I THINK my wife was somewhat disappointed with my lukewarm response when she told me that Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has resigned.

I was neither surprised nor excited. Unless you have been living in a cave or practising ostrich head-in-sand exercises for the past few weeks, it is quite obvious he had to step down very soon. 

On the other hand, despite the failings of the Perikatan Nasional government under Muhyiddin, I am not particularly glad that he has done so because his departure will not make much difference for Malaysia and ordinary Malaysians, as opposed to wanting him to remain, both in the short and long term.

Why do I say that? Well, Dennis Ignatius wrote recently, “in the name of race and religion, our governance system has been so abused that it is now beyond repair. A different prime minister or even fresh elections won’t resolve our problem if the system remains unchanged. We either reform or we perish.” I agree with him.

Indeed, it is a belief that I have had for some time now. I believe that the fundamental problems of Malaysia will never be effectively resolved as long as one particular category of Malaysians are accorded a special position that comes with perks and privileges denied to the others. I do not wish to get into the details of this belief here as there is another point that I wish to make.

When I read Ignatius’s conclusion in his recent blog post, it struck me how similar it was to my own thinking. I took the opportunity to conduct an informal poll with my Malay friends to see how many would agree with that sentiment.

Interestingly, a Malay friend not only agreed, she said: “Only twits would not agree, and those thinking of making big bucks. Even Malays in the B40 who are worst hit by Covid-19”.

In response, I said: “I think there are at least three distinct categories of Malays who would disagree. Their disagreement are: 1. ignorance; 2. greed; 3. Fear.”

Then I added: “In the ultimate analysis, it will still boil down to ignorance.”

She simply replied: “Sad but true”.

What do we do when we come across ignorance? What can we do? Well, the easiest thing to do would be to ignore it.

However, that would be the ignorant thing to do, wouldn’t it? After all, the words “ignore” and “ignorant” have the same root.

Another common response to ignorance is to either mock or criticise it, ie, react adversely to it. Whether we want to admit it, the fact is many of us – even the best of us – sometimes fall into a mode of judgment where we relish the superior position from where we can look down on those below.

That reminds me of a quote by Jesse Jackson: “The only time you should look down at someone, is when you are helping them up.”

Which brings me to what I believe is the best thing to do when we encounter ignorance. I consider ignorance to be a form of darkness which stops us from seeing the truth, reality, or simply things as they are.

Unfortunately, despite all the incredible advances in human capability, there is no technology that can be bought off the shelf to remove darkness. 

Indeed, we can never remove darkness by itself. The only way to get rid of darkness is to bring light and to enlighten people – ie, get rid of their ignorance. We start with education in the broadest sense of the word. Alas, it is held captive by the ignorant, greedy and/or fearful in this beloved nation of ours.

That’s why, I consider Muhyiddin’s resignation to be an insignificant, inconsequential event. – August 17, 2021.

* Jonson Chong reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.