‘Political blindness’ has become a conspicuous malady as Malaysians move closer towards the 13th general election.

IT was a touching sight. A tall blind man who was tapping about with his white cane bumped into a shorter but equally visually impaired man who was coming in the opposite direction.

The latter, who had just got out of the ticket barrier, laughed at the uncomfortable collision but almost immediately offered to show the bigger guy the way forward.

They both tapped their canes on the tactile tiles at the Southern Cross train station in Melbourne, Australia, until the tall man found his way to his train.

My better half and I witnessed the emotive scene en route to our daughter’s graduation at the Deakin University’s campus in Warrnambool.

Even if the two blind men had not collided with each other, they would have found help nearby.

Every train station in Down Under has places manned by volunteers to assist the disabled to travel with the least amount of discomfort.

For the blind, there are detectable warning surfaces on most footpaths, stairs and platforms to help them move about in ease.

The observation highlighted the comparatively poorer facilities we have for the disabled in Malaysia, especially the sightless folk.

Blindness, ranging between mild and severe, is a common disability that affects about 80% of people above the age of 60.

It has been estimated that there are about 350 million visually im­­paired people in the world today, including about 50 million who are totally blind.

Colour blindness is the most common type. More men than women suffer from the problem, the most familiar form of which is the inability to distinguish green and red.

This is caused by a defective gene on the X chromosome. As men have only one X chromosome, one cock-eyed gene is enough to cause colour blindness.

Night blindness, another form of sightlessness, occurs when light is dim. People with night blindness have problems driving at night.

I don’t know the current statistics for the various types of blindness in Malaysia but apart from the medical definitions, currently, the most widespread form is “political blindness”.

It has become quite clear that many of us only choose to see what we want to see.

Alarmingly, those who seem to be suffering from “blind spots” include eye specialists, or at least one notable one who is not in practice, anyway.

Emily Pronin, a social psychologist from Princeton University’s Department of Psychology, created the term based on the condition’s comparison with visual blind spots.

For visual blind spots, the brain adds more than what it gets from the eyes.

As a result, much of what is not seen can be “made up” by the thinking organ. This website, http://urlshort.me/10s8, shows how.

For Malaysians, our blind spots appear to be getting more noticeable as we inch closer towards the 13th general election.

There is no escape from being drawn into the malady even if one is far away from home.

This month’s phone bill is going to be hefty, no thanks to the number of calls and text messages from friends inquiring about the latest pictures and “teaser” videos involving a person resembling the country’s most prominent opposition politician.

A few agreed that the man in the brief videos were indeed him but said that they would have to watch the entire footage to be convinced of his supposed gay tendencies.

Most of the usual faithful, however, did not believe it and went on with their regular rant against the “gutter” level of the media, never mind it was a blogger with a curious name – Papa Gomo – who made the alleged expose.

I jokingly told a friend that this person should consider unveiling an undershirt written with the words made famous by footballer Mario Balotelli: “Why always me?”

With the issue having been brought to court via a RM100mil defamation suit, hopefully the truth of the matter would be determined through scientific analysis of the video.

Until then, people would continue to believe whatever they want to believe.

The basic condition of the bias blind side is seeing one’s point of view as the truth beyond any doubt.

In the case of today’s politically partisan Malaysians, woe betide those who disagree. They are branded as “unrighteous” and even “evil” for daring to hold such views.

With political blindness having grown into an epidemic, the rational folks among us can only hope that the results of the next general election can help bridge the chasm.

But then again, the outcome might further widen the gap to the bitter level of the Democrat and Republican partisanship in the United States.

What is the primary cause of blind bias? In addition to racial and religious prejudices, it is the simple problem of not taking the trouble to see the entire picture before making a decision.

It is human nature to take the easy way out. When it comes to thinking, people, like water, tend to take the path with the least resistance.

It takes up too much time to reason, question and refer to alternative views, especially now when the two most familiar words in the social media are “Follow” and “Like” and the most common online activity is blindly believing and forwarding whatever is sent to them via SMS or e-mail.

As the saying goes, there are none so blind than those who will not see.

> Associate editor M. Veera Pandiyan likes these words by J.R.R. Tolkien: To crooked eyes, truth may wear a wry face.

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