Raja Petra has passed away.
When I first found out the news just now, something inside my heart moved, which was surprising, because my heart has never moved at the news of any prominent Malaysians departing before, and also because it is not like I know Raja Petra personally.
But somehow, I suppose Raja Petra is still a very important person to me, because when read about his passing, it was as if cold water was suddenly splashed in my face.
I used to love Raja Petra's writing. I say used to because he mostly does videos now rather than write, and because even if he writes now, i can't read it, because his legendary Malaysia-Today site is blocked in Malaysia.
But back around the 2000s, when Raja Petra wrote prolifically in Malaysia-Today, I used to read his articles religiously, partly because he will tell you stuff that nobody else dares to, but mostly because I just liked the way he writes. You feel like you know him when you read what he writes, and this indeed is a mark of a writer of high skills.
As a writer, he was one of zest and energy - even when he told you that the country was going to the dogs, there was so much high spirit in his words, that rather than be depressed, you tended to be aroused to action by it.
Other than the high spirits, the man also had no lack of humor and wit, for there are numerous occasions where i remember laughing all by myself when i read his articles. Other than Raja Petra, only Joseph Heller and R.K Narayanan has been able to do that to me.
But more than a writer, he was a very brave man who valued freedom and the thought deeply about the meaning of truth. It is not easy to do what he has done, and that too in a country like ours, with no one you can rely one other than yourself. He is so rare, that when I look around with the eye of my mind, I can't see a single person in the field who will be willing to risk so much for what they believed in like Raja Petra.
When my articles appeared in his Malaysia-Today regularly for the past couple of years, i was incredibly proud. I was more proud of my articles appearing on his news portal than i was when it appeared in any other portals, although nobody ever reads what i write when it appears on his portal , on account of his portal being blocked in Malaysia.
I was proud of it because when my article appeared on his portal, i felt as if Raja Petra himself was nodding in approval to how i judged, thought and wrote, and to receive a nod from Raja Petra meant more to me than the approval of anyone else in the industry.
I suppose for the lack of a better word, he was like an idol to me.
To receive a nod of approval from your idol, is indeed something that means a lot. I learned that from Raja Petra, and if the occasion arises, I look forward to impart that lesson to someone else in the future.
Raja Petra might have departed in exile, but even if the powers that be in our country refuse to acknowledge his impact, those of us who are honest with ourselves know that without him, Malaysia as it is today might not have come to pass.
There are a lot of personalities who are responsible for the momentous political changes that occurred in the 2000s, the culmination of which is the historic change of government we witnessed in 2018 and 2022.
If ever a list of these personalities are made, it will be amiss, if it doesn't contain Raja Petra's name in the first page.
Rest in Peace, Dear Raja Petra.
TheRealNehruism is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.
