Raja Petra Kamarudin
Malays suffer from three illnesses that other races do not seem to suffer from: melatah, mengamuk and mass hysteria.
The English colonial masters were probably quite surprised the first time they saw a Malay mengamuk. They probably asked the penghulu (village chief) what was wrong with that chap who was waving his keris all over the place while running helter-skelter into the crowd screaming and trying to stab all and sundry.
The penghulu probably replied, “Dia mengamuk, Tuan.”
Mengamuk? Not having an equivalent word to mengamuk in the English language, the Orang Puteh probably told his chums over beer that night, “There was this chap today who was running amok, wailing like a banshee and trying to stab everyone with his keris.”
Hence the phrase ‘running amok’ stuck in the English language until today.
Melatah is definitely found only in Malay culture. When a person suffers from melatah and you shock that person, he or she would jump up, sometimes dance or go into silat moves, and will say all sorts of things involuntarily. In short, that person would have lost control and would have taken leave of his or her senses. I have personally seen this happen a number of times.
There was one unique case about 30 years ago that happened in Kuala Terengganu. Two latah persons, a man and a woman, got into a lift. It was lunchtime and the lift was pretty crowded.
One prankster poked the latah man in his side and said, “Boo!” The man suddenly shouted, “Burit!” The latah woman reacted and shouted, “Puki!” The latah man then responded, again, with “Burit!” So it went on and on, the man shouting ‘burit’ and the woman shouting ‘puki’, until the lift reached the ground floor and the doors opened.
From that day on they never both got into the lift at the same time.
What causes this? No one knows but it seems only Malays suffer from this. And that is why when someone talks cock the Malays would say, “Dia tu melatah.”
The third illness of the Malays is mass hysteria. Now, however, it seems like this illness has infected the non-Malays as well. There have been many cases of mass hysteria where, say, one schoolgirl suddenly starts screaming and/or fainting and the entire classroom or even the entire school gets infected by this screaming/fainting fit.
Normally a western-trained doctor can do nothing for these people. They would need to call in a bomoh (witch doctor) to help exorcise the spirit or spirits that was causing this phenomenon. After the bomoh has chased the spirits away or has made offerings to politely request the spirit or spirits to move on and leave the girls alone would things get back to normal.
All it needs is for one person to start — scream, faint, tear his or her out, strip naked and run all over the place, or whatever. Immediately everyone will get infected and will join in the hysteria. And only a bomoh can restore order again.
It is not that difficult to start mass hysteria. Just like in cases of melatah, all you need is one word. For example, all you need to do is scream ‘1MDB!’ and it will result in mass hysteria. At the very least, if it does not result in mass hysteria, it will definitely result in many people suddenly melatah and, God forbid, maybe even megamuk or run amok.
There was a very neat trick that one Umno leader cum Member of Parliament for Kedah — who wishes to remain anonymous and hence set up an anonymous Blog — played two days ago.
He ‘leaked’ some documents on his Blog, and pretended it was not him, that implicated Lembaga Tabung Haji in a not so kosher deal with 1MDB. Immediately everyone melatah, some even mengamuk. Others very soon joined in the mass hysteria. In all that running around and screaming, no one thought of checking the details to make sure that what was ‘leaked’ is true.
One chap screamed 1MDB has lost RM42 billion — the money has disappeared into thin air. Another screamed 1MDB has made bad investments and is suffering a huge loss. Yet another screamed that 1MDB bought the land cheap and is selling it for a huge profit.
I suppose it is like two latah persons, one shouting, “Burit, 1MDB rugi besar!” and the other shouting, “Puki, 1MDB untung terlampau besar!”
That is the trouble with latah people. They cannot decide whether it is a crime that 1MDB lost money or whether it is a crime that 1MDB is making money.
Anyway, some have no problem with 1MDB making money. In fact, they are of the opinion that 1MDB should make money because the objective here is to make money. What they are unhappy about is that 1MDB is making money from Tabung Haji.
Is 1MDB making money at the expense of Tabung Haji? I mean is Tabung Haji going to lose money so that 1MDB can make money? Actually, Tabung Haji is also going to make money, maybe even lots of it, but that is not the issue. The issue is…hell, I am not sure what the issue is.
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