Listen, listen, listen - enough of bullshitThese are excerpts from a talk author Kee Thuan Chye delivered as part of the Swami Satyananda Memorial Lecture on July 14, 2012. The full text is included in his latest book, ‘Ask for No Bullshit, Get Some More!', which is now available in major bookstores.COMMENT As you know, the rallying cry of the French Revolution was ‘Liberty, Equality, Fraternity'. This is totally consonant with the values of humanity. For which of us, as human beings, would not want to be free, equal and fraternal with our fellow citizens?
But are we Malaysians free, equal and fraternal with our fellow citizens?Let's look at equality. The other day, I followed a friend to view a new housing development because he was looking for a house to buy. One of the designs was going for RM3.3 million per unit - and at 7 percent discount for bumiputeras. I was flabbergasted. If someone can afford a RM3.3 million house, why should he get a 7 percent discount all on account of his race? Seven percent of RM3.3 million is RM231,000; many people don't even have RM231,000 to buy a modest house.
I am in total support of helping poor people, be they bumiputeras or otherwise, but I am certainly not in support of helping the rich. Why should the rich bumiputeras deserve affirmative action? Where is the social justice in that? It has been 42 years since the inception of the New Economic Policy; why is this still happening today? In any case, where is the law that decrees that there should be such a discount?
If you think something is wrong and that we should not tolerate it any more, then the first barricade we need to storm is the barricade of prejudice.
In fact, it's a double barricade - because, as you know, the issue of race is closely tied to the issue of religion. And that issue has also been highly politicised. Politicising religion alone can take care of both issues at once. It's like "buy one, get one free".
Talk about religion being politicised lately and what comes to mind are images of a cow's head being stomped upon in public, of fire-bombs going off in churches, of carcasses of pigs thrown into mosque compounds. But more deeply affecting are the government practices that subvert what is guaranteed by the federal constitution - the freedom of worship.
Even though Article 3 of the federal constitution states that "other religions ... may be practised in peace and harmony in any part of the federation", how easy is it these days to get approval to build a church or a temple? How often have Indian temples been demolished without regard for sensitivities?
Of late, Christians in particular have been under attack. You know about the government's objection to the Christians' use of the word ‘Allah'. You also know the Christians have been accused of plotting to take over the government, instal a Christian prime minister and Christianise the country.I do not subscribe to any organised religion, but I believe our political leaders should honour what is guaranteed by the federal constitution. If they practise respect for all religions and show fairness to them, through leadership by example, don't you think Malaysians of all persuasions could become more fraternal with one another? And we would all enjoy more peace and harmony?
Let us go back to the question I posed at the beginning and examine the aspect of freedom. Have we ever been free? Or have we been living under a tyranny without our being keenly aware of it?
Lost freedoms
First of all, do we have a free media? Is that not basic to the freedom of expression that is guaranteed in the federal constitution?
The state, through its Home Ministry, decides who can start a newspaper or TV station, and who cannot. Consequently, most of the media companies are owned by political parties belonging to the ruling coalition. Is it fair to prevent opposition parties from starting their own mass-market newspapers and TV stations?
We have a law called the Printing Presses and Publications Act which gives the Home Ministry the right to suspend or revoke the licence of any newspaper or publication at any time. As a former full-time journalist, I have seen how it caused editors-in-chief to acquire a vocal pitch as high as a soprano's.
What other freedoms are we denied? How about the freedom of information? The Official Secrets Act has been mostly used not only to stifle dissent but also to protect corrupt officials. Do we need that?
Of course, we can't allow everyone to have access to national security and defence matters, but surely, other forms of official information don't need to be classified. Otherwise, how do we get transparent and accountable governance?
You've heard about the recent controversy over the tender for the Ampang LRT line extension project. About claims that someone very high up had interfered with the tender process. That he had got the project awarded to a company that has had no experience in such a project and was poorly rated by consultants. The project is worth RM1 billion.
Just last week, the police started investigating how the classified information leaked out. It is being investigated under the Official Secrets Act. The police said the leakage could harm the nation's interest. Really? The nation's interest or someone else's?
Isn't it in the nation's interest to award the project to the best tender? Shouldn't the police investigate that instead? Is that why when we talk of exposing corruption in high places, we are mostly fooling ourselves? One or two cases have surfaced, yes, but where are the rest? And how is it that the biggest fish are spared?
Najib wants to replace the Sedition Act with the National Harmony Act. Why replace and not repeal? No wonder a Canadian newspaper calls him a "false democrat". I call him a make-up artist. He's fond of making cosmetic changes. He's good at replacing one repressive law with another. Shouldn't the Sedition Act be repealed, instead of put into a new wine bottle with a nicer-sounding name? After all, a repressive law by any other name still stinks like fermented vomit.
Najib says that the National Harmony Act would enable the government to prosecute anyone raising sensitive issues. That's the same as in the Sedition Act. But even with the Sedition Act, articles published by the Umno-owned newspaper Utusan Malaysia that could engender - in the words of the Act itself - "feelings of ill will and hostility between different races" have gone unpunished. Remarks made by leaders of the NGO Perkasa that have the same effect have also been overlooked.
Reclaim our rights
Ladies and gentlemen, perhaps it is not enough to only demand our freedoms; we may also need to reclaim our right to the rule of law. And not the application of double standards - one for the ruling party and the people it favours, and one for ordinary citizens such as you and me. We may need to demand a single standard, a single set of rules - for everyone.
Related to that, we may need to demand our right to protection not just by the police - for the crime rate is rising - but also from the police, who have shown that they can chuck aside their standard operating procedures and beat people up in a rally. If you were to hear the first-person accounts of the horrors committed by the police on the day of the Bersih 3.0 rally, you might be the first at the barricades. And by this, I mean the barricades of repression and double standards, not the barricades around Dataran Merdeka.What about the loss of decency that has occurred in the last few years, when Perkasa members can say and do what they like while the police look the other way, and even the Penang chief minister is not safe from them; when thugs can shut people up by smashing up their gathering; when speakers at opposition ceramahs can get pelted with stones and eggs; when groups can suddenly sprout to go against just causes and call themselves pro-ISA, pro-Lynas, anti-Bersih?
What about the rhetoric of violence - of people who want to hang an activist who calls for free and fair elections; of a senator who threatens to burn down the offices of online news portals in defence of Islam; of a prime minister who talks of "bodies crushed" and "lives lost" when telling his party that "whatever happens, we must defend Putrajaya"?
This same prime minister has also pledged that he will ensure that the deviant lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) culture will have no place in Malaysia. But don't LGBTs have the right to be who they want to be as is granted by Article 10 of the federal constitution? Do they not deserve an equal place under the Malaysian sun?
Well, we can see that of late, we have become more and more divided as a people and as a nation. We have become less fraternal with our fellow citizens. Should we let it be or should we do something about it?
Do we storm the barricades?
I have my answer. What about you?
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