Why oh Why?

Teoh Boon Hock the political secretary of Seri Kembangan assemblyman Ean Yong Hian Wah, was taken in for questioning by the MACC at its 14th floor office in Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam.MACC said he was freed but his body was later found sprawled on the roof of a five-storey building next door.

‘Why would someone who is slated to get married tomorrow take his own life?’ This the question posed by Lim Kit Siang – the opposition DAP leader. Many questions are being asked, but will it bring him back to life. How will his family and his bride to be going to be consoled. Will they be able to come to terms with such a tragedy?

Why oh why?

What words,

What reasons to describe this death?

We have never met each other,

Nor have our paths ever crossed,

But my heart is in anguish.

Why oh why?

Am I tormented and restless?

Wrenched in pain and sorrow,

Thinking about the cruelty brought upon you,

Where is mercy and compassion?

Why oh why?

Another death, another tragedy!

One so young full of life and hope,

Promises to be fulfilled, journeys to be taken,

Why was it robbed from you so soon?

Why oh why?

Why this injustice, why this violence,

How many more Kugans have to follow,

How many more Teohs need to be lost?

How many more victims to endure?

Why oh why?

Who is responsible? Who has the answers?

When will the nation awaken?

When will it rise against these injustices?

Why this cruel fate?

Why oh why?

How long will this go on and who will be next?

Another flower, another leaf,

Plucked from the tree of life prematurely,

Taken away, so callously.

Why oh why?

Historical Day

Lim Kit Siang

History has just been made in Perak with the Perak State Assembly convened and held under a rain-tree.

Twenty-one years ago, the doctrine of separation of powers among the Executive, Judiciary and the Legislature suffered a grievous blow in the “Mother of Judicial Crisis” on 1988, from which Malaysia has not yet fully recovered.

Today, the doctrine of separation of powers has suffered another grievous blow with the powers and privileges of the legislature in Perak, attacked by the executive, both federal and state, which is also seeking to invoke unprecedented judicial interference with the legislature.

The Perak Speaker, V. Sivakumar, the legitimate Perak Mentri Besar, Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin, the legitimate senior Exco Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham, and all the Pakatan Rakyat Assembly men and women have done Perak and Malaysia proud.

They have written a glorious chapter in the history of democracy in Perak and Malaysia.

Despite the show of excessive and unnecessary force by the Police and FRU, the Pakatan Rakyat Assembly representatives were undaunted and were able to conduct its short but historic proceeding under a rain-tree.

Shame to the Barisan Nasional and UMNO leaders. They are afraid of the Perak State Assembly meeting. They are also afraid of returning the mandate to the people with the holding of state general elections.

There is no stronger proof of the illegitimacy of Zambry as Perak Mentri Besar as a result of the illegal and unconstitutional power grab in Perak orchestrated by Najib Razak

Taking Responsibility

Time to stop the blame game. Time to have a post-mortem done. Time to take responsibility for our actions. Yes, each and everyone one of us ochestrated this symphony. This concert taking place in Perak, which may pave the way for more concerts to take place elsewhere. One may ask, "But I sit in Penang, I have nothing to do with this. I am an ordinary citizen, trying to make a living, working to support my family," so on and so forth.

Yet, we as individuals, are connected to the rest of the society. As the saying goes "No man is an island". We cannot live as recluses. As Dr. Martin Luther King rightly said, "It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. We are made to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality. Did you ever stop to think that you can’t leave for your job in the morning without being dependent on most of the world? You get up in the morning and go to the bathroom and reach over for the sponge, and that’s handed to you by a Pacific islander. You reach for a bar of soap, and that’s given to you at the hands of a Frenchman.

And then you go into the kitchen to drink your coffee for the morning, and that’s poured into your cup by a South American. And maybe you want tea: that’s poured into your cup by a Chinese. Or maybe you’re desirous of having cocoa for breakfast, and that’s poured into your cup by a West African. And then you reach over for your toast, and that’s given to you at the hands of an English-speaking farmer, not to mention the baker. And before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you’ve depended on more than half of the world."

Man has always been looking at ways of protecting himself from the others. Since the stone ages , we have always had to deal with someone or something. We were fighting the animals, and since then we are still fighting the different societies, races, religions, and countries. We seem to gather as one, only when we see a common enemy. Somehow it is in our nature, to become united when we have some outsider come in. I suppose this world will only unite as one if we have some aliens coming from outer space !

