idols idols...

its been a quiet friday spent in quiet reflection...

i was asked a simple question today...that had literally stumped me...one of our local Malay magazines is doing a feature on Idols...wat with American Idol fever just warming us up for Singapore Idol fever...that's just about to begin...i was asked...who my idol was?

and i was stumped...i've never really idolised anybody before...i have tremendous respect for many people...but idolise them?...

i thought...and i knew who i most admired...well his works at least...it was my all-time favourite author....the infamous...Salman Rushdie...who's novel 'Midnight's Children' changed my life and my attitudes towards life a an early age of 16...

But to declare this author of 'the Satanic Verses'...this man who's renounced Islam...who had a fatwa against him...as my IDOL... was certainly unacceptable in the eyes of the conservative Malay Muslim community of which i am a member of...and i certainly am not keen to renounce my membership from the community in the near future...

Anyhow..I thought about it...i idolize his writing...his works...not himself...or the kind of person and values that he upholds...in fact i don't know them...

so i thought some more..but all my 'idol's' are politically wrong...

machiavelli for his cunningness....and wit...and his lack of fear of prosecution...

mao for his intelligence and superior ego...that had moved a country to profess him as the sun that never sets...

kenneth waltz...for converting me to a neo-realists...

was there something wrong with me...other ppl have robbie williams as their idol...pele...kofi annan...britney spears...taufiq? but me?....

and then i remembered...reading about a lady...who sparked off the civil rights movement in America...the poster girl of the movement...who stood up for what she believed was right...who stood in the face of adversity and of danger...who risked her personal liberties to make a point..

Rosa Parks...the lady who refused to give up her seat white woman..aon 01 December 1955...an act that precipitated the largest and most successful civil rights movement at that time- the Montgomery Bus Boycott...which finally led to the successful civil rights movement....

Now this is a lady..who's values i share...who's guts and gumption i wished i could share in...

who i can rightly call...my idol.