Rashomon II

I love my neighbourhood. All sorts of people from different background live there.
You can say the neighbourhood is plenty of interesting people living there.

Recently an incident really shocked me. Opposite my house live a family by the name of WEJ (not their real name). Their neighbour the LABOs (not their real name either ....) went into the WEJs' house and took away the WEJs' dog and hid it in another neighbour's house (by the name of NANBO, which is also not their real name).

When the WEJs found out, they confronted the LABOs but found them hidding in the NANBOs' place. Knowing this, the WEJs were angry with the NAMBOs and went to their place and start hurling abusive words and stones. The NAMBOs retaliated. The NAMBOs was dragged into LABO -WEJ conflict.

Soon words start to spread like wild Indonesian fire that causes haze in the neighbourhood. Some stood up for the NAMBOs and LABOs, and some stood up for the WEJ.

The NAMBOs and LABOs, being a member of ODD NUMBER ADDRESS ORGANIZATION (ONAG) received support from the ONAG chairman. The ONAG was chaired by the SIALAY family. At the height of the conflict, the CANRI family (being the richest and the most powerful and often a bully in our neighbourhood, who coincidently support the WEJs all this while) sent their daughter NASI to resolve this conflict and also attend HOUSES FACING SOUTH EAST ASSOCIATION (HFSEA) meeting. Coincidently also (sigh, too many coincidents) the host for this meeting was the SIALAY.

To make matter more complicated and make my story long, the SIALAY family headed by ANGEL who recently tried very hard to exorcise the Demon from demonising their household has a son-in-law (let's just call him SIL) who was very vocal about this conflict. He protested NASI's participation. NASI came to the meeting and play the piano during one of the social night.

Despite the SIL protesting with his friends, nothing can stop the conflict. ANGEL's nephew, KODOMO LION suggested that the ONAG members to supply stones to the NAMBOs in order to help arm the NAMBOs. Fortunately all ONAG members were sane enough not to follow this advice.

After nearly a month of fighting and my many sleepless night, one fine morning, I found the neighbourhood surpisingly quiet. They has ceasefire (okay.... ceasestone).

Soon after that, the UNITED NEIGHBOURHOOD ( UN, an association which members are make up from the entire neighbourhood) decided to have patrols around this two houses and to set up a tribunal to punish the wrongdoer.

I attended the tribunal hearing.

4 witness were called for the hearing. The first one was the NAMBOs. Second witness was the LABOs and followed by the WEJs. The last witness was a lawyer.

There were four versions of the story. In each story, the characters are the same, as are many of the details. But much is different, as well.

In the first account, that of the NAMBO, they accept culpability for the hiding the LABOs and staring the fight but refute the charge of , saying that it was an act of unjust to the LABOs. The LABOs story affirm that the WEJs attacked their family before, but indicate that they may have been the main culprit. The WEJ's tale claims the others of starting fight and stealing. The only "impartial" witness, the lawyer, weaves a story that intertwines elements of the other three, leaving me wondering if he truly saw anything at all.

It's impossible to determine to what degree their versions are fabrications, and how many discrepancies are the result of legitimate differences in points-of-view.

So my friend what's the use of prostesting when you don't even know who is right or wrong?
Or maybe you choose to believe in one of the story.

Let's not make our action based on emotion.