KEADILAN ENDORSES JOINT NGO STATEMENT – REJECT POLITICAL VIOLENCE & CELEBRATE MALAYSIA’S DIVERSITY
KENYATAAN MEDIA
UNTUK EDARAN SEGERA
Tarikh: 18 September 2009
KEADILAN SOKONG KENYATAAN BERSAMA NGO – TOLAK KEGANASAN POLITIK & RAIKAN PERBEZAAN MALAYSIA
Parti Keadilan Rakyat menyokong penuh kenyataan dibuat gabungan pertubuhan bukan kerajaan yang dikeluarkan sempena Hari Malaysia, dan kami sependapat dengan gesaan menjadikan nilai keamanan kukuh sebagai asas hidup masyarakat di negara ini agar semua kita dapat menikmati harga kebebasan sebenar.
Negara kita kini berada di persimpangan. Rakyat sekarang boleh memilih untuk mendapatkan keamanan melalui persefahaman atau keamanan melalui kekerasan. Warga Malaysia kini boleh memilih kebebasan sebenar yang membolehkan negara ini berkembang atau memilih kebebasan palsu pemberian rejim politik yang sanggup melakukan apa sahaja demi mengekalkan kuasa.
Sejak 8 Mac pada tahun lalu, kita telah menyaksikan satu bentuk gerakan penentangan bersifat luahan politik dan aktivisme, yang jelas memberikan petanda baik kepada pembangunan demokrasi kita. Namun malangnya, kita juga menyaksikan beberapa cubaan terdesak dan ganas yang dilakukan oleh Kerajaan Persekutuan untuk mengganggu sesuatu isu, tidak perlu diperjelaskan lagi bagaimana isu perkauman dimainkan oleh pelbagai pihak demi mencapai matlamat politik.
KEADILAN teguh dengan komitmen untuk menyuburkan hak kebebasan bersuara. Bagaimanapun, kami menolak sebarang cubaan untuk mencabuli kebebasan ini demi menyalakan sentimen perkauman dalam kalangan rakyat. Sebagai sebuah negara bertamadun, kita sepatutnya menerima dengan baik prinsip keamanan tanpa keganasan, sama ada secara fizikal atau politik, dan mengamalkan prinsip tanggungjawab dalam kebebasan yang dimiliki.
Kita juga harus beringat, daripada menjadikan perbezaan dalam kalangan rakyat Malaysia sebagai sebab untuk mencetuskan pertelagahan, lebih baik kita melakukan sesuatu untuk memahami dan menghormati perbezaan itu. Kita juga seharusnya perlu meraikan dan menggunakan perbezaan yang wujud dalam kalangan rakyat bagi memenuhi hasrat serta potensi negara untuk menjadi sebuah negara hebat.
JONSON CHONG
Pengarah Komunikasi
###
BIRO KOMUNIKASI
PARTI KEADILAN RAKYAT
A-1-09, Merchant Square
No. 1, Jalan Tropicana Selatan 1
47410 Petaling Jaya
Tel: +603 7885 0530
Fax: +603 7885 0531
E-mail: komunikasi@keadilanrakyat.org
Web: www.keadilanrakyat.org
———————————————————————————————————
MEDIA STATEMENT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: 18 September 2009
KEADILAN ENDORSES JOINT NGO STATEMENT – REJECT POLITICAL VIOLENCE & CELEBRATE MALAYSIA’S DIVERSITY
Parti Keadilan Rakyat endorses the statement by the coalition of non-governmental organisations that was released on Malaysia Day, and we adopt the “vow to make empowering peace the basis of public life of our nation so that all of us may enjoy real freedom.”
Our nation is at crossroads. The people can now choose peace through understanding or peace through force. Indeed, Malaysians can now choose real freedom that enables our nation to flourish or choose pseudo freedom ‘given’ by a political regime that is bent on holding on to power at all cost.
Since March 8 last year, we have witnessed a resurgence of political expression and activism, which bodes well for our developing democracy. Unfortunately, we also witnessed the desperate and brutal attempts by the Federal Government to distort the issues, not to mention the incitement of racial tensions by various quarters for political gain.
KEADILAN affirms its commitment to freedom of expression. However, we denounce the abuse of this freedom to fan racial sentiments of the people. As a civilised nation, we should be embracing the principle of non-violence, be it physical or political, and exercising our freedoms responsibly.
Further, instead of making the differences between Malaysians a point of contention, we should be making inroads to understand and respect those differences. Indeed, we should be celebrating and capitalising on the diversity of Malaysia to fulfil our nation’s potential to become a great nation.
JONSON CHONG
Communications Director
One Malaysia, two halves
(Festive image by ba1969 / sxc.hu)
THE build-up to Malaysia’s 46th birthday began this year, for me, with an argument between two acquaintances. A West Malaysian acquaintance said the prevailing notion that Malaysia is 52 years old, versus its actual birth in 1963, is a matter of interpretation. An East Malaysian acquaintance angrily pointed out that this was an erasure of history and, by extension, the erasure of the lived reality of entire peoples in this country.
