In 2012, I made a list of the top 10 gigs I would like to see in person. Third on the list was Green Day, a band that I’ve listened to for decades, and 13 years after that list, I managed to see them live when they came to Kuala Lumpur. The show was terrific. Billy Joe Armstrong, the lead singer, genuinely looked excited to be in Kuala Lumpur and was super engaging in his interaction with the crowd. In standard Malaysian fashion, rain poured down on the open-air standing area, but that didn’t dampen (pun intended) the enthusiasm of the crowd; as I think back, I think the rain actually made it even more fitting and added to the overall atmosphere.
My favourite sportswriter is Bill Simmons of The Ringer (formerly of Grantland and ESPN), who writes about sports from a fan’s perspective. The tone is conversational, blending in pop culture from movies, music and television; if this sounds familiar to the readers who have been kind enough to read my columns for the past 12 years or so, Simmons’ style is what I attempt to build on in my own writing. His columns also experiment with different styles of essays — one of his formats which I’ve most enjoyed is something along the lines of “recap an event using TV/movie quotes” as a kick-start.
So, I thought I would try to do something a little different for this column (and many thanks to The Edge for allowing me to experiment with different formats in my more conversational style over the years, and tolerating copious use of pop culture and sports references) and try to discuss public policy or political economy issues using Green Day lyrics. As you can imagine, it’s been very difficult getting Green Day out of my system after such a good show and I have been listening to those songs on repeat. So, without further ado, I’ll use only lyrics from songs that were played at the Malaysian show.
“And there’s nothing wrong with me / This is how I’m supposed to be / In the land of make-believe / That don’t believe in me” (Jesus of Suburbia)
I apologise for throwing yet another sports reference, but NBA coach Doc Rivers once said about the US, “We keep loving this country, and this country doesn’t love us back”. And with President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) going to town on a wide range of American government agencies, there has been particular disillusionment with the shutting down of USAID, which provides grants for aid work in the US and the rest of the world. Now, I don’t deny there will inevitably be wastage, and not all the spending will be effective or efficient, but for those that actually are effective and efficient, what happens when that aid dries up? For instance, USAID funds hospitals in refugee camps in Myanmar, landmine removal in Cambodia and healthcare for Afghan women, among others. The land of seemingly make-believe seems to not believe in the rest of the world.
“I don’t need your authority / Down with the moral majority” (Minority)
This is related to the recent brouhaha in Malaysia of the interfaith guidelines for Muslims attending non-Muslim events. The good thing is that the matter was dispelled pretty quickly, with the pushback and rejection even from more conservative segments of society being pretty encouraging. But still, that these kinds of issues still pop up every now and then — from its own administration no less — must be immensely frustrating for the government; the opportunity cost of time and attention on more pressing issues is considerable. That said…
“Do you have the time to listen to me whine about nothing and everything all at once” (Basket Case)
A big part of why the opportunity cost of time and attention in Malaysia is so significant is due to the amplification effect of social media. It has its benefits, of course — social media outrage can help hold governments and corporates accountable for their nonsense. And maybe if the noise wasn’t so loud, the interfaith guidelines issue wouldn’t have been quashed so quickly. And so citizen-led social media becomes a fifth estate of sorts, or at least the fourth-and-a-half estate to support local journalism, some of which, we know, aren’t crazy about accountability. At the same time, such social media amplification also has its drawbacks — we need to make sure the most important issues are the ones most worth shouting about; the signal to noise ratio can be extremely volatile if we spend a lot of time and outrage on issues of minimal consequence.
“You can’t go forcing something if it’s just not right” (When I Come Around)
I was recently at a meeting where, yet again, someone was trying to sell what the “best practice” of some international organisation looked like and how we should all try to move towards those “best practices”. This really annoys me. If the presenter can’t explain two things — first, what choices or tradeoffs did the organisation make to land at that “best practice” in the first place based on their past, and second, at the working level, what do people in that organisation complain about when they implement that “best practice” — then that presentation means very little to me.
“Best practices” for a given organisation are a result of cultural evolution in the specific context for that organisation and simply transplanting a practice from one place to another (read: everyone who uses Singapore as an easy one-for-one comparison with Malaysia) is short-sighted. This is not to say everything is irrelevant, of course some practices should be copied; it is just that the contextual setting really matters. Just like how businesses need product-market fit, we need practice-context fit. And, in addition, for those who ask, “Why hasn’t the government done this?” or “Why hasn’t the firm done that?”, chances are the government or firm has already thought of that — especially if it’s an obvious solution — but the implementation context for the practice could be extremely challenging.
“For what it’s worth, it was worth all the while / It’s something unpredictable, but in the end is right, I hope you have the time of your life” (Good Riddance [Time of Your Life])
The encore song for the final point. I was having a conversation recently in which we discussed the political instability of Malaysia over the past few years, especially from 2018 to 2022. And they asked if it was worth it. And, in my view, the most important takeaway from the May 2018 election wasn’t about who won the election; it was about the rakyat knowing that it was possible to and that we actually held the power to democratically change governments in peaceful ways. If the price of that is some instability after 61 years of the same coalition, then it was definitely worth all the while.