Gandhi was bicameral, so what?
| Sharaad Kuttan is a journalist currently rummaging about the cultural baggage gifted to us by decades of authoritarian rule. |
Before then, a brazen attempt to distract the public from crucial matters of state by a motley triumvirate of Barisan Nasional “supporters” (launched more than a week ago) had “gripped” the nation.
For me (and quite a few others I suspect) the only thing “shocking” about the “sex video shocker”, as proudly proclaimed by one English daily, was the fact that this tactic was being employed yet again.
Instead of feeling insulted as I usually am when politicians treat me (and the larger public) like an easily manipulated child, I started to enjoy the absurdity of it all.
When it was suggested that the “pornographic video” be shown in Parliament, I first recoiled. But recovering my sense of the absurd, I thought, how appropriate.
As the crowning achievement of this administration, the screening of this extended romp would clarify the meaning of representational democracy as practised in Malaysia. (Students of comparative government, take note).
To top that, the urgent call by a high-ranking Cabinet minister for a Royal Commission on the sex tape, over numerous other matters of state like illegal migrants in Sabah, is proof again that this government has only the national interest at heart.
So uncommonly elated was I all this past week and more, that when the news came of yet another death at a MACC office (in Kuala Lumpur rather than Shah Alam) I could only squeal with delight.
“They will probably accuse the dead man of being an ardent supporter of the Opposition,” I said in jest. “He flung himself out a window to embarrass the government.”
But the grim reality quickly set in: A man, a father, husband, a son and a friend is dead. It’s no laughing matter.
Especially as we all know how difficult it is for the dead to get justice in this country.
I had to pause. I think we all have to. As one performance dedicated to Teoh Beng Hock instructed (and I paraphrase) — be still, “no emo.”
There is a perilous darkness over our country these days that no amount of public relations can dispel.
But it’s hard to live in constant awareness of this reality, which is why politicians can bank so readily on a wilfully forgetful public to vote them in again. And again.
I too suffer from this need to forget. In fact now all I long for is that lost sense of the absurd to return; it has a wonderful numbing quality.
I want to have happy thoughts again. Really happy thoughts.
Did you read about the controversial new book on Mahatma Gandhi?
When I spied the news item on Huffington Post, honestly, I ignored it. The headline read “New Bio Reportedly Depicts Gandhi As Bisexual, Racist.”
It wasn’t until a friend sent me an SMS about Gandhi’s alleged sexual proclivities did I take notice.
The SMS read: “Just read that Gandhi may have been bisexual and that he was in love with German-Jewish bodybuilder Hermann Kallenbach. Some lines from Gandhi’s letters to the bloke: ‘Your portrait (the only one) stands on my mantelpiece in my bedroom. The mantelpiece is opposite to the bed.’ Gandhi also told Kallenbach cotton wool and Vaseline were ‘a reminder’ of him. Gandhi also wrote to Kallenbach about ‘how completely you have taken possession of my body. This is slavery with a vengeance.’ And! Gandhi nicknamed himself ‘Upper House’ and Kallenbach ‘Lower House’ and made Lower House promise not to ‘look lustfully upon any woman’. The two then pledged ‘more love, and yet more love... such love as they hope the world has not yet seen.’”
Admittedly I was taken aback by the reference to cotton wool and Vaseline, but it was the nicknames “Upper House” and “Lower House” that caught my imagination.
While I began by mapping this binary on more conventional notions of sexual positions — top/bottom, active/passive, one/zero, catcher/pitcher — I have come rapidly to the conclusion that one might only successfully accuse the Mahatma of being committed to bicameralism.
How appropriate for a politician; he wrote of love in political terms. The metaphor confirms Gandhi’s democratic credentials and passions.
What would our metaphors be?
Looking at the public sphere it is indeed “slavery with a vengeance” except there is no love or mutual respect. Some would rather drag us all, the entire nation, down to its knees rather than to yield an inch to anyone or contemplate change.
Apologies. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts.
* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.
* Sharaad Kuttan is a teacher. This Saturday, April 9, he will be giving a public talk entitled “Writhing in the Margins: Art, Protest and the Public Sphere” which is organised by the Centre for the Study of Communications and Culture, Nottingham University, at its city campus 10am - KLTC, Level 2 Chulan Tower, Jalan Conlay. All are welcome.
