A Tomb Raider shot of me :)
There are many things, quite a number actually, that I find very very contradictory about the country I'm in. They would book us for treason at ANY possible reason of even voicing out our distastes about the ruling government and parties. Oh well.
Article 10 if the Constitution of Malaysia states that Malaysians are guaranteed the right to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of association. Yet when the BERSIH members gathered on the 9th of July, they were fired with tear gas and water cannons. "Bersih" is a Malay word that means "clean" and the whole reason for this rallying and campaigning was to achieve political cleanliness AND to eradicate all forms of corruption. (BELIEVE ME WHEN I SAY, I'M ON NO ONE'S SIDE HERE. I do not support BERSIH, neither do I condone what the law enforcers did.)
So yes, they contradict. I salute the rally goers for their want of a new revolution, a tsunami of change and justice in the nation. Article 10 clearly states that YES, assemblies (like rallies) are allowed UNLESS they are booked under the "Sedition Act" or the "Official Secrets Act"-OSA. Which is also used in countries like UK and other nations. Yet, ministers who felt "threatened" were actually wanting to charge Ambiga-the leader of BERSIH under the ISA-Internal security act. None of us citizens really saw a threat in her reasoning as they were ONLY voting for a good and clean voting system especially in the upcoming elections. By the way, GEORGE BUSH was actually suspected (speculations were made) to be supporting the Unification Church or better known as the Moonies Church, based in the US. I find that REALLY funny because although he was quite unpopular at that time, his campaigns were pretty much strong as he was apparently funded by the Reverend Moon himself who was the founder of the Moonies. I mean, come on. Who actually started the beginning of the Gulf Wars and incited hatred against Iraq?? Who had TWO songs composed by two famous singers against him?? The songs "Fuck You" and "Dear Mr. President" were sung by Lily Allen and Pink to mock Bush.
So yeah, on the 9th of July the protests went high and dry. People from all over met up for the rallies in Kuala Lumpur-The Malaysian capital. Police were firing tear gas at the people and shooting them with high powered water cannons. Someone actually died because of the violence incited by the police. This I very much do not condone as Al-Jazeera aired some of the video shots taken at the place of the happenings. Trust me, the people were just marching and holding banners and suddenly, the police came like barricade-animals and started beating them up with batons, and REALLY REALLY abusing them in horrifying manners. A lot of the leaders say that the police had to do that because the people were not allowed to gather under such circumstances. More than 5 people who gather at some kinda rally apparently need some form of police consent (in this case which was not given) but really. I thought the Article number 10 permits this. Aren't they going against the constitution itself?? I've even checked the clauses and the revamped versions of it for loopholes. Didn't find any. Then the contradiction comes in where one of my friends mentioned about the 5 people gathering which needs some kinda police consent. I mean how could they construct such major laws with loopholes and contradictions?? LOL. Even the Articles of Confederation and the Articles of the Constitution of the United States of America were re-written and constantly revamped and proofread by so many people. Dear old Ben Franklin-one of my fave politicians wrote parts of it himself *beaming with delight*.
The good side of the campaign was that such amazing unity was seen among the Malaysians. For once, there was no race or religion standing in the way. It was only 1Malaysia where the people were united in mind and thought. It was a very beautiful sight in a way although so many got injured because of the atrocities of the law enforcers. Law enforcers should know that they are NOT above the law themselves. Terribly wrong of them.
Anyway, I've got to get back to my studying. Finals are coming up soon!! Yikes. Plus, I can't really blog about these issues much. *You know, I know* ;)
Love you all, LOADS.
-The political fanatic-
No comments:
Post a Comment