Rumours. What the hell are they? Also known as ‘khabar angin’ in Malay, I believe everyone reading this have enough sense and capability to understand the meaning and implications of rumours. Even the government wants us to understand what exactly rumours are. The government is so desperate to educate us relating this matter that it even incorporated this into the syllabus of BTN (Kem Biro Tata Negara). Believe it or not, scholars (JPA) are assumed to be so stupid that they need to be taught the difference between rumours, facts and opinionated questions for a few solid hours. Or perhaps, I am being just too critical regarding this issue. Perhaps, there are indeed people who are ignorant enough to understand the difference between rumours and truth. (Ng 2006). Just for the sake of clarification, I would like to explain what rumours, facts and opinionated questions, all in 3 simple but powerful examples shown below:
Rumour : Chean Yeaw likes Chia Ling.
Opinionated question : Do you think Sze Ching has the natural ability to blog?
Fact : Chean Yeaw is not cute, handsome and muscular. (ABSOLUTELY no doubt about that :P)
Before I go on, I would like to express my most sincere apology to a certain friend of mine if my action has angered him in any way imaginable. It was wrong of me to think that what I did was funny. He has been a great friend and it will be a great loss to me if he stays angry at me forever.
Rumours may be good as it is a good provider of fun. People often use rumours as their ammunition to shoot other people (victims of rumours). As their victims wince and grimace, they enjoyed themselves immensely. They basically gain satisfaction from people’s pain. These sentences are not simply put here without solid evidence of their truth. I am have personal experience to support these words. A few weeks back, during the birthday celebration of a certain girl in McD, I was mercilessly shot by some friends from the beginning till the end of the celebration just because the same 2 people have before that started some rumours about me and the girl in question. The fact that it was the girl's birthday and she deserved at least 1 day of peace did not occur at all to them. Instead, we were made victims of constant bombardment. Not wanting to make the girl feel uncomfortable at her own birthday party, I held my tongue in the hope that they will get bored after a while, realising that any argument of my part will only fuel the conversation of this particular topic. However, they seem to think that as it was her birthday she should be at the centre of any conversation.So, the shooting perpetuated throughout the whole night. As we wince and grimace, they roared with laughter. At the end of the party, they have the audacity to ask me why I was so quite that night. I almost swore. What do you call these people? I label them as sadists. Nothing less than that (Ng 2006; Tan 2006).
Rumours can have devastating effects. It can lead to the deteriorating friendship between the victims of rumours, especially if it is untrue and it involves rumours that someone likes another party. This widespread of rumours (rumours have uncanny ability to do so. Remember, it spreads exponentially at first) can lead to a victim (especially the ladies) feeling uncomfortable around the other victim. A possible outcome is the avoidance between the two victims (or even avoidance from one party is enough) and the next thing you see is the widening friendship gap between the two. So much for shooting for fun and being a sadist. All you do is to destroy another friendship. It is a pity why sometimes the victims of rumours have sadists as friends. These friends just don't seem to understand the damage they have done. Therefore, I completely understand how (Ng)CY feels (Ng 2006; Tan 2006).
Sometimes, a rumour can even spread to one's backyard. For example, in a certain Anniversary Post of my blog, many (ok lah actually a few only) are kind enough to leave comments wishing my blog happy anniversary. Obviously, an anniversary post can hardly be perceived as a WRONG post. But some people just HAVE to shoot me. Yes, I was shot in my own blog. How pathetic can that be? They may see it as teasing for fun. I understand that. But I also see that as a catalyst for a larger upswing. As the post took me a lot of effort to write, I couldn't get myself to delete it and can only hope that not many will read the comments (Ng 2006; Tan 2006).
I do not deny that I am a sadist sometimes too. I am not proud of what I did, nor do I intend to deny them. But I am growing weary of all this. I am tired of rumours. I am sick of repeating the same old things and giving the same expressions everytime I got teased. I am beginning to lose the fun of shooting other people. I had tried not to shoot people, but people somehow find me easier to bully and shoot me more frequently as the result, as demonstrated in the McD celebration incident. I realise that the shooting cycle I am involved in is triangular in shape and without at least 2 person stopping this childish behaviour the one that surendered first will only be attacked to death. So, what should I do? Just ignore the rumours and see friendships being destroyed as the consequences (Ng 2006; Tan 2006)?
Therefore, the suffering of Chean Yeaw I can completely comprehend. After all, all the hurtful things he had gone through I have experienced before him, no thanks to a few sadists that I know (2 in particular). CY, you have my deepest empathy and most sincere apology. I am very happy that someone besides myself will attempt to hold his tongue, so the plan of fighting rumours with silence may actually work. May the 3rd person realise his sin soon.
P/s : Some of the content of this post have been borrowed from somewhere else with the author quoted. These may not be my words, but they depict MY suffering perfectly.
P/p/s : I am sorry if anyone is upset by this post. Any offence has been unintentional and innocuous in nature.
