I FINALLY got to meet him yesterday (April 19) at 4pm after days of sleepless nights and chasing for an appointment through his family.
Frankly, I was quite annoyed over all the waiting to see a buddy and comrade as I was getting calls and texts from friends and supporters every day over the news of his sickness which was made public.
He texted me yesterday morning and asked me if I was OK to meet at 3pm. Of course, I replied that I was more than OK and I needed to see him desperately.
An hour later, the son Ashraf texted me and changed the time to an hour later at 4pm as according to Ashraf, he can only be awake intermittently for about an hour and will need to rest as he’s under heavy medication.
When I walked into the room where he was lying flat on the single bed, I greeted him with my usual greeting and that is a big “Kanena” (literally “f**k your mother” in the Hokkien dialect)”.
He replied “Ya, Kanena to you, too” but the boomer voice of the Haris I knew was gone and as we made eye contact. I immediately got all teary and had to fight to hold back all emotion.
Sold properties
After a few more “Kanena”, we got off to a tiff over my un-replied text messages over the week asking him when is his treatment starting and whether he needed any help to which he did not reply and that many friends had texted me asking whether the call for funds was genuine.
There were quite a few who had wanted to know whether the fundraising is genuine and I gathered from Haris that he has not initiated anything and that these were efforts from friends and supporters who had wanted to help.
I also verified with the son that the posted CIMB bank account is the real account bearing the name of Haris Fathillah.
All throughout the meeting of about 50 minutes, he was lying flat and only sat up to pee into a portable urinal right in front of me of which I asked whether that bird can still be used and he said it can still understand.
We have been comrades fighting the corrupt system for a long time as an ordinary rakyat. I remember the day he told me that he just couldn’t practice as a lawyer anymore in this system and that was the day he closed down his lucrative practice, sold off his law books and went full time as a self-funded activist.
A couple of years later, he sold off his last remaining property which was his favourite farmland near Janda Baik (village town in Pahang) and poured whatever he had left into his fight for Anything But UMNO (ABU) during the 13th General Election (GE13).
Personal funding
Political fight is never cheap and is a hugely costly affair. Our strategy was to get to the voters in selected marginal seats and to help opposition candidates campaign strategically in the identified locations.
Imagine reaching out to voters using age-old traditional methods of flying letters or flyers with thought-provoking questions and messages which had shown positive results with data-based strategy formulation.
We printed millions of flyers and we went digital too in 2013 with mass messaging from the expertise contribution of the telco team. We had a great telco/digital team churning out tonnes of materials and videos for all the channels to our networked alliances in social media, reaching millions of views and coverage.
In 2018, we went completely digital with mass messaging to selected targeted constituency and social media paid targeting.
As activists, we were all using our own personal funds most of the time and called for public contribution only during the election which had helped greatly as we printed more flyers and newsletters, trained and send out teams of volunteers to these selected locations, campaigned on their own and at times with the candidates.
Haris played a huge part in 2008 as a blogger and campaigner. It was an election where the Opposition had teamed up with the civil society to campaign against BN (Barisan Nasional) that had resulted in overturning the Government in five states and denying BN a two-thirds majority for the first time.
In 2008, he had campaigned all across the country and many times with the special branch after his tail and stopping him from campaigning.
Haris sold everything he had for his country and believes that the people will awaken and throw out the corrupt and divisive politics as practiced by BN.
Haris now needs your help right now in the fight for his life against lung cancer. I believe he can overcome miraculously with the prayers, love, and support from the people.
Let’s contribute where we can to the man who gave his all for the people and country.
Arthur Toh is a consultant, coach, trainer and sales/marketing strategist.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