Looking at the situation here in our country, what has transpired ? I do not want to go into the details since everyone is aware about it. Many of us are still stunned from the recent happenings and still reeling in shock and amazement about the whole thing. All these while, most of us were sitting in our comfort zones, ignoring what has been happening around us. Other than some politicians, (most of them have their own selfish reasons), many activists have been working tirelessly and selflessly to bring about a change in the society. They are not able to reach the larger public due to lack of manpower and social awareness amongst the people.

Though we saw the tsunami of change taking place during the last election, we did not do enough to bring about a proper change. Many of us were passive fence- sitters. We were not serious enough and took the responsibility of voting for our rights very lightly.

If we can only go beyond our differences and start to work as one - One Race ! If we can truly understand, that we are all interelated and each and every action and reaction of ours will have its own repercussions. Is it a dream, to begin with, to bring about a change in our thinking ? Are we as a society never going to grow up into adults, rather than remain like kindergarten kids fighting for a toy? When are we going to look at the bigger picture ?

"If we are seeking to develop a just society, some say that the important thing is to get there, and the means are really unimportant; any means will do so as long as they get you there. They may be violent or they may be untruthful. They may be unjust means to a just end. There have been those who have argued this throughout history. But we will never have peace in the world until men everywhere recognize that ends are not cut off from means because the means represents seed and the end represents the tree ". In the words of Martin Luther King.

Can our politicians work harmoniously, ironing out their differences and work genuinely towards a just society? Can we as individuals throw away our biasness and learn to accomodate each another? Can we as a society, work together, understanding and respecting each others differences ? Is it a dream ? Or am I naive ? Is my hope unattainable ? Have we become so arrogant and selfish that we can never look at the similiarites. As my teacher says, "We have not been trained to look at the similiarites but rather look at the differences."

Will we have the courage to look within ourselves and find our faults ? Will we have the strength to bring about a true change in ourselves ? Only if, we can come together as one race, going beyond our differences, are we going to be able to become successful in our endeavour. Before we can even become one as a human race, can we start off as One Bangsa Malaysia ? Is it too tall an order ? Otherwise, will it always remain a dream ?

Cry my Beloved Malay Soul

A thought provoking article by AB Sulaiman in Malaysiakini.com


http://malaysiakini.com/opinions/97705

An interesting article

A Merdeka upside down?

August 26, 2008

by Azly Rahman@Columbia University, New York
http://azlyrahman-illuminations.blogspot.com/2008/08/merdeka.html

A Vote for Anwar is a Vote for a Real Merdeka

“Our Nation, Malaysia is dedicated to: achieving a greater unity for all her people; maintaining a democratic way of life; creating a just society in which the wealth of the nation shall be equitably distributed; ensuring a liberal approach to her rich and diverse cultural tradition, and building a progressive society which shall be oriented to modern science and technology.

We, the people of Malaysia, pledge our united efforts to attain these ends, guided by these principles:

• Belief in God

• Loyalty to King and Country

• Upholding the Constitution

• Sovereignty of the Law, and

• Good Behaviour and Morality” - From the Rukunegara, circa 1970

The words above constructed and proclaimed in 1970, after the bloody riots of May 13, 1969, contain internal contradictions if we are to analyse them today.

As we approach August 31, our independence or Merdeka Day, we read the following stories:

- an irate prime minister mulling action against a blogger for flying the Malaysian flag upside-down in cyberspace;

- a by-election campaign in Pematang Pauh in Penang, that shows up the ugliness of smear campaigns focusing on race, religion, and personal issues instead of presenting solutions to national crises;

- an aborted Bar Council forum on conversion to Islam, disrupted by groups claiming to represent the survival and dignity of Malaysian Muslims;

- an angry Vice-Chancellor of an all-bumiputera university threatening to sue the chief minister of Selangor for the latter’s suggestion that Universiti Teknologi MARA be opened to non-bumiputera;

- a teacher in Selangor reprimanded and transferred for hurling racial slurs at her Malaysian school-children of Indian origin;

- the continuing and intensified work of the prime minster’s propaganda outfit, Biro Tata Negara, in ensuring that the ideology of Ketuanan Melayu remains funneled into the minds of Malay students, educators, and civil servants;

- the continuing refusal of the Ministry of Higher Education to grant freedom to students to gain concepts and skills of political consciousness by its refusal to radically revise the University and University Colleges Act;

- an increasingly cacophonic and toxic relationship between the Executive, Judiciary, and Legislative as a consequence of the 22-year misrule of the previous Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad;

- a hyper-modernised country trapped in the excesses of nationalism and globalisation at a time when the global food and energy crisis is taking a toll on the economic and political lives of nations.

After 51 years, what do we have?

These are among the snapshot items of Malaysia circa 51 years of Merdeka or independence. The composite image of divide and conquer left by the British colonials continue to be artistically refined into subdivisions of divide and conquer, aided by the propaganda machine of the ruling class.

