My fear is that our country would lose its democracy and its freedom, overrun by corruption, extremism, and bigotry and continue being burdened by self-serving public servants who have no principles but claim that their actions are in the name of national interests.
My fear is not being able to prevent any further erosion of what limited freedom of speech, action, thoughts or worship we have.
My fear is being unable to live up to the name of being a proud Malaysian, daring to stand and fight for her sovereignty.
My fear is being slowly but subtly being told I don't belong here anymore, that I can leave if I don't like it.
My fear is not being able to vote for whom I believe to best represent me in government.
And my fear is they'll come after me if I dare speak up.
But my worst fear is if I don't speak up now, there won't be another Rocky or Screenshots to speak up for me and my fellow citizens, just as Martin Niemöller feared, there won't be anyone left to speak up.
i heard about them too...
ReplyDeletequite an issue with the local and malaysia blogsphere.
limited freedom = oxymoron
ReplyDeletemoron.
omg...got caught there...I was kinda thinking that was an awkward one. But then, in real life is there such a thing as total freedom? We'll be splitting hairs...
ReplyDeleteVery nicely written Teh. Wise words. Would like and hope there would be no reasons for those fears at all...
ReplyDeleteI do have same feelings somtimes when rumours going around ... people start to scare for the 'unknow' things ... but think of the bright side ... there are still people voice out their thoughts with no fears .... or at least people like us, we are all aware of what going on around us to certain extend ... we still holding influnces to what goverment planning on us and our land .... as long as we let them know that we are aware of things happen ... i guess they will think twice before they plan on something ...
ReplyDeleteYou know Teh, i know perfectly well what you mean with these words since I already felt them when I had to leave my country: Angola..., but we had to leave under war...
ReplyDeletehmmm... maybe only afterlife~
ReplyDeletei hope not
(Control+Power)*(Corruption+Money)=(Politician)
ReplyDeleteHow to become a good politician = Money
If you a lot of money = Power
when you have Power = Control
every thing is in your control = corruption
Fear is the opportunity of courage.
ReplyDeleteYou put in your hard work and see a good thing going on in your own country and you see bad things happening to others, you get worried that yours may go the same way.
ReplyDeleteAnd when things begin to go bad, you think all this would soon disappear and your dreams gone to ashes, you tend to feel the same fear and disappointment like Tunku Abdul Rahman did back in May 13th 1969. And this is the same fear that people in power use to control others, not knowing that it's a double-edged sword...
And you console yourself by thinking that good and bad things come in cycles as history has shown us...
As far as voting is concerned, you can vote for whom so ever you choose with out fear. I can guarantee that.
ReplyDeleteNone of us do like the present undercurrents, but with the grace of the Almighty and people's intelligence, tolerance, patience & without allowing our emotions to get the better of us, being able to sift the chaff from the grain, we should be alright. You are a rightful citizen of this country and no one can take your constitutional rights away from you.
I'm voicing what's in my mind. I use the word 'fear' to ring alarm bells.
ReplyDeleteTo me, they're using NST as a proxy, trying to strike out Rocky (Ahirudin bin Attan) and Screenshots (Jeff Ooi). In my own way I'm trying to say I'm standing up for them. I've never stood up for much in public before. And this blog is about as public as any other.
I just read up on Angola. I must say it's lots worse than what we have here. The difference is worlds apart, but who's to know what can happen if we don't all work at keeping it together?
ReplyDelete