Voiceless
Majority, Vociferous minority
If we allow our relationships to be desecrated by differences not of our
own creation, our silence is a tacit support that will allow politicians, their
supporters, religious groups and crass individuals to sow the seed of hatred
and division. The rejection of such
parties could be supported by the news and print media who don’t need to
provide them a spotlight or platform to spew their volatile and combustible
neurotic views. If allowed to continue, the inevitable hostility and
belligerent disposition that are fermented will eventually take lives that
could have been avoided. Our respective cultures have specifically encouraged
us to be people of dignity as such we are honor bound to help form and create
an equitable and just society for all sundry.
Our politicians have bred and promoted fear, mistrust, racist’s agendas
and religious supremacy – why vote them? We are called by our respective
faiths, our families and culture to eradicate the apparently never ending cycles of suspicion,
poverty, inequality, indifference, corruption, and unnecessary deaths which
seem to increase by the day.
Do we need to be in competition with our brother and sister Malay,
Chinese, Indian or other ethnic groups, should we not employ dignified
collaboration with the highest common principals of justice, acceptance,
respect and appreciation of each person? Is this a task of such complex
understanding and grievous difficulty?
Can we not speak with our hearts in a transparent and kind manner? If
the majority chose to communicate behind the closed doors of our heart on the supposition of righteous confidence
about injustice and failings only in shadow and security of comfort ,we are in
effect only fuelling the embers of discord and disharmony. The fact is that
whiners have never been winners.
The divinity and humanity of our respective faiths which call us to
address each other with humility which will surely bind us to a common trust
that we speak or debate for the betterment without ill intention towards the
each other. We are not of such weak constitution, disposition or spirit that
negative forces can breach the good that we hold in trust. Nothing conceived on the misrepresentation of
religion, or the antiquated positions of racial supremacy and unmitigated
corruption should ever drive us apart.
Each politician or leader is elected on the premise that he/she will not
succumb to negative stereotypes of race, religion or culture. An individual who represents the citizens and
the common good of all must defend everyone equally.
Our ideals are born from our respective faiths and culture. If we
abandon the hope of our founders to a country divided by race and religion, the
cheap discount slogan of the ‘ One Malaysia’
chow kit marketing ploy or a sales pitch is well deserved. Are we dedicated to the cause of ‘ oneness’
beyond the slogans or the banter of politics. Our freedom should be as the
winds that sing across our country indivisible, we must be one as the winds are
one.
We all share common cradle of aspirations and dreams as follows:
-
To enjoy the fruits of peace and
security.
-
To get the highest possible education
-
To love our families in excess of our
lives
-
To serve our respective communities
This is the shared hope that resides in each of us.
The nation faces an implacable enemy within the fortress of our defence;
it is an enemy that is far worse than the insurgency, the colonial or Japanese
occupation. Each day there is evidence
that the enemy is within our own Fathers, Mother’s sons and daughters who fall
prey to the radical negatives of the worst in race and religion. The adversities we face are threatening to
break us in mind, body and soul, compartmentalising and separating us into tiny
microscopic little fragments of broken glass communities that would be
virtually irreparable - Do we want this ?
We do not seem to have the collective strength to fight and reject the
racial policies that differentiate and divide us. There is an abject and
dismissal effort to stem corruption and hold to account whoever is responsible.
The talibanization of religion has
reached toxic levels that border either on stupidity, absurdity or malignity
. Our laws are written and available but
the enforcement is cosmetic or selective. Civil liberties are hibernating on
the longest and harshest of winters. We have exhausted tears shed for the
growing number of children and women brutalized and killed by an increasing
network of violence. Some of our
citizens live on the most ill conceived and outdated premise that the females
are second class citizens to be subjugated. The shelf life of such ideas are
used past their expiry date, especially by religious groups. It is fashionable
as it appears to prosecute and cane women on the smallest conceivable
misdemeanours while the men who commit the same offences, if they are to be
categorized as such, would walk away with highest possible punishment being a
slap on the wrist. This violation and violence is an unprecedented criminality and abuse that
is supported and promoted at the highest
levels of governance. Only a comprehensive
decomposition of decency, moronic redundancy and spineless governance ,
unsurprisingly accounts and targets
holders of the highest instrument of office as abusers, supporters, negative exponents and executants
on the dignity of women. Otherwise they would have aggressively
retracted laws or restrictions against females and instituted positive
legislation to empower women. Nevertheless the conduct of shame is incontestable
and shared when one knows the incendiary mouth which advocates the debasement
of females is equal in guilt as the one that keeps silent.
