Democracy must be tossing and turning in its grave right now.
BN has already effectively buried our “democratic nation” following the 13th GE, but their tyranny is just beginning. Learning from the past, they have adopted the most effective means tried and tested ‘historically’, to ensure the people do not insist on reviving our dead democracy – by silencing dissidence.
What we observe now is a reenactment of the games BN play best – not unlike a child who insists on playing the only game he can win (and cheats to make sure he continues to emerge victorious). After all, they’ve been losing everything else – the popular votes, credibility in the eyes of the international community, and certainly, faith in their capabilities.
This is a return to the politics of old, made popular by petty old scoundrels: read, Mahathir. I was told by many to lie low and keep my writings down; after all, prominent figures (beginning with Adam Adli) have been arrested, and there are rumors that bloggers (and other innocent protesters) who were also invited to have a cup of coffee in the police station!
However, as was reiterated over and over again by those who were arrested – I will not back down. In fact, there is no valid reason to do so. Public security is not a legitimate reason to keep dissidents under a dictatorial rule – it is merely an excuse devised by those desperate to cling to power.
I want to encourage Malaysians to not be disheartened by – or worse, be fearful of this government. Yes, they can contain our bodies, but we cannot allow them to restrain our minds, our opinions. Following J. S. Mill’s crucial inferences of liberty, if we choose to shut up for now out of fear, and think about talking later ‘when it’s safer’, our opinions would merely “smoulder in the narrow circles of thoughtful and studious people among whom they originate, without every spreading any light – whether true or deceptive – on the general affairs of mankind”. My worried conservative friends and family would say that that’s precisely the point; we don’t need to get injured and locked up for our ideas (which are invincible), no? We can always gossip about it when the entire fiasco dies down.
That is in fact, a gross misunderstanding of liberty, and I quote Mill again: “The price paid for this sort of intellectual pacification is the sacrifice of the entire moral courage of the human mind”.
BN, for its coalition of less-than-intelligent/sensible people, demonstrates their final, somewhat more “sophisticated” understanding of politics with this move of trying to quash us all by scaring us into grudgingly accepting their rule out of fear.
But the rakyat will not be fooled again. We cannot afford to be. Shall we conform to an already dated dictatorial rule and jeopardize the New Politics we’re painstakingly sculpting out of our many resistances and movements? No!
The necessary requirement, as with all mature democracies, is deliberation and criticism. Drawing from Mill yet again, we can only be truly “right” when we have the confidence to respond to arguments that contradict and disprove our beliefs. This is why, Mill further argues, that opinion, regardless of how it deviates from the majority or the ruling class, is a liberty that people own.
Put another way, BN knows that their positions are weakening considerably. If they were confident enough to win over our minds, they wouldn’t resort to capturing our bodies.
BN is already nearing their end days. If we give it a final push, we can finally resurrect democracy in its purest form it by the next GE. If we’re fortunate enough, we might even be able to do something even before the 5 years are up.
This is why, fellow Malaysians, I’ll keep writing and criticizing even when I may be arrested for doing so. I humbly appeal to your moral sentiments and hope that you will do the same.
May the people’s voices never be drowned in fear, but continue to lift and inspire others, until we take back what is rightfully ours.
Deliberating Politics in Malaysia 