Christian Perspectives on Politics in Malaysia (Another Interlude)

edwin paul,

juz outta curiosity, whr did u hear abt tis flag burning incident?

i was one among the many of the 10/11 bersih participants who was present at the “flashzone” of masjid jamek from the beginning until the end when we dispersed to march towards the istana. even when subjected to physical attacks by the gorilla enforcers of pdrm, i did not witness even one single ugly (or as u hv defined it, “outrageous”) incident such as tat of flag burning. on the contrary, one of the many epiphanies i had on tat eventful day was from observing the victims who stood resilient despite multiple blows at the receiving end of the teargas and water cannon. they had displayed tremendous restraint instead of giving in to retaliation by way of violence. and to these brothers from PAS, i salute them, for even under the most arduous of maltreatment, they did not buckle. it has certainly made a whole world of difference in how i view them and their religious faith now.

Oh come on Edwin, you can’t be that passive about this, can you?

While I personally feel that public walkout and protests are something we need to work on, it being something in its infant stages here in Malaysia, something needs to be done and we can all contribute to it in our own way. The point here is, affirmative action must be taken to make sure that we get heard. But in our own way.

So some of us are frustrated with the political situation… Lets do something about it. Depending on what gifts the Spirit has blessed us with, we can do something to contribute to a cause that will benefit the country. The people in Bersih came together for a common cause by walking throughout the city to send a message. If you don’t want to protest, fine. But don’t sideline these people and imply that they’re not doing the right thing. Being patriots in their own little way, it would stupid of them to burn the flag. They defeat their purpose in doing so and suppose, no one who’s suffering for the country’s sake will do such a thing. Amen.

I think it was in reference to the roadshow by BERSIH in Batu Burok, Terengganu where a ceramah was supposed to be held. The crackdown was pretty bad too and the press focussed on an unknown individual who was caught on camera burning the flag. However, it was not mentioned who that individual was and how that person was affiliated with BERSIH plus the photograph was allegedly taken a few hours after things have settled down.

What the press didn’t mention though, at least until much later, was that 2 local residents were shot by plainclothes police officers; one in the chest and the other in the neck. And instead of investigating the officers for a possible unlawful discharge of a firearm in a public place, the 2 victims were charged for rioting instead. Go figure.

In fact, it kinda reminds me of what the Chinese government did after the 1989 Tiananmen protests. After sending in tanks and armed troops to break up the protest, and in the process causing quite a few deaths (the actual figure is still disputed, from a few hundred to a few thousand), the propaganda machine swung into action and the victims quickly labelled ?? (bandits) or ?? (rogues).

With their absolute control of the media, it wasn’t too difficult and the fact remains that in China today, most young people below the age of 25 cannot identify some of the more iconic symbols of that period like the photograph of the solitary man who stopped a column of tanks or the statue of the goddess of democracy. And for those that do know a bit about what happened, most of them are not aware that it originated in university campuses nationwide and are under the impression that it was a mob riot.

Apparently we learnt quite a bit from that. Of course this is a different age and the “culprits” would most probably be labelled ???? (terrorist) today .. kinda like how, depending on which audience is being addressed, a Malayalee can be accused of being a Tamil Tiger and groups like BERSIH villified as being a Malay movement (hence implying that its none of our business).

Christian voices are too fragmented, how can we be a force to be reckoned….

Fragmented or diverse? Diversity doesn’t necessarily mean division.