Some years ago, my teacher once told me that our education system is designed to control our minds, thoughts and especially our actions.
In our society, rarely you will find someone so eloquent, thoroughly knowledgeable in their industry and who has independence of thought. This is not an accident. It is designed to be that way. While some are complaining why the learned are behaving like the rest of us, some other small group of people are congratulating themselves for the job well done.
Against all odds, this same society also produce a lot of genius minds. Many go unnoticed and are resigned to live very mediocre lives and never do anything tangible to the society. I have seem them in sports, in entertainment, in academic and other areas. Sooner or later these minds are sucked in by the system and they disappear before they can do any 'irreparable damage'. After all, as my teacher told me, the system isn't designed to create and nourish those kinds of people.
Here comes Tundu Lissu. Born, raised and educated in the very system. He chose to take the path of the legal profession. Somehow, maybe by luck or by divine providence or a unique upbringing that he has yet to share with us, he seems to think, act and behave different from most of us. Our system looks at him as a defect. Our tools and machines (social, political and educational) were not designed to create people like him. That's why he is called all sorts of bad names to make him seem as NOT being one of us. Of course he is not one of us, we all know that!
Here is a man that tells us things we were not supposed to know, and even if we know them, we are not supposed to apply them practically. He is telling us we have the power and right to tell the President that he is wrong when we think he is wrong! He is telling us that we have the right to remove the government when we believe that it violated the constitution (and we can do this even before the next election!). The problem is, we were taught to respect our leaders. This respect also means that we can't oppose them. We can't resist them. We can't say NO to them. We can't mobilise ourselves to raise a voice opposing some actions of the government. We were raised to believe those actions are against our culture and even laws of our land. Tundu Lissu is teaching us, to the contrary, we have the right and even the duty to do all those things.
Like the poem that his son wrote about him, "For many are called, but few are chosen". Tundu Lissu has been chosen. How many other brave souls like him are out there? Time will tell.
