Malaysian Today Article on RandomAlphabets

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*The article she is referring to, is below. It is not on the Pillow Fight event per se, but my personal views as well as the direction and background of RA. Please note, some info inserted are inaccurate but the gist of it is there if your intelligence is there too, to get it.

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Who says a call for unity needs to be all solemn, serious and snooze-worthy. A non-profit organisation is proving otherwise; that unity can be developed by just being all embroiled in a pillow fight!

By Foong Li Mei
Pictures by Roya Astani, Foong Li Mei and Random Alphabets

On a recent Saturday evening, four groups of young people were looking for a fight.

Sporting headbands of different colours, the youths had ganged up at the futsal field of Padang @ One Utama all geared up to do battle complete with sideway glances, even outright menacing looks – flung from one end to the other.

And all were well armed.

Their weapons? Pillows mostly…of all shapes, sizes and smells, and a handful of soft toys and bolsters. Indeed, these youths were ready for the fight of their lives as they prepared themselves to mark World Pillow Fight Day!

As the shrill sound of the whistle – signifying the start of this “war” – cut through the excited chatter of a crowd that had suddenly gathered, all hell and cotton fillings broke loose.

In fast, furious, frantic motions, Malaysian and non-Malaysian youths chased each other with pillows in hand. Shrieks of laughter and nervous cackles pierced the air: Whack, wallop and wail – it was chaotic fun at its best. It made any onlooker just itch to let go and join in the frolic.

And that was the point.

Through bizarre, simple and fun events like these, people are able to set their differences aside – be it just for a moment  – and do things together, while forging closer ties and understanding. And this is what Random Alphabets, a non-profit organiser is always working towards.

So far, so good.

Since its first Free Hugs event in 2008 (basically, people offering hugs to any passerby who would be game for it), RA has successfully organised a score of other flash mob projects. Basically, flash mob refers to a large group of people gathering unexpectedly at a place, perform something bizarre and then quickly dispersing. These gatherings are organised via social media, text messages and viral emails.

KL Freeze in Unison 2008 was another of RA’s more prominent projects, which got about 1,000 people assembling in the Pavilion shopping complex and freezing simultaneously for four minutes.

Most recently, RA’s Glee Flash Mob Dance also saw about 500 “Gleeks” (fans of the musical TV series Glee) breaking into a dance in The Gardens, Mid Valley, bewildering shoppers. This flash mob dance has been organised by other Gleeks in various cities worldwide, including Seattle, Tel Aviv, Rome, Madrid and Dublin.

Last year, RA members boarded crowded monorail trains on August 31, for the Merdeka Train Party. Having decorated the train’s interior with balloons, ribbons and flags, they went on to throw a party with the amused commuters by singing together, taking pictures and giving out balloons.

Yet another project that managed to unify Malaysians with minimum fanfare and pre-publicity was group’s Tali Tenang project. Organised 10 days after the arson attacks on churches earlier this year, the event was meant to show that the people were still united despite the chaos.

Participants gathered at the Bangsar Putra LRT station with a piece of string they brought from home. The different strings were then joined together as the participants held their portions while marching in a line from the LRT station to Bangsar Sports Complex. Passersby waved to them, and they returned the gesture.

Other noteworthy events include the Read While Waiting flash mob, which had 200 people reading a piece of literature of their choice in KL Sentral.

But how would casual, bizarre acts like these bring people together? The issue of unity has been much explored by politicians and scholars. Various policies have been drawn out, passionate and intelligent opinions (not always the same thing) have been voiced, and our catchy national brand to promote one-ness has become a cliché. Much has been done, yet the result leaves much to be desired. Some ideas, thought clever or innovative, have even backfired.

Unity seems like a complicated issue, and complicated issues are not supposed to be taken lightly. Or should they be?

In randomness we unite

“There has been a lot of talk out there about unity, whether in the media or in cyberspace. Now I’m not saying that we should ignore these talks. I am one of those who have voiced a lot of opinion on the web. But there is already sufficient talk; the topic has become heavy. So, I thought, why not try something light instead?” said the founder of RA, who only wants to be known as Zain HD.

Zain added that the discourse on unity within this country has become somewhat distorted – it seems to be confined to the Malaysian context.

“We go as far as telling the world not to be racist yet we seem to even discriminate refugees, migrant workers, or foreign students. Is it okay to be racist to, say, Indonesians just because they are not from this country? It doesn’t make sense,” said the 26-year-old, shaking his head.

It is things like these that prompted Zain to do what he does. As a young law graduate Zain put together KL Freeze in Unison with his mates. It was a seemingly pointless act – to get a group of people to stop moving in Pavilion for four minutes. However, the spirit and message of the project was actually to suspend unnecessary and possibly divisive talk.

It was, as stated in the RA website, an event “where human beings get together to do something in unison, without speech or reference to their age, colour, sex, beliefs and background.”

Just by having a post on Facebook, the flash mob drew 1,000 people who turned up and froze simultaneously, making it a perplexing and memorable scene for the weekend shopping crowd.

Through these shocking yet attractive activities, RA hopes to spread its message of unity – it is possible for people from diverse background to unite and have fun together.

“Bizarre acts are useful because, while it can be very short, it is able to remain in people’s minds for a long time. For example, if someone were to come in now and dance naked for five seconds, people who saw it would still be trying to figure out what just happened for another one minute or even longer,” explained Zain.

The expressive lad stressed that unity does not have to be championed with serious and heavy dialogues. Alternative, wacky and most of all, achievable acts like freezing in public, pillow-fights and throwing Merdeka parties in monorail trains can draw people out from their little social cocoons to work towards a common goal.

