COMMENT There is a recent trend of late, as public ire against the powers that be escalate. Respected figures who once numbered amongst the mighty began to speak out and call for censure for the ruling party.

Amongst them are luminaries, dignitaries, intelligentsia, former ministers, ex-high ranking public servants, and high-brow figures. All coming down to the ground, to share the stage and mingle with the common folks.

We see them on stage, in social media, on blogs, or speaking to the media at full length, sparing neither syllable nor word count as they mount their tirade against the government that everyone loves (and has good reasons) to hate.

Indeed, they are a welcome sight, at times providing sound arguments and solid analysis to some of the emotionally tinged public lamentation.

It is true that they add gravitas to the voices speaking out against government abuses and oppressive practices, their dignity lending further momentum to the call for reforms.

But, timely as their intervention may be, there is a double dissonance that run discordant to the issue at hand, like off-tune notes that threaten to ruin the noble gesture that they put into the pro-reform symphony's tones.

The first is that at times, they tend to talk down when they speak out, their favourite target being the mentality and mindset of the cowed rakyat who are behaving too much like sheep.

They may refer to the Malays, so sewed and mewed up by the ruling party apparatus. Or they complain why Sabahans and Sarawakians continue to support the BN, albeit via local proxies, when they supposedly hate peninsular intervention.

Not to forget the pointed finger to other social stereotypes, those who supposedly stood by when the government ran riot, because of apathy or for profit's sake.

Action, not talk

They are, in essence, lambasting the very people who once kept them in power and whose support they themselves counted upon, by the same powers that be, which they now rage against.

They have at times a way of talking down to these masses - berating and at times even insulting the commoners - when speaking out against the powers that they were once a part of. While it must be noted that they are perhaps well-meaning, what they do and how they do it are not helping.

It is important to note that, for one, they get nothing - except antagonism - by berating and insulting those very people they should be trying to reach out to. And indeed give more reasons that the powerful can use to instil fear and hatred into those they continue to mislead.

And secondly, these privileged few gain nothing by preaching to the anti-government choir who basically are not buying the rhetoric that they should be thankful for the crumbs thrown at them by the system that gave us peace and stability then, now and forever.

They should perhaps instead win over those who once followed them, to join the crusade for reforms, instead of pouring more salt to these people’s wound.

And more importantly, it should be remembered that for many of these so-called luminaries, they were once part of the same system that made the public meek (and smack them hard when they are not). Indeed, some were the very ones responsible for creating the very conditions that allow the current shenanigans to fester and the leaders to continue to rule freely.

These folks were in part or squarely responsible for the very thing they now rage against. And the preamble to their redemption is perhaps to help undo the mess and not just stand on the high horse when they are conveniently no longer part of the powers that be and its sundry apparatus.

Indeed many perhaps have no locus standi to stand on, given that they were cut from the same privileged cloth that adorns the powers that be and their goons. Retirement, whether enforced or not, and aged wisdom had given them the backbone they never had, or perhaps it’s guilty conscience gnawing at them.

As they struggle to make amends or distance themselves from their culpable pasts, it would be more palatable if they choose humbler words and a less haughty tone.

The once-mighty should not berate the ‘meek’ who used to support them, in the now shared quest to unseat the powerful.

HAZLAN ZAKARIA is a member of the Malaysiakini team.