Umno is the bigger brother, but it gives us enough room to voice our thoughts - Hulu Selangor MP P Kamalanathan
COMMENT Some
time ago (probably in the 90s) late one night, I was watching Tim
Sebastian (BBC HardTalk) going a couple of rounds with some Indian
government official about the Indian/Pakistan/ Kashmir quagmire. Something
the Indian official said stuck with me. Responding to Sebastian's
attempt at pointing out to some compromise coming from Islamabad, the
Indian official rather amusingly replied that if someone is pointing a
gun at your head and moves it away an inch, it's hardly a compromise.
Reading
Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin's attempts at painting the proposed
National Harmony Act or any other of the recent amendments or
introductions of Acts oozing out of Putrajaya, as so-called "substantial
transformative legislation", I can't help but think that anything Umno
does as far as Prime Minister Najib Razak's transformative policies are
concerned, especially with issues concerning national security, is
merely moving the gun an inch. There was a time when Acts such
as the Internal Security Act, Sedition Act, etc, made us whisper amongst
ourselves ever fearful that our grievances against the ruling regime
would results in midnight visit to our homes by the practitioners of the
dark arts. Stories were told of how so and so disappeared one night and
loved ones were told to remain silent.
These days the stories
are told openly and these Acts although still in selective use have lost
their hold over a great many of us. Countless lives which have been
irrevocably changed merely because citizens chose to speak truth to
power. But this is merely one side of the story. When we have an
Umno MP who wonders if a civil rights activist should (could?) be
hanged for treason, we have crossed the Rubicon in terms of defining
what is seditious with regards to the political discourse in this
country. It goes without saying that any attempt by Umno to curb
‘seditious' speech should be met with scorn.
When asked why no
action was taken against the ‘seditious' speech by Umno-backed lackeys
such as the propaganda arms of the party or the outsourced thugs,
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department and de facto law minister
Nazri Abdul Aziz rambled on how the political and social landscapes had
"changed". It was probably the most honest and hypocritical
response coming from the minister, which is sadly not as rare a feat as
some would believe in the ‘play at your own risk' game of politics.
As I argued in 'Press Gangs of Malaysia',
what Malaysia needs is a market place of ideas, something that Najib
claims to want (with this new Act) but nothing so far in the sad history
of Umno hegemony has demonstrated this.
Selective use of the law
Commenters here and elsewhere have thrown about George Orwell
references like it's going out of style indeed, I would like to know
which genius in Putrajaya came up with name ‘National Harmony Act',
which immediately puts a bull's eyes on it begging for Orwell darts. The
title of the Act reinforces whatever Orwellian cliché is bandied about
and the motif behind its creation reeks of the moral bankruptcy of the
ruling coalition.
Anyone with a functioning moral compass would
be able to recognise that Acts such as this one, the Peaceful Assembly
Act and ISA or whatever incarnation is upon us now, are used by the
regime to stifle free speech and crack down on political dissent. Its
selective use is evidence of an undeclared war on an ideologically
diverse population. However
what I would argue is that the selective use of such laws against its
own people (refer to our prime minister's so-called Freudian slip with regard to the ISA) has far greater implications in the long run than the mendacious short-term aims of Umno.
What the selective use of Acts such as the ISA (and most probably this
new National Harmony Act) have done is poisoned the discourse insofar as
how these laws could be of use to the national security of this
country. My own favourite Orwell quote, "People sleep peaceably
in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence
on their behalf", rarely gets an airing. Perhaps because of my
past career(s), I have known far too many men (women) who would make
suitable guests under whatever "restrictive/unjust" laws that are
abhorred by an increasingly frustrated Malaysian public.
I have
also known far too many people who have been unjustly subjugated by
these laws. Therein lies the rub. A friend who had served loyally in the
security apparatus of this country often tells me, that the only time
people hear of these "unjust" laws is when the government "misuses
them". If people only knew, he said, of the extremely dangerous
individuals who meant this country harm, the religious fanatics, the
hardcore criminal... Disappointedly, he goes on about how there has
never been any real discussion on what we as citizens are prepared to
give up in terms of our rights because our rights have been abused from
the get go.
Understand now that I'm not making an argument for
such laws, but rather pointing to another instance where this regime has
made it impossible for Malaysian to have a rational discussion about
well, anything.
Slap on the face
The proposed National Harmony Act is a slap on the face for anyone who
believes that speech should be regulated (and this is a perfectly
legitimate stance, even though I may not subscribe to it) but yet can
only stand by impotently as the Awang Selamats and the Ridhuan Tee
Abdullahs of Malaysia are allowed to run riot by Umno. All these
laws and the way how they are implemented is one big fat joke. Take the
ISA for instance. When it's not being used to imprison political
dissidents (many of whom now make up our ‘opposition politicians'), its
uses have been proved a sham by the likes of Yazid Sufaat. Has anyone forgotten how our home minister boasted of how the ISA (presumably) could have rehabilitated Nordin Mat Top?
And
yet every country, sooner or later, has to deal with existential
threats either from within or without. The problem in Malaysia is that
any threat is not viewed as a national threat but as a threat to Umno.
Or at least, that's the general perception. This new National
Harmony Act is not about "inculcating the spirit of harmony and mutual
respect in the Malaysian society made up of various races and religions"
but rather about not unbalancing the harmony in Umno. These are
chaotic times for Umno. Nobody knows what's going to happen. Umno seems
to be in a state of flux with the supreme council involved in
protracted power games that are leaving the rank and file milling about
like lost sheep. The prime minister says one thing and his minions do
another.
I believe most people are mistaken when they think Umno
is trying to repackage these old laws as some sort of publicity stunt
to garner goodwill. I think there is something more to it. I'm in the
camp that believes that Umno has finally decided to "go alone at it" and
laws such as these are merely being created to stockpile their armoury. Everyone is waiting with bated breath for Najib to pull the trigger on
the election gun. The belief is that the results of the election will be
the dawn of a new day. I sincerely wish this is so.
But just the other night before I read about the proposed National Harmony Act, I was rereading Alan Moore's (Dave Lloyd's) ‘V for Vendetta', and this jumped up at me: With so much chaos, someone will do something stupid. And when they do, things will turn nasty." Malaysiakini.
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