You can't handle the truth!

Today, allow me talk about something different. About politics that is. Having no direct confrontation with this strange concept before, I found myself mysteriously drawn to it quite recently. In this one particular aspect at least, Japan and Malaysia are not so much different from each other. And that is, to deny their citizens the right to know the truth. There are obvious reasons for this. Mostly selfish, I think.

History may not always be what is seems. Propaganda from the ruling government to self-propagate often put them in the best light to the common citizen (voters). What ever the cause maybe, the interest of the disadvantaged are ignored or often trampled-on because of someone else's selfish agenda.

Take for example,
i) The lies that are being told of the rioting incident in Kuala Lumpur during that faithful day of May 13, 1969. Fortunately, we have blogs that gives us a second account of the real version.

If you tell one lie, you will have to tell another lie to cover that first lie, and so on. Pretty soon, your story will collapse under an Everest of lies. Those who know the truth but choose to remain quiet are just as bad as those protecting their own sick interests. Why, because as Thomas Jefferson remarked, "Evil triumphs when good men do nothing."

ii) Corrections upon corrections of the official version of the atrocities of Japanese troops during WWII.

Sometimes, the hardest things to do is to admit ones' mistakes or the mistakes of our forefathers. If the reason for seeking forgiveness is difficulty in swallowing ones pride, then I say the bitter pill of pride is just the medicine needed to sow friendship and trust. I believe that when children are exposed to a wrong, they can learn from that lesson much more than just being ignorant about it.

Having said that, without the privilege of knowing the whole story. I realize that my comments are just as shallow as my knowledge. Perhaps like Jack Nicholson as Col. Jessep barked in A Few Good Men, "You can't handle the truth!"

One way to visualize the dilemma faced by politicians would be conjure a fake scenario. Suppose that the world is being threatened by an imminent deadly and contagious disease (bird flu, maybe). The government in all its earnest efforts wants everybody to stay indoors and, to reduce pandemonium, be ignorant about the current situation. Everything is on a strictly need-to-know basis. The government then diverts the peoples attention by staging a disaster to encourage people to stay indoors while taking care of the real outbreak. Finally, with the disease under control, the government then issues a statement that it is safe once more to come out, hence saving millions of lives instead of the thousands that died due to the outbreak. (Story adapted from http://www.slate.com/id/2126479/). However, what if the government couldn't contain the outbreak and the masses finally found out about the lie, or even if everything was OK but soon the information about the disease got declassified. What would happen? Would people be better off being ignorant?

I think that these are some of the dilemmas that politicians have to face everyday. They are controllers of information. Filters if you will. Good filters do their jobs unbiased. But how many Solomon-type filters are there to fill up all the politician jobs? I understand humans have feelings and feelings control our actions more than thoughts. Politicians face a lot of daily pressure and when they make a decision that pushes them into the limelight, they are assaulted by critics and supporters alike. Boy, I am just glad that I am not in that line. Otherwise, I don't think I can sleep soundly every night.