the ground should had already informed him that he had already lost the backing of the majority early into his last term. Nothing has changed. There is no such thing as mudah lupa - only tutup satu atau dua mata - or that famous word - tolerate - as in tolerate something bad because of circumstances.
    Any oldies from 1969, will understand that once people feel betrayed or there are signs of ultra extremism, the voters will turn away. Have you asked why the 1969 results were like that? Forget about May 13, the useful part is the election speeches and positions before the election of 1969.Youngsters should have more sense and study some useful history instead of getting excited over propaganda.
    Dad had to to leave early or be thrown out in disgrace if he had remained for the last election. The situation still stands today. He blundered because he forgot the real lessons of 1969 election which he might had thought was a real useful result for the ultras.
    And the more proper quotation is:- Who the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh dear, you failed to mention that opposition's success in 1969 was in large part due to an informal, loose but extremely cohesive alternative alliance amongst Gerakan, DAP, PPP and even PAS. Compare that with the 1999 and 2004 bitchy relationship between PAS and DAP, and a floundering PKR caught in between.

    I agree that M's Dad would have lost many seats if he stayed back, but would that have changed government? And the most important point that M told me to tell you (sorry M ;-) blogger's licence lah!) is still the fact that her dad left, regardless of the reason. He didn't cling on or manipulate to stay on - that has been one of M's point about the accusations of 'ambitious Caesar'!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dr Shithead stepped down because he wanted someone else to take the blame for an impending election nuclear bomb which was heading up UMNOs ass. Remember how he blamed Musa Hitam for Memali and Anwar Ibrahim for the financial crises we went through. However, his plan to nail AAB failed because he misread the sentiments of the Malaysian public. Now, he has no choice but to topple Badawi personally.

    ReplyDelete