10-Eleven : Why We Walked?

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I was having a conversation with Sarah Chan yesterday, and we realised that many of our friends, in the media and in our social circle here in KL don’t really know about the double life we lead. Let us furnish you with some details.
We met in college, both students of Journalism at Taylor’s College with our degree moderated by Universiti Sains Malaysia (still a socialist hotbed for activism), and as part of our course component were required to handle the college newspaper, The Inkslingers.

In the course of producing this newspaper, we had to cover college events primarily, and for our features we were allowed to venture outside and produce more human interest stories. And that is how our journey in activism began, almost two years ago. We may have been equally outraged at other times, but that was the time where we began to take an active interest in the events that were shaping and moulding our nation, and our people by attending talks/forums, by reading the works of Malaysian patriots and nationalists and being actively involved in alternative news websites.

Many of you in our circle have either sent us messages, or emails or called to ask how we were doing, and whether we were safe when we walked on Saturday, and we are extremely appreciative and thankful to have near and dear that care about us. However, one thread kept reoccuring when we examined your statements to us, and it was the question of, “Why did you walk? What was the walk for?”

Sarah offered an explanation for this, that in most blogs we, and our friends immediately access, we often do not involve ourselves in political or national discussions, save for those that involve  mass dissemination in the media. Like a concert that gets banned, or a movie or film. The BERSIH rally was not one such instance that got any mainstream coverage, except for the press to tout it as illegal. The VK Lingam tapes (on the corruption in the Malaysian judiciary), despite it circulating freely on the web – still have not been seen by many.

Is this because of the lack of ample and truthful coverage in the mainstream media? Perhaps. I suspect however, this has a lot to do with us being afraid to examine the situations happening in this country with a fine tooth comb. We know about corruption (we’ve all at some point bribed, or known someone who has given a bribe, no?), we know about avarice, we know about cronyism and nepotism. And we know about the institutionalized racism in public office, in the education system and other areas that has seeped into our daily lives. Unfortunately, something in us has been shut off for a long time.  What, or how, or when it happened, we don’t know.

But, here’s the thing. We’re young, and we can do something about this. The reason why Sarah and I walked on Saturday is simple, we walked for the nation, for us, for our families and for our friends.  The objective of the walk was the right of every citizen to demand of its government, which is why the lack of granting a permit to the BERSIH coalition was upsetting to us.

From the website, this was the objective of the march:

BERSIH’s campaign for electoral reform is endorsed by 66 NGOs and 5 political parties. Our immediate demands are:

1. The use of indelible ink
2. A cleanup of the electoral roll
3. The abolition of domestic postal voting
4. Fair access to the media

As we all know, the elections are drawing close. Regardless of whether you read the papers or not, somewhere in the periphery, I am sure most of you know there is something intrinsically wrong going on here. For all those of you who are of eligible age, I hope you’ve registered as a voter and vote responsibly this year, to make changes where it matters – the ballot box.

I understand that reading the news, as censored as it may be sometimes, can still be depressing. A good example would be the prejudiced coverage on the BERSIH rally last Saturday. The mainstream papers highlighted the fact that the police were ‘forced to’ use tear gas and water cannons on protesters, I assure we were completely peaceful – they were not in anyway forced to do such a thing, it is a measure they took, simply because they could.  Sarah and I were witness to this. The numbers of 4,000 was a blatant lie. Do google and check out youtube.com (look for “BERSIH”) for visuals that are at complete odds to this statement.

Another statement was that it was a illegal gathering of members from Opposition parties. Most of you know us, we are not affliated with any Opposition parties. Yes, there were members of the Opposition party, but mainly concerned citizens who came as individuals who wanted to ask their King to help them, as the government has turned a deaf ear to the cries of the people. Besides, being a member of a political party is only one aspect of a person’s life, we are defined by so much more, and they are still citizens of this country with similar rights to you and me.

I hope this explains a little of why Sarah and I walked last Saturday, and why it’s important to care. Some look at Malaysia now as a stepping stone, somewhere to make some money before applying for PR to go to Australia, or the UK, or anywhere else. While we are all entitled to our shot to happiness, here or somewhere else, I urge those of you who care to think about the ramifications of censoring these injustices with apathy. You have a corrupt judiciary, you have the government that isn’t listening, and a lot of very frustrated people – this is a recipe for disaster anywhere.

Something has to be done, for you and me and for our families.

I’m sorry if I’ve offended anyone by writing this, but it needed to be said. If this has sparked your interest in some small way, and you would like to be more involved, please do not hesitate to email me: meeshlet AT gmail DOT com.

Have a safe and productive week.

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