Category Archives: Rafizi Ramli

Eureka Sejarah

Aku dari kecik-kecik lagi suka sejarah. Masa aku sekolah rendah, masa budak2 main basikal pusing kampung aku lagi suka pinjam buku STPM Sejarah mak sedara, pastu baca. Seronok woooo….

Sampai masuk sekolah menengah pun, aku sangat suka mata pelajaran Sejarah sebab ia menceritakan perkara sebenar (masa tu la aku ingat). Ada sorang cikgu Sejarah aku, nama dia Dzulqurnain. Masa dia ajar aku masa F1, mak aaiii masuk je kelas dia akan tulis nota panjang-panjang sampai tak sempat aku nak menyalinnya. Buku kitorang pakai buku kertas kajang yang kulit tebal tu. Masa tu tak pulak aku nak tanya eyh apa guna ada buku teks kalau dalam kelas asyik tulis nota panjang-panjang ni (ha2 mintak maaf cikgu. Cikgu ni hebat, jadi salah seorang ketua pemeriksa kertas sejarah SPM aku dapat tahu).

Aku selalu jugak la jadi top student Sejarah ni dalam batch aku. Masa SRP tak sangat sebab kena pilih objektif (ha2 mata aku selalu berpinau2 kalau objektif), tapi bila naik Tingkatan 4, sebab aku memang boleh menulis panjang2 karangan, selalu jadi top student Sejarah.

Sampailah masa trial SPM pun aku jadi top student Sejarah batch aku, dah seronok dah aku nak naik stage tahun depan nak ambik hadiah ni. Ye laaaa top student Sejarah.

Berbekalkan keputusan itu, aku pun ambik lah SPM. Yakin giler aku mengarang esei pasal Sejarah. Tebal giler esei aku, member batch aku kat sebelah mesti sumpah seranah cakap aku riak & mengada-ngada, saja nak takutkan orang. Over-kill la katakan, jawab soalan Sejarah.

Lepas SPM aku terus ke negeri Mat Salleh, jadi masa SPM keluar, aku hanya telefon.

Aku agak confident dengan subjek lain, tapi kalau Sejarah aku super confident gitu.

Tapi kakak kerani kat Kuala Kangsar jawab: keputusan awak…… “Sejarah C3″……

Sampai sekarang aku kuciwa dan tertanya-tanya apa salah aku dapat C3 dalam kertas Sejarah. Aku ingat aku dapat dosa sebab menunjuk-nunjuk kat member sebelah. Aku ingat sebab masa nak ambik kertas Sejarah, aku termakan ration kawan lebih sikit, jadi tak berkat. Aku ingat cikgu sejarah aku masa tingkatan 5 (namanya Gedebe dari Kelantan) tak beri restu sebab aku selalu main-main dalam kelas dia.

Sekarang baru aku tahu kenapa aku dapat C3.

Buku teks & semua buku rujukan salah. Gedebe pun salah. Zulqurnain lagilah, 4 tahun ajar ilmu Sejarah sesat kat aku.

Diorang ajar British datang dan menjajah Malaysia. Bila Tunku laungkan Merdeka, itu sebab Malaysia dah bebas dari penjajah.

Aku pun tulis lah panjang lebar, sampai 7-8 muka surat. Punyalah aku puji Tunku & Dato’ Onn sebab menyatukan rakyat Malaysia menentang penjajah. Aku puji sultan-sultan Melayu yang bertegas dan memayungi rakyat jelata, menentang penjajah.

Rupa-rupanya Tunku main olok-olok je kat Stadium Merdeka. Agaknya tahun 1957 tu, 31 Ogos jatuh pada hari raya/hari terakhir ramadhan macam tahun ni jugak. Agaknya Tunku jerit Merdeka tu sebab nak umumkan merdeka dari bulan Ramadhan kot?

Aku lega sebab selepas hampir 20 tahun aku rasa bersalah sebab makan karipap lebih sebelum ambik exam, sekarang aku tahu bukan salah aku. Cikgu-cikgu aku dan buku sejarah semua salah.

Malaysia tak pernah dijajah rupanya. Tunku je yang main olok-olok suka buat costume parti jemput gabenor mat salleh pi stadium, lepas tu jerit-jerit. Aku tabik respek la Tunku, almarhum memang ada sense of humour, kata mat salleh.

Di mana aku boleh dapatkan buku sejarah yang terangkan perkara sebenar ni? Buku sejarah aku semua aku dah bagi kat mamat surat khabar lama suruh recycle. He he

Waaaa So Lama Tak Update!

It feels like ages since I even remember about the blog. Actually I think about it all the time, I just couldn’t discipline myself to allocate at least half an hour a week to blog.

I blame it on Twitter as whatever thoughts you have you can share instantly with others. The magic of Twitter means you interact closer with you peers and in more real time.

Anyhow, I hope I can be more disciplined to at least write a few thoughts on current issues, especially on issues relating to economic hardship faced by the people.

A discourse on whether or not we can lower down fuel price is an important debate that has not been brought to the mainstream of the society. This is one area which I hope I can contribute through this blog and I hope to engage readers out there.

(ps: Actually am testing whether blogging through iPhone is manageable, quite good 🙂 )

Reflection: There’s A Personal Side

I treasure privacy so much that I hardly mix personal life with work. I used to make a rule that as much as possible, I wouldn’t go out for lunch with officemates. My relationship with superiors has always been formal, no matter how hard the superior tried to inject some form of personal friendship. It’s not so much a question of professionalism, but more of a necessary protection for sanity.

