The examples of people doing 1. to 6. cited by Spencer Gan as traitors to the nation are NOT traitors to those who label Ambiga as “traitor” and the reason for this is that they (1. to 6.) are all part and supportive of the political order and system structured opportunistically upon primacy of race, creed and religion the preservation of which is overarching and more important than fighting or addressing any abuse of power, corruption, subversion of rule of law, decline of educational standards etc. Anyone rejecting the norms and rules of the racial dominance/hegemony or purporting to uphold truth, morality and ethics, democracy, meritocracy or even national interests in a manner that threatens the survival of the political party or political order that upholds and stands for these norms (supposedly sanctioned by Social Contract) is a traitor! The word “traitor” is good. It is value laden (extremely negative); it is emotive, and stir men’s anger, suspicion, hatred against the person so accused and removes their capacity to rationalize if such accusation is deserved Because of its deep emotional content, the very word “traitor” itself is a wonderful political tool with which to manipulate people’s thinking to proceed on emotional than rational lines!

It is often said that those who crow about our children receiving a better quality of education than those in the United States Germany and United Kingdom (as evinced by the thousands who scored 10As even if they could not pass the IB exams) are in a “state of denial”. A person can (deliberately) deny without being in a state of denial just like a person saying that the country is climbing up in human capital, value added chain, economic growth, democracy and tackling corruption better than rest of ASEAN need not have to believe in what he says!

They know and are crystal clear of the score on how the country declines by reason of race based policies and politics but it is a compromise & sacrifice necessary because of the overarching importance of preserving the present race based political order so that elites could continue to forage on resources of the state and privileges. It is age old problem of selfishness of the few against the interest of the rest. It is as simple as that. Its not denial syndrome in sense that they actually believe what they say.They don’t but have to say for preservation of the political agenda that benefits them.

This is the problem. When one uses a word (say, ‘traitor’) there must be match between what the speaker intends it to mean and what the hearer understands it to mean. Here there may be a disjunct/disconnect. Speaker intends “traitor” to mean any one whose words and conduct is critical of, adverse against the elected government and race hegemonic political order/feudal patronage culture established by the UMNO led government for last 5 decades whereas the hearer like Spencer Gan understands the word as meaning “traitorious” to against interest of nation and its peoples of all races and whatever political affliation or creed. There could not be a dialogue as the understanding of the word is not the same between speaker and listener. Just like how Human Rights can be construed to be Communistic! No point of debate/discussion cos there’s no common ground. Shouldn’t waste time.