Michael Jackson deserves to live a peaceful life after death

Veena Thoopkrajae
The Nation (Thailand)

It's true that Michael Jackson's death at the age of 50 is premature, and I agree, though my reasons are different. Jackson did not really have the chance to "live" a life. He was a man who yearned for a childhood, and worse yet, he missed those fun-filled teenage years, not to mention the turbulent times after being crowned "King of Pop".

Try, for a moment, to separate the fame and controversy surrounding him and you see a sad life dominated by discontent. Even if we compare him with other superstars, the 50 years he spent on Earth seem rather brief and unfulfilled. I don't think Jackson lived at all.

Legends die young, but few have had an "empty" life like Jackson. Freddie Mercury, the lead vocalist for Queen, left us at the age of 45, but only after living his life in full. He had a normal childhood, while Jackson spent his hopping from one nightclub to another only to go home to an abusive father.Mercury had steady heterosexual relationships before discovering that he was gay. Plus, he and his last girlfriend, Mary Austin, remained friends for life. As for Jackson, many of us doubt if he ever had any genuine relationships and if there was any love in his marriage to Elvis Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie.Despite being given a chance to record with Jackson once, Mercury said he could never do what the King of Pop did: stay at home all day. "I have to go out, you know? I can't do that," Mercury declared.When alive, Jackson was probably waiting for "that" moment: an ordinary moment in an ordinary man's life. However, when he discovered that this was impossible, he decided to live a life of fantasy at Neverland Ranch with his friends' children for company.

It is clear that Jackson's only ultimate happiness was when he was entertaining his fans and getting an overwhelming response. He once said he wished he could just live on stage. So maybe we should have just let him dance, dance and dance, because that was the only time he was one with the world. As he once said, "I felt my spirit soar and become one with everything that exists. I become the stars and the moon. I become the lover and the beloved. I become the victor and the vanquished. I become the master and the slave. I become the singer and the song."

For anybody, just doing the "Moonwalk" would be enough, but sadly Jackson had to strive for more. He sought to achieve perfect, and the further he reached the more he suffered.

Eventually he became a prisoner to his stardom, having to confine himself just to stay way from the army of paparazzi. The more elusive he became, the more intense were stories of his plastic surgeries. Even though he had vitiligo, a rare skin disorder that made him more and more pale, he became great tabloid material as the press kept claiming the pop star was bleaching his skin.

All his actions were given a negative twist, and he was branded "weird". When given the moniker "Jacko", he shouted to TV talkshow host Oprah Winfrey: "I'm Jackson, not Jacko!"
However, allegations of paedophilia in August 1993, while he was on his Dangerous World Tour, broke Jackson. His life and career were shattered, and it was as if the public had sentenced him even before the man was allowed to stand trial.

Speaking for the first time in December that year, Jackson said: "These statements about me are totally false ... I will say I am particularly upset by the handling of the matter by the incredibly terrible mass media. At every opportunity, the media has dissected and manipulated these allegations to reach their own conclusions. I ask all of you to wait and hear the truth before you label or condemn me. Don't treat me like a criminal, because I am innocent."

What the mass media, tabloids in particular, failed to do was shed light on his goodness. Whether there is any truth to the paedophilia charges, we can't deny that he helped people fight poverty, famine and racial discrimination through his music, starting with the recording of "We are the World" and setting up his "Heal the World Foundation" in 1992.

Like any other human, he was hardly flawless. Still, when one's life is looked at through a magnifying glass, every facet explodes, and that's exactly what happened to him. He had to, albeit against his will, trade his life for stardom, and it doesn't look like it will be any different now that he is dead.

Before Mercury died, he released a statement accepting that he had Aids. There was nothing left for newspapers to scream about. His will was ready, and he, too, was ready for his departure.

Jackson's death, on the other hand, is generating one headline after another. If it isn't about the cause of his death, then it's his will. The tabloids, with their constant sensationalism, won't let the poor man's soul rest.

However, there will come a time, maybe in a decade or two, when stories about him will just become "white noise" and we will remember him for "Billy Jean", "Thriller" and "Beat It".

Though we couldn't give him a normal life, at least we should give him a normal death. He would certainly appreciate it.

So, thank you for the music, MJ, and rest in peace.