“The thing is, unity is actually very much like swimming; you can read and believe all you want about the subject but at the end of the day, to learn how to swim, you need to go into the water. Similarly, to unite people, you have to come in contact with them and get to know them,” Zain pointed out.

Malaysians – ready for randomness?

When Zain first got started with RA two years ago, he was not fuelled by any passion to become a social activist to change the world for the better. He was just infuriated.

“Flash mob is not a new concept – it has long been popular in many other countries. However, when I told people that I wanted to do the same here, everyone’s reaction was ‘aiya, in Malaysia cannot wan lah.’

“But when I asked them why not, none of them could really give me an answer. That was incredibly annoying,” Zain recalled.

So, Zain did some research on the Malaysian Constitution. After ensuring that organising flash mobs would not be breaking any laws, he went ahead with Free Hugs and KL Freeze in Unison.

“Malaysians seem to have a very low expectation on our country, which says a lot about the level of expectation we have on ourselves. When we see something cool happening in other countries, our mind seems to shut down to any possibility that it will happen here.

“RA wants to challenge this mindset, because if we do not do something about our low expectations, then that expectation will become a reality,” said Zain.

To his joy, people can’t seem to get enough of flash mobs. Requests for more events have grown, and so has RA. From a personal blog site, RA is now a team website (www.randomalphabets.com) with its own regular writers, webmaster, designers, and helpers. The group now puts together about four to five events per year.

Zain attributed RA’s attraction to how it gives people a sense of belonging and a chance to be part of something big.

“In the events, everyone is doing something fun together. You are not an observer; you are a participant. People feel like ‘hey, this is my event too’. For example, after the World Pillow Fight Day, some participants actually cleaned up the mess without me telling them to do so,” recalled Zain, who has gained a chunk of his event managing experience from – lo and behold – the religious classes with scholars that his father often hosted in his home.

Of course, while RA’s support base is roaring strong (its Facebook profile records 2, 036 friends at press time), others may deem the youth collective as pointless and frivolous. One may even wonder how many of RA fans are actually concerned with unity. Are they just joining for the crazy fun?

When asked, Zain gave a shrug. He does not think that RA participants have to be conscious about unity all the time for its events to be a success.

“As you would have seen during the World Pillow Fight Day, we did not go Oprah Winfrey on the participants and preach about how the event is good for society, good for the country and so on. All we want is for people to come, have fun, and make what you want out of it,” said Zain, smiling.

He also does not really care whether people think RA is pointless or not.

Zain explained that having a point or not is really subjective. To him, some actions do not have immediate or clear-cut effects, and people are so focused on seeing a certain outcome that they brush that action off as pointless.

He likened it as going to the gym – one can’t see results immediately; the effort has to be regular. You also cannot only rely on gym workout to keep you slim and fit because your diet and the lifestyle you live matter too. However, it does not mean that the exercise is futile.

He opined that in order to create a mentality of one-ness among people, the message of unity has to be consistently instilled.

“We do not expect people to come for one RA event and immediately unite. In fact, RA acts more like a supplement to the unity drives and messages that are already out there.

“If those initiatives speak to people consciously, then RA works subconsciously to encourage togetherness through activities. After all, we as the organisers are not mindful about promoting unity all the time. Sometimes, we just see something fun and say ‘let’s do it!’” Zain clarified.

Randomness with a Cost

A departure from the usual non-profit organisation, RA does not accept sponsorship for its events. This is to encourage its members to be resourceful.

However, to keep their projects free for participants, RA raise funds by selling “I Love KL” statement t-shirts – the “love” is a heart-shape filled with funky cause-related motifs.

The t-shirt project, dubbed the RA+d, is a collaboration between RA and the Delicious group. Currently, there are two designs – one supports the Federal Territory Amateur Gymnastics Association Kuala Lumpur (FTAGA) and the other supports the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty against Animals Selangor (SPCA Selangor).

For every t-shirt sold at RM25, the money will fund RA’s initiative, while Delicious pledges to contribute RM5 to the respective associations that the t-shirt supports.

To bring in more resources for RA, as well as to feed himself and the RA team, Zain set up Wago – an event management company that carries out projects similar to RA, but for corporate purposes. Simply put, RA is not-for-profit, while Wago is the opposite.

“Wago is set up to help RA keep doing its events for free. Therefore, some of Wago’s profit will be channelled into RA, but whatever is in RA’s funds will never be used for Wago,” said Zain, firmly.

Stretched for a budget, RA tries to promote its events with minimal cost. Postings via Facebook, Twitter and the RA website is a big help, but one of their simplest tactics to create interest is to keep the location of the event a secret, and only announce the gathering point for participants on the day before.

“The suspense keeps people tuned in. It makes them feel like they are all in it together,” explained Zain.

He added that keeping the location secret also helps RA to create as much “shock” as they can among people who do not expect it.

“If we let participants know the venue beforehand, they may ask their friends to come and watch. Soon, you will be surrounded by spectators who already know what you are going to do, and that just defeats our purpose of using bizarre methods to create an impact,” said Zain.

Unity may not be as simple as ABC, but who is to say Random Alphabets’ light-hearted approach is not the path that leads to better peace? Fun, crazy and easy – they sound like all the right ingredients to bring people together and enjoy a good laugh. Perhaps unity is really that simple – all of us just need to take things, including ourselves, less seriously.

Look out for upcoming flash mobs and join in the random fun at www.randomalphabets.com.

*Read full article from source here.

- http://ZainHD.com/2010/06/malaysian-today-article-on-randomalphabets