Time to be a ghost buster!
| Dr Kamal Amzan is concerned about where the country is heading, and whether the correct diagnoses and treatment will be able to save us all. He believes that politics is both an art and a weapon, which can be deadly in the wrong hands.Follow him on Twitter at @drkamalamzan. |
APRIL 25 — We have traitors among us.
Wearing masks and pretending to be our knights in shining armour, bearing gifts and presents for the poor.
They sell their country to protect their cronies and families; they turn their backs on their allegiance to the Jalur Gemilang. On the one hand, they espouse extremism, violence and scream moderation to the world, while on the other, they employ thugs to scare and cow the public into submission.
Anyone watching the videos posted on YouTube on how the students were harassed recently in Dataran Merdeka, or the Himpunan Hijau in Penang where thugs blocked the chief minister’s car from leaving would wonder what the police were doing.
If they were around at all.
The powers that be cannot expect us to believe that the thugs acted voluntarily, out of charity and love for the country. They would be foolish to think we are that stupid, or the thugs are that patriotic.
But, then again, what led us to believe that they can think?
For instance, on one hand they say sitting down in a big group is not a threat, but we cannot do it in Dataran Merdeka. We’ll have to park our asses elsewhere. They say it is time to listen to us, the rakyat, but sorry, not on Lynas, PPSMI, our demand for a clean electoral roll, or claiming back taxpayers’ money from NFC and PKFZ.
On those issues, they choose to side with the big corporations.
I was forwarded an identity card with an expiry date yesterday, which made me worry about the upcoming general election. I wonder how many people were awarded instant citizenships — and whether the authorities are serious in seeing these as national threats.
Those who award foreigners with ICs must be treated as traitors, tracked down and charged as enemies of the state.
Maybe the Bar Council should hold off petitioning against the death penalty for now, until these culprits are brought to justice.
While we now see ICs with expiry dates, the purported RCI to look into “Projek IC” in Sabah has yet to take off.
Some parties would resort to the dirtiest of tactics to win votes in the coming general election.
On a related note, Parliament, on April 19, 2012, made it possible to publish print material without the names and addresses of its printer and publisher, paving the way for dirty, irresponsible parties to discredit their opponents at will without fear of prosecution.
Politicians, who have time and again proven that they shoot before they aim, will now have their “fun” at the expense of the rakyat. As Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan correctly pointed out, they are now able to publish racist, sexist, defamatory remarks with impunity.
Freedom of speech, some say.
But with freedom comes heavy responsibility. Unless you live in an uninhabited island where you can scream and curse at will, you must respect the law of the society around you. Your right is no greater than that of the people around you and you are free to live your life as long as you observe the right of others to do the same.
Even America, the country that wages war in the name of freedom, understands that freedom comes with a price. The price in Malaysia, should our politicians be allowed to freely speak and articulate what is on their minds, is religious tolerance and racial harmony.
We, as a nation, cannot afford that, and something that we must never consciously allow.
And before I end, to all our Yang Berhormats, why did you also make it impossible for the candidates and their staff to verify the identity of voters, by deleting in full S26 1(e), which allows for checking of the identity of any person entering a polling centre?
Can you please enlighten us on the logic behind that amendment? Were you sleepy, or did you just not care?
Don’t you think it is better to have more observers around? Already the Election Commission admits to having 40,000 plus suspicious voters in the electoral roll, notwithstanding the 200,000 more as claimed by MIMOS and 100,000 by Dr Ong Kian Ming.
Aren’t you worried about it, or are you confident that these ghosts will vote for you?
Be that as it may, Malaysians must be more vigilant and take note of our fellow citizens that day. Chat to the people next to you, in front of and behind you, make sure they are not only able to speak in Bahasa Malaysia, but also know Malaysian culture, i.e “Neslo”, “roti banjir”, “rojak”, “yong tau foo”, etc.
Get to know them, and show the powers that be we are all Malaysians without prejudice. The only one we need to judge that day are the politicians and “ghosts” or pseudo Malaysians.
Highlight those who are “ghostly” to the authorities. The future of this country belongs to us Malaysians and no one else, period.
We are all “ghost busters’” and need to defend Malaysia on election day. Let us all take time off to show that we care.
And let us show the politicians that enough is enough.
* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.