The voice of a few and the silence of many have sapped our strength.
Should we face the inevitable reality and accept that we are unable to meet the
measure and cannot see beyond the height of a tree to allow our spirits to
soar.
How should we meet the many challenges and dark clouds that threaten to overwhelm
and destroy us? It is known that there
never will be comfort in conflict. We must accept the simple evident fact that
some conflicts though tragic are unavoidable paths of opportunistic renewal and
restoration. Brave individuals all over
the world have chosen various paths and submitted to the visible price of sacrifice, being
scarred for life, suffering financial loss,
surrendering comforts, deprivation of personal freedom on the ideals of
a simple prize –the advancement of a just society. The only sacrifice requested
of Malaysians is that each of us will be a voice for change.
Our politics are hopelessly strangled by outdated ideas, buffoonery,
bigots, cheats of every shade and colour, arrogant chameleons who need no
disguise or camouflage, aging politicians who outperform porn stars,
politicians who act like 800 pound gorillas, terrorist who masquerade as respectable politicians or
lecturers in advocating racial and religious supremacy. Shame is no longer consigned to the dungeons
of contempt and disrespect. The persons who ought to be shamed by the
despicable conduct are basking and thriving on their sordid and soiled
reputations. We are truly a land of opportunity for all manner of nincompoops, criminals,
twits, and despots- It is exasperating.
The promise
of the various holy books and the wisdom of ages that we are all equal and free
and entrusted to dignify this gift by improving and passing it on to the future
is wishful thinking. The separate yet equal is a tried and tested philosophy
that has failed consistently and we are applying it. As a result, those who
lack the resolve or strength to fight , end up migrating. We have stopped
looking for the questioning spirit that define our greatness. We have stopped
believing that greatness lies in simplicity.
It seems a distant memory when we forget that we are all here by
ancestries through various acts of
providence, some suffered in
plantations, some broke their bodies on roads and railways we travel, there
were dulang washers in the tin mines,
those who toiled in hard fields
to reap grain or tasted salt on fishing
vessels for merge profits, the ones who died in defence of the land. It was this simplicity and ordinary labour of
many unknown men and women from various shades of creed, colour and cultural diversity
of the collective
population that carried us to our freedom. Yet some of the best among us are labelled ‘
Pendatangs’ . One will never find such
a label used or accepted in America,
Canada, Australia or Indonesia. We
dishonour the memory of our ancestors with acceptance by means of silence on
the advocacy of such uncouth and crude
attacks . The early success of our country was founded on our forefather and
mothers who worked for a better Malaysia submitting the individual differences
of culture, race, religion, status and wealth to a greater good. The fact of
how far we have regressed is evident in how we carve for the relationships of
the past.
We must calibrate our thoughts to wiping the slate clean and renewing
ourselves. We still have our lives and our spirit. We must stop protecting the immoral
investment and interest of a few. Everywhere around us we find the injury
inflicted on just about every segment of society by the decadence of governance
and promotion of unjust and unequal laws. We have to be bold and set the
foundation right again. The bridge of relationships can be secured on some of
the following:
·
We must illuminate lives with knowledge
and spirituality,
·
Transform schools, colleges and
universities into temples of learning and wisdom for the mind that hungers or
the hand that thirst to mould clay, carve wood or paint on canvas,
·
The trees need to hear the song of the
forest,
·
The
clear brooks and streams need to
feed the seas
·
The pure winds from clean skies to
caress our face
·
The compassion to bind and offer each citizen health care benefits in excess of the norms,
·
To harness the creativity and industry
of our citizens on the premise of dignified wages
·
To fill our homes with the celebration
of music and dance to inspire and invoke in the souls of children and families
-godliness and character,
·
We must pave the pathway of freedom and
civil liberties by securing the highest attainable dignified standard for the
dispensation of justice.
·
We build the security apparatus that
accords layers of protection.
