Gomoku- The game of ‘divide and rule’

Gomoku- The game of ‘divide and rule’

For quite a long time I avoided playing computer game as I know fully well that if I were to indulge in it, I would somehow get addicted  to the game and it would become a sheer waste of time and energy.

However, in recent months I was tempted  to play the game of Gomoku on an iPad and from then onwards I couldn't stop playing the game for a single day.

Playing the game of Gomoku with the computer as the opponent is just like a child playing with an adult. Most of the time I couldn't beat the computer. Like a kid, I have to contemplate hard before I make a cautious and calculated move whereas for the computer, it reacts spontaneously like a genius as if it can anticipate every move that I have made. To lose to a computer for scores of times really frustrates me and it has  agitated me to the verge of the eruption of emotion that every time I loss the game I would curse at the computer as the "celaka punya orang" in order to defuse my unwarranted vexation.

On a positive note, the more I lose the game to the computer, the more I wanted to play in order to challenge it just like the famous inventor Edison who had  continued to try out his experiment for more than 700 times with repeated failures before he could invent the electric bulb. I believe that if I keep on playing the game consistently and persistently, one day I might emerge as ‘the seemingly invincible Tyson’  on the chessboard.

The rule of the game of Gomoku is simple.  Whoever manages to be the first one to place five beads in a row will be the winner. The strategy employed by each player is to try to divide and disperse the beads of his opponent so that the opponent would not have the chance to consolidate his beads to form a straight line of five beads in a row.

This strategy is very useful. It is extensively and skilfully practised in the political and military field.  The British and Japanese imperial armies had successfully employed it to divide and rule our country during the pre Merdeka years. They had swimmingly planted fear and mistrust in the mind of the Malays by instilling their hatred on the Chinese in the contention that most of  the Chinese peasants  were backing the struggle of the Anti Colonial Army which would ultimately reign the country. As a result of this sort of instigation, race riots broke out in a number of rural and semi rural areas of  the country during the colonial occupation like  wildfire spreading over the prairie.

The ghost of 'divide and rule'  is still haunting our country as certain irresponsible politicians still think that it is a marketable commodity  to pursue their political objectives. They would use the issues of race and religion as a means to achieve their selfish aims.

Successfully applying the strategy of ‘divide and rule’ in the game of Gomoku is surely a winning formula. But, if it is used in politics without restraint, it would bring a disastrous and irreparable damage to a country of multiple races as it is like pouring oil into a flame. This strategy of ‘divide and rule’  is like a river: it could carry a raft along, or it could capsize it as exemplified by the  Chinese adage, ‘水能载舟，亦能覆舟’[Shui Neng Zai Zhou, Yi Neng Fu Zhou]