Mata Buta – An attempt at an explanation…
A few years ago we wrote and recorded a simple song; a short, fast burst of a dirty ditty, heavy with exasperate anger. It’s called simply Mata Buta or roughly translated as “blind eye”, basically it means “blinded”.
Many asked what the song is about. We believe it’s not something we need to explain, since everything is already laid out there in the lyrics:
listen & singalong!
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MATA BUTA
Ini memang cerita lama [this is truly an ancient tale]
Dari jaman dulu kala [from the days of yore]
Orang kaya cekik darah [the rich wrings blood]
Orang besar makan budak [the elite devours the young]
Gadis cantik dijadi gundik [pretty girls taken as concubines]
Patik rakyat ikut saja [we, the lowly citizenry, submitted and obeyed]
Bila kita akan celik? [when are we going to open up our eyes]
Cerita lama, cerita sama [ancient tales recurring]
Mata buta! [blinded]
Bukak! [open up!]
Bukak! [open up!]
Bukak! [open up!]
The truth is, we don’t really know how to explain it at length, other from the fact that all of us have been facing the same problems, over and over again, without learning from experiences and try to change the situation which brought all of us into this vicious cycle. We kept repeating it, allowing it to happen again and again, generations after generations.
In this instance, the situation related in the song is linked to our collective embedded DNA-memory of being a bunch of submissive cowards, bowed down and allowed ourselves to be subjected to abuses and transgressions by the powers that be, the elite, the orang besar, as if we are subhumans unfit to live with dignity and liberty.
Below is an article which somehow explains it better, or at least in parts of it, and features the same exasperation which we have and wanted to convey in Mata Buta. It is rather “academic”, but do read on:
Rethinking The Malay Problem
by Azly Rahman – as published on malaysiakini.com on the 18th of August 2009
“…the scholar is not he who gives the right answers, but he who asks the right questions…” Claude Levi-Strauss, French structural anthropologist.
Where does the predicament of the contemporary Malays lie? How must one study the ongoing crisis in multiethnic Malaysia? These are daunting and nagging questions for scholars interested in studying the complexity of race relations in this hypermodern country. Here are a few thoughts and suggestions.
[Read more]