None of what I have expressed will be fulfilled. Each citizen must hold
that the governance of our country cannot be at the expense of the common or
disadvantaged to the benefit of the favoured, prosperous or titled. There
should be an indivisible and immeasurable good that cuts across all invisible
borders and boundaries for no other purpose than the advancement of all citizens.
Dismantle, replace or upgrade the qualification of candidates whom we
elect and secure an electoral system that fearless in its pursuit is known for
its impartial conduct. Hold all
officers of public office of any rank to
the sword of account.
We need to
think beyond being Barisan, Pakatan or any other shade of political loyalty.
The majority
of our politicians are parasites, plain imbeciles, perverts or at best
individuals with twisted warped pervasive logic or ones who prostitute
themselves on an institutional level with inflammatory slime. The good ones, that unfortunately can be
counted by the digits of our hands and feet are either silenced or
prosecuted. Those who are elected and
have the propensity to dishonour the dignity and responsibility of the office
entrusted to by religious or racial attacks must be barred for life. It is not
difficult from a population of thirty million to secure 222 parliamentarians and 576 state
assembly representative who are morally
upright, intelligent and independent and as such will hear the voice of the
people and serve the citizen. The fact as it is unfolding is that political
parties will always be ineffective and place an ideology above the care of the
citizen. The case in point here is the Selangor government’s handling of the
water crisis and bible issues. The
Kelantan state Governments pursuit of Hudud.
The trust between people and a
government can be restored by a bold, fearless, adventurous and imaginative
approach.
There are old ideals, derived from the wisdom of ages and convictions
won not on the power of politics but by the strength of each individual through
the advocacy of love, honour, friendship, freedom, loyalty, trust, compassion,
simplicity, humility, kindness, hard work, which emanated from our respective
families. These values that bind us can still light a path in the darkness that
envelopes our beloved country.
We are guardians of these values that have been purchased by sacrifice
on the altar of decency by our ancestor’s lives under various circumstances of
difficulty. We must show that this country has no tolerance and acceptance for
segregation by race, creed, or gender or any other ill-conceived means that
will imposes negative relationship of any sort of differences.
We must fight on every conceivable front in a non-violent and peaceful manner
against those who think our humility is weakness. Our battles must be rooted on
justice and mercy, if one chooses deceit, power
division, corruption, terror, or abuse of innocence, let them meet
unwavering justice, if the perpetrators of injustices chooses our hand of friendship to rewrite the
dark chapters of our history, relinquishing power in submission to service of
restoring the foundations that will
assist in dissolving the hatred and division – they must be accorded mercy with
dignity. We must show that we are not brutes or thugs ruled by vengeance, power
or force, the eloquence of our actions reside in the constructive endeavours of
love as opposed to hatred. The simple
fact is our beloved country needs to heal from the rifts.
There is the simple inescapable destiny that is common in history,
tyranny and evil cannot outlast or break the spirit of common good that is our
inheritance. Our past and our ancestors whisper to our conscience to nurture
our liberty as we would nurture our children in sacrifice. We must never be
known as people who through the darkness of adversity, the deprivation of
freedom behind cold prison bars, the beatings endured on marches, the cuffs
that bound hands in forced supplication of prayer, the enforced silence -
refused to be a voice for the voiceless, or chose to be blind to such ailments
of evil in our midst. Our fears, uncertainty, and death must be banished, yes
various painful defeats will visit our lives, yet our spirit must not retreat,
submission or surrender in the journey or struggle for good is not an option.
With the eye of our soul fixed on a cause in excess of our strength that offers
the opportunity and potential to molds us as better individuals, we have the
power to shape our own destiny than to accept the one set before us or fed to
us on a false stockade of hopes that have been breached and seared into our
memory.
The majority have been a voiceless minority while the minority have been
a vociferous majority. We must ask ourselves what we are without real freedom. The
cries of the disposed, the disadvantaged, the marginalised, the helpless, the
ones locked in prison on account of their fight for justice, the young and really small ones who needlessly
die for lack of inadequate security, all live and die in vain. It’s our choice, we are either a voice for
change or remain as we are, mired in unforgivable uncertainty and an
unfathomable silence that would be deafening.