Ever since I come to work for Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Dato’ Seri Dr Wan Azizah (as a party boss), I have always been formal. Trying to start an informal conversation with me would have been useless, as I very quickly turn back to the formal self (sometimes I wonder whether people feel I was trained by a butler ha ha).

But it was very different today.

I exchanged a few updates and reports with president over BBM and somehow we veered to an area so private and personal to me – the life of the late Adlan Benan Omar.

Kak Wan had had the opportunity to work closely with Ben, during the initial years of Keadilan. Ben was an idealistic young man fresh from Cambridge, with a burden of destiny on his shoulder given his unmatched talent in oratory and history.

I had known Ben since I was 13. We were both debaters in school, so we passed the baton and promise to ensure a long line of good debaters, from one generation to another. We corresponded throughout his time in Abingdon and Cambridge. By the time I was in the UK, I devoted my life to UKEC that Ben helped to found.

Ben and I were two completely different persons at the opposite spectrum of personality, yet we were brought together by the common yearning for change (and adventure).

Since school days, it was always more honourable to live a life of a rebel with a cause. While other people were busy trying to become a head boy, I was more preoccupied with collecting signatures for a petition organised by the Students Union. Ben and I thrived in life as a rebel with a cause.

He had always taken the public face, while I provided the administrative and managerial support to complete a task.

I had contented to play that role forever as he was gifted as a public orator, until he left us prematurely in 2008. The day he died, I knew that my life would be changed forever and I would not finish my career in the corporate world as a chartered accountant. I knew that the only way to do justice to his memory was to become a part of the struggle that he had devoted his life to.

So it was awkward (and yet comforting) to dwell on Ben’s life with Kak Wan, both of us understood the gravity of his talents. There were a lot of “what ifs” questions (eg I wouldn’t have been here if Ben is alive, or I wouldn’t have taken temporary break from the party if Ben had decided to stay on back in 2003) – while it does not change anything, it feels good to dwell nevertheless.

Talking about Ben was perhaps as personal as I can get with party colleagues and activists. Some people ask why I do not drag the whole bunch of my MCKK batchmates who had always followed me in our charity work previously into politics.

Because everyone must have a secluded and private area of our life not dictated or touched by politics.

The corruption and lack of values associated with politics make people feel politicians are not human. Hence you can attack them verbally and psychologically as if they are not human (the way DS Anwar has been).

But we often forget that there’s a personal side of the public face.

And going through such a personal exchange about a friend so dear to both of us; reminds me of the great important lesson in life as a politician – do not lose the personal side of your life and character.

Somehow, I feel Kak Wan and DS Anwar withstand the onslaught directed at them all these years because essentially they retain a very personal side of their public life; that becomes so obvious when you have a common denominator in the form of a memory of Adlan Benan Omar.

Welcome 2011

Saying time really flies becomes such an understatement nowadays. It doesn’t just fly, it disappears in a blink of an eye.

2010 was intense. I said good bye to a mundane corporate job in 2009, thinking that I could take one day at a time in a new role. I remember spending some time designing the whole organisation and finalising position description, but it wasn’t long before things were overtaken by the intense events of 2010.

My official return to the party inner circle was greeted with the departure of the previous Secretary General, who by co-incidence was also an acquaintance. Not long after that, the notorious defection of the 5 MPs marred the start of 2010.

Just as we were picking things up, the protracted attacks on the party (internally and externally) as a result of our election bogged things further. I too had to go through a maturing few months as I threw the gauntlet for the AMK post.

In the midst of this, many things had to happen behind the scene to keep things together. There were a lot of frustrations, but the very little joy you gained seeing the little contribution to the struggle makes it worthwhile.

I learnt a lot in 2010. I saw the strength and burden of a group of people who genuinely wanted to change the country for the better, as they face constant attacks. I saw the personal side of the public politicians whose public persona often makes people forget that they too are human beings, just like you and me.

I saw heroism and I saw betrayals. I witnessed honesty contrasted with back-stabbing.

Throughout all of this, I make new friends and comrades most of whom appear out of nowhere. I renew faith in the people of the past whose paths had strayed away temporarily.

2010 was intense, but so was the lessons it imparts. It drains us immensely yet it grounds us firmly on this path too.

A few days ago, I sat down with a young guy (barely early 20s) who is so eager to come onboard and help the party. I keep asking whether he knows what he wants in life, or whether he understands that politics in KEADILAN must come from idealism so that you stay true to that promise you made when you first decide to enter the ring.

I wanted to change the world in 1998 when I was 21. Along the way, I realise the world was not for me to change; I was just an insignificant traveller looking for Allah’s blessing. By the time I was 30, I understood the meaning of a struggle, seeing the very one person who was the biggest motivation for me to be in politics lied lifeless having forfeited everything for his idealism.

Idealism is painful. More often than not it sows a bitterness that had turned so many of the past activists of KEADILAN against the party.

For things do not change quickly. Lest we forget, everything that is worth fighting for is worth waiting, no matter how long it will take.

And this struggle will be long and outlive us. I don’t pretend to know what 2011 has in store for us – but it’s going to be more intense.

Just as BN will step up the attacks, they can be sure of our new year vow that we will return every brick they throw at us with a bigger brick.

2011 is going to be difficult, but the pain of 2010 would have made us more matured.

So bring it on, 2011 🙂