My parents were just about in their teens when the then-North Borneo attained self-governance. This was just over two weeks before Donald Stephens, later known as Tun Mohammad Fuad Stephens, put pen to paper to make Sabah part of a new nation. Sarawak had become independent about a month earlier, on 22 July 1963.
In the popular imagination, the birth of this country is sepia-tinted and distant, as in the famous Merdeka ad. But 1963 isn’t very far into the past. There would have been many in the generation prior to mine who were old enough to have doubts and questions over Malaysia. Yet they chose to believe that this new federation would give life to their hopes and dreams. From Banggi Island to Kangar, we took that step into a brave new world not as colonial subjects, but as free and sovereign peoples.
Of course, the truth is that even as we thought we could shape ourselves and this nation into a grand beacon of the postcolonial world, there remained unfinished business and conveniently ignored questions. The multiplicities of identities and the pressures of politics within and without were always going to be difficult to handle for an emerging nation. 46 years later, grappling with parts of our history we are told to look away from, are we any closer to the best we could be?
Who are we?
I initially thought of revisiting the question that ended my Malaysia Day piece last year, and expand the question to include the entirety of Malaysia: Who are we? It seems to me, insofar as the West-East Malaysia relations are concerned, we are still a nation of two halves. This year’s Merdeka celebrations continue to proclaim that Malaysia is 52, and Malaysia Day remains unrecognised federally.
Sabahans and Sarawakians shake their heads over Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarnor‘s whipping sentence and what’s now known as the cow-head protest, and say, “My God, how barbaric. That would never happen here.” They ignore the creeping fundamentalism and Muslim personal status laws that, for example, criminalise apostasy (to a tune of RM3,000 and/or imprisonment of no more than two years). Rightly or wrongly, they regard these as the sensibilities of the embarrassingly intolerant that have little bearing on everyday lives.
And yet, there are issues that seem to unite both sides of the South China Sea. The sexual violence perpetrated against Penan girls and women, slow-burning initially, now seems to be one of these issues. Unfortunately, not many people in Peninsular Malaysia are aware of the Sarawak state government‘s efforts to discredit the people and non-governmental organisations that sought justice for the women, and to bury the issue entirely.
Few in West Malaysia grasp the context in which the violence occurred, with the exception of Orang Asli, who understand only too well. Few grasp how Penan communities have become so vulnerable and disempowered. But then, given the prevailing political climate, how do we expect West Malaysians to be properly informed of what goes on in East Malaysia?
So, here we are. Were I to answer the question of “Who are we?” by looking back at the past year, the only answer I could give is that we are above all united by fear. Fear of the Internal Security Act (ISA), fear of the authorities, fear of the Other, fear of the unknown, fear of being taken for a ride, fear of caring enough to act. The injustices in this country are too close, too much to bear.
Who do we want to be?
Perhaps, as in 1963, the more important question is: Who do we want to be? Looking back, we could piece together some answers, or at least the beginnings of an answer. We could, perhaps, say:
- The tens of thousands of anti-ISA protesters who marched on 1 Aug 2009 wanted to be the kind of people who live their lives free from draconian laws and the last vestiges of colonialism.
(Pic by Nitin Ale / sxc.hu) The people in Baram running blockades against loggers and plantations companies want to be the kind of people who are agents of their own destiny.
- The people who voted for transformation on 8 March 2008 wanted to be the kind of people for whom change can no longer be equated with terror and the shadow of 13 May 1969.
- The Muslims, Christians, Buddhists and people of other faiths in Kota Kinabalu who continue to run food stalls next to each other want to be the kind of people who believe in what unites rather than what divides.
- The people who hold candlelight vigils despite police violence, who write letters, who visit temples not of their faith — perhaps they want to be the kind of people who remember that an individual’s suffering counts for something in this world.
Here too, one could ask: Who do the people who support the caning of Kartika want to be? Who do the people who dismiss the Penans as backward liars want to be? Who do the people who think that women deserve violence for not acceding to demands want to be? Who do the people perceiving those who do not fit into certain norms as threats, and act accordingly, want to be?
I will not presume malice on their part any more than I will refuse to acknowledge that our lives are complex. But in the end, intentions are just that: intentions, not the outcomes of actions. For me, I want to be the kind of person guided not by approval from a higher authority. I’d rather be guided by what my actions mean for someone already marginalised or who is not in a position buffered by privilege. I want to be the kind of person who remembers that violations of any individual’s human rights affect me, no matter how distant I may feel I am. Every violation makes this world a more dangerous place, makes people more fearful, and brings about an environment that makes it so much harder for me to claim my rights as a human being.
I am tired of seeing 46-year-old promises unfulfilled. There is so much more that we can be. 
I came to explore the wreck.
The words are purposes.
The words are maps.
I came to see the damage that was done
and the treasures that prevail.
Adrienne Rich, Diving into the Wreck
Yasmin Masidi works for an international NGO based in Kuala Lumpur. She spends her time doing as much as she can.
leave a comment