Democracy without freedom of speech is no democracy at all

Malaysia has been a nation that prides itself for being a democratic nation. Just listen to Minister of Information, Zainuddin Maidin's replies to an al-Jazeera interview yesterday about the BERSIH rally. The phrase "we are democratic, we are not myanmar, burma' repeated endless times in his poor attempt to evade questions and answer questions the world wants to know.



I'd say that was one of the worst replies to international news networks by our country, ever. It was so bad that ASTRO had to 'censor' it. You will not find that clip anywhere on malaysian controlled newspapers or Khairy Jamaluddin controlled television stations, which are in fact, all of the free to air television stations.

But why is it not on there?

BERSIH rally was widely publicised throughout the whole world, and the actions of police were criticised by experts abroad.

CNN reports that New York Human Rights Watchslammed the rally ban and urged the government to support free speech ahead of elections expected to be called early next year.

"If Malaysia wants to count itself a democracy, it can begin by upholding constitutional guarantees of free speech and assembly. The way the system works now, only the ruling coalition can get its messages out," it said.

Human Rights Watch said Malaysian elections have been sullied by vote-buying, the use of public resources by the ruling parties and accusations of bias against the Election Commission.

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/11/10/malaysia.protests/

Hmm... never read any of those in Malaysia? How unsurprising. In malaysia you would be told that only 4000 people joined the rally. International news report 10-40k. what a big difference!

After all, malaysia's own newspapers can only report how bad it was in terms of causing traffic jams and causing losses to businesses operating in that area.

If you have not realised, Malaysian newspapers have not in any way let the BERSIH organisers speak up on their newspapers. (this of course excludes opposition online newspapers like malaysiakini.com and harakahdaily)

So how much freedom of speech do we have in Malaysia?

How much freedom of speech should we have?

I don't agree with absolute freedom of speech for Malaysia just yet. We have learned enough from May 13. But at this rate, the current level of freedom of speech does not enable the proper functioning of opposition parties. They do not have any proper channels to reach the rakyat. And without opposition, how can you call it democracy?

Even within the ruling party, there is no democracy. Voting is just a mean of showing the world we are democratic. MPs we choose must stand by all party policies without questioning them, and all these party policies are just formed and established by a handful of people.

Have we forgotten the case of Sothinathan a few years back? A BN MP trying to do his work and speak up for people in his constituency fired for placing the people's priorities above the party's.

After all, in malaysian politics, it's more important to support your party than defend the people you represent. That is how you stay safe, and work your way up the power ladder.

It's scary, but honestly, I see many similarities between the current Malaysia and China 2 decades ago.

Deng Xiao Ping opened China up for foreign investments. Mahatir emulated that.

Megaprojects occured in both countries when there are still much poverty in the nation elsewhere just to attract more foreign investors.

Students and professional workers spoke up. Now the average Malaysian who knows what is going on speaks up too.

Both countries have a one-party rule going on for ages. The difference is Malaysia does it under a mask of "democracy".

Leaders are afraid to lose their powers and react extremely defensive, even if criticism were constructive and from their own rakyat or ming zhu.

Peaceful gatherings for rakyat or mingzhu are labelled illegal and turns chaotic when authorities act.

But the difference is, In China, at that time, freedom of speech is available by newspapers and leaflets. Not really in Malaysia.

But thanks to the internet, you have access to international news and unbiased reports, as well as access to the opposition side of the story, not forgetting some blogs that gave good accounts of the event, ie jeff ooi.

The scary thing is will Malaysia act like China in dealing with these similar situations they have put themselves in?

For i'm sure that BERSIH rally is just a beginning. My prediction is unless royalty intervense, there will be bigger ones to come. The government will remain adamant that they are right. Something ugly might take place. The question is not whether it would, but when and how. It's a time bomb.

And if the Malaysian Government continue their current policy of just blocking up every voice against them, how literally bloody will it be? How many people will disappear into ISA custody? Is there a possibility of opening live fire at civilians? After all, that has already happened at Batu Burok during BERSIH's previous activity.

Will our freedom of speech be totally removed? Will they censor wikipedia, yahoo, google?

Will we be like China in the sense that we won't even know our version of Tiananmen tragedy in the future? Will history be deleted locally the way Tiananmen was removed from books and how BERSIH actual history was removed from newspapers and news?

Will Blogs be totally banned? Will democracy even exist? Will we all be made like clones, to think alike and get trapped in our little worlds while they manipulate and control us?

The future can be scary. But lets say that the coins has two sides. It might just turn to the rakyat's way. Let's continue to hope and work towards that.