Trending This Week: Adam Adli

According to Google, Malaysians have been very curious about Adam Adli in the past 7 days (see trends). If you haven't had a chance to google his name, he's a student activist detained briefly this week for security reasons.

I personally think street revolutions is not the way to go. I talked a little bit about realpolitik before - the importance to emphasize economic stability and high quality of life instead of on ideologies. Street revolutions would not only impact the short-term economic activities (e.g. due to closed streets, shops, offices, etc.), but would also affect long-term confidence to invest or do business in Malaysia. All these would eventually impact all Malaysians.

I do understand the phenomenon called "darah muda" among youths. I was 18 when we had Reformasi in 1998. I was with a group of about 20 students at Uniten doing our preparation before going to the States. With unlimited access to information from the internet,  we all felt a huge burden to the society to do something about the injustices. We were fortunate to have a dean, Prof. Ajmal, for whom I have great respect, to calm us down. He invited all of us to his house. He talked about his personal hardships in life, the fact that the world is not always a fair place, etc. Most of all, he reminded us about the risk for us to lose our scholarship.

To student activists, back then in 1998 or now, street revolution is still not worth it. Focus on what you can control in life and disregard what are beyond your control. Complete your education, build your career and get into politics if you really care. Follow the footsteps of Zairil Khir Johari instead of Adam Adli. Reformasi 1998 was the former's initial motivation to get into politics.

I'm afraid they will be a lot more Adam Adli, ABU, etc in the future. Let me share some interesting excerpts from The New Digital Age:

Future revolutions will produce many celebrities, but this aspect of movement-making will retard the leadership development necessary to finish the job. Technology can help find the people with leadership skills - thinkers, intellectuals and others - but it cannot create them. Popular uprisings can overthrow dictators, but they're successful afterward only if opposition forces have a good plan and can execute it. Otherwise the result is either a reconstitution  of the old regime or a transition from a functioning regime to a failed state.

Enough about what I think. What do Malaysians think? According to TweetFeel, based on a small sample of  121 tweets, 53% of the tweets have negative sentiment towards Adam Adli. Another source gives 67% negative sentiment on Adam Adli. Here are some of the tweets:

I dont see Adam Adli as a leader, reformist. I would say he's not being smart at all. Thats not the way to rebel.

What's wrong with showing support for Adam Adli? Stop sending hate if you don't know what's going on.

“9 pagi ini siapa nak jmpa adam adli sila dtg ke mahkamah jln duta. Sebar. Sokong adam,masuk syurga!”wtf ?

Org bangga masok dewan konvo. Kau bangga masok lokap dan mahkamah. Stupid Adam Adli.

Wake me up when Adam Adli is not relevant

One last special mention from Monyet King:

Adam Adli berkata "kita akan turun ke jalanraya dan kita akan rampas kuasa". Kenapa? kuasa tu kat jalanraya ke ? The last time I checked, kat jalanraya tu cuma ada traffic jam, traffic light dan tikus sahaja.