Focus Focus: Just Do Something!

On New Year's Day, a small group of Malaysians decided to do just that.

Spurred on by an anonymous email, about a dozen people gathered at KLCC to conduct what is popularly known in the West as a “flash mob.” It's supposed to be a pre-determined event, wherein people collectively embark on a seemingly random and spontaneous public action meant to disrupt so-called normal, everyday routine, and then just get on with their lives as though nothing had happened.

Example: earlier this year, a group of Americans calling themselves No Pants 2k8 called on friends and random people to participate in the collective act of going on the public train system, but with the catch: don't wear any pants. The point: it's supposed to make people smile and basically have something to talk about later at the office.

In any case, it's random, fascinating, and just plain fun. And I think Malaysia could do with more of these.

Back to New Year's Day, KLCC. With the recent social tremors (Bersih, Hindraf, Lingam tape) firmly in some of these people's minds, some person decided to organise the first Malaysian flash mob - at least to my knowledge – with a slightly more political overtone (while flash mobs are generally apolitical, some will assert that any action done with conscious volition has a political undertone). The point of this particular flash mob: our dailies are rubbish, full of spin-doctoring that belongs in the bin.

And so, the emails and SMSes that went around suggested to those who would like to participate to bring a copy of a newspaper, and at the specific time and place, throw the newspapers into a rubbish bin.

When I read the email, I thought, wah, that's quite good. So I decided to go and check the whole thing out – and probably join in myself, for good measure!

It was really strange. The first Malaysian flash mob and the mobbers were themselves mobbed by cameramen. This whole “political” thing has been taken a step too far in that it seems like a political gimmick. Oh well. It's more fun than watching any of our propaganda channels, that's for sure.

I think on one hand the event was a complete, disastrous flop: how could you have more camera people than participants? On the flip side, however, it seemed to be the first individual action to make a statement beyond the confines of the political platform. Here was someone who just decided to email a few friends and directly create a performance (albeit a stunt, in this case) that expressed their dissatisfaction with the status quo. Amazing!

There’s nothing like decentralised individual civilian action to get you pumped up for the new year. And if the Bersih and Hindraf rallies as well as the disclosure of the VK Lingam tape were anything to go by, this most recent direct action of civil disobedience (the word itself seems very passÈ) points to the fact that confronting the state doesn't necessarily have to be a full-on, FRU-and-you deal. There are cracks in the system, which exist ostensibly because of inept government. And though that in itself begs comment, what’s more interesting for me is that these cracks can be further taken advantage of because of the way information flows in today's world. The government cannot control information flow (at least our government can't, when compared to Myanmar!) and so we should take advantage of this situation to assert our stand as citizens of a democratic nation.

As I walked off after having dumped my copy of a certain incandescent celestial body (rhymes with 'tar') – which seems more like a product catalog than a newspaper – I thought that, OK lah, this could be the start of something interesting. If our larger society doesn't change, then at least there are these pockets of resistances. There's still hope.

TEXT Fahmi Fadzil
PHOTO Medaline Chang