What can now be seen in Malaysia are images of the little brown brothers becoming the new colonisers and transforming themselves into ‘emperors in new clothes’.

If the words of the1970 proclamation are to be our benchmarks of Merdeka, we must ask these questions:

- How have we fostered unity amongst the nation when our government promotes racism thorough racialised policies and by virtue that our politics survive on the institutionalisation of racism?

- How have we maintained a democratic way of life, when our educational, political, and economic institutions do not promote democracy in fear that democratic and multicultural voices of conscience are going to dismantle race-based ideologies?

- How are we to create a just society in which the wealth of the nation is equitably distributed, when the New Economic Policy itself is designed based on the premise that only one race needs to be helped and forever helped, whereas at the onset of Independence, poverty existed amongst Malaysians of all races?

- How are we to promote a liberal approach to diverse culture and tradition when our education system is run by politicians who are championing Ketuanan Melayu alone and ensuring that Malay hegemony rules at all levels and spheres of education, from pre-school to graduate levels?

- How are we to build a progressive society based on science and technology when our understanding of the role of science and society do not clearly reflect our fullest understanding of the issues of scientific knowledge, industrialisation, and dependency?

A failed Malaysia? Across the board, the country is in distress. Education in shambles, polarised, and politicised. The economy is in constant dangerous flux. The judiciary is in deep crisis of confidence. Public safety is of major concern due to declining public confidence in the police, and politics remain ever divided along racial and religious lines.

This is the Malaysian depiction of Dorian Gray, one that shows the image of a “vibrant nation of progress and harmony, racial tolerance and a robust economy” but behind that is actually a deformed Malaysia, a mere continuation of the past’s feudal and colonial entity.

Broken promises

The colonised have become the colonisers. The state has become a totalitarian entity using the ideological state apparatuses to silence the voices of progressive change. The nationalists have nationalised the wealth of the nation for themselves and perhaps siphoning the nation’s wealth internationally.

This is the picture of the broken promise made by those who fought for independence; the vices of the early radical and truly nationalistic Malays, Chinese, Indians, Ibans, Kadazans, Sikhs, etc, of the early Merdeka movement.

How then must Malaysians celebrate their 51st Merdeka? By flying the Jalur Gemilang upside down? Or to do better than this – by putting justice in place, by engineering a multicultural jihad against all forms of excesses of abuse of power and to de-toxify the nation entirely, and then next - begin Year Zero of our cultural revolution by using a gentle enterprise called peaceful education?

Education is the solution. I believe we need a radical overhaul of everything, philosophically speaking. We have the structures in place but we would need to replace the human beings running the system.

We have deeply racialised human beings running neutral machines. We have ethnocentric leaders running humane systems. We have allowed imperfection and evolving fascism to run our system.

We have placed capitalists of culture behind our wheels of industrial progress; people who have the dinosaur brain of ketuanan this or that.

We have created these monsters and have unleashed them to run our educational, political, economic, and cultural systems. We have Frankenstein-ised our Merdeka.

We need to re-educate ourselves by reinventing the human beings we can entrust to run our machines. We must abolish the present system and create a new one; just as how we created our new cities – Putrajaya and Cyberjaya – the symbols of our oriental despotism and Asian capitalistic decadence.

We must be aware that class in the broadest and most comprehensive sense of the word is what we are dealing with and through class and cultural analyses, we can arrive at a different path to a new Merdeka.

This Merdeka, the rakyat, armed with wisdom of a new era, must now speak softly but carry a big stick. Our struggle for Merdeka has only just begun.
—————-
If I may be permitted to add to Dr. Azly Rahman’s article, it is this: August 26 will be the start of change for Malaysia. That is why we must have Anwar Ibrahim in Parliament and then on to Putrajaya he goes. I am pleased that the voters in Permatang Pauh understand what is at stake and are turning up in full force early at various polling stations. The weather is fine.

We want our best minds to return home and serve our country and that means changing our incentive system to make our environmment attractive for work and continuous self learning. Education must be thoroughly revamped so that it will be merit based. Standards should not be lowered. In stead, we must educate Malaysians to meet standards for entry into our tertiary institutions. Our universities must, therefore, be excellent centers for research, innovation and intellectual development.

Academic freedom must be returned to all our campuses. Political interference in the Universities must cease so that we do not have the obstacles to “a liberal approach to diverse culture and tradition”. We must also have create a community of intellectuals and artists in Kuala Lumpur like those in Paris, New York, Berlin, etc. Our nation badly needs a soul. —Din Merican in Permatang Pauh.