Do you feel deeply for injustice committed against Tian Chua, Harris and Tarmin? Echoing on Che’s quote, this is the most beautiful part of the Malaysian ‘black’ revolution. The ruling government demonstrated their worst fear by arresting the ‘black’ heroes and attempt to create fear among Malaysians. At this juncture, many of us will question the ‘black’ journey, is it worth it? The answer lies with you.
Go deep within yourself and ask yourself a question, if I’m Haris Ibrahim, would I sacrifice everything I have for the future of this country? The men arrested are reflection of you and me. You may argue that Tian Chua and Tarmin are politicians and their arrest will provide them with political edge. How about Haris? He is just an activist doing his very best for this country. He would not go down in history with money, fame, datuk-ship, etc.
In years to come, the future generation might not even know his name but he will be forever remembered by us as a great man with character who fought for a better Malaysia. We have forgotten many heroes from the past because they never made it to the history text book and Haris will definitely be one of them if our current government continues to rule Malaysia and the academician continues to serve the political master without any integrity and value. This is the darkest moment in Malaysian history.
In comparison to 16th century Saeculum obscurum (Pornocrasy or Prostitute Rule), relating to our country, we are in a similar dilemma on the political situation. The influential political leaders dictate the direction of the nation without any regard to the subject. We live in the age of Malaysian Pornocrasy where the people have no freedom of speech, no fair election, rise of corruption, cronyism, blackout, crackdown on political leaders, fraudulent voting, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Echoing on Che’s words, despite the injustice, this is the most beautiful quality in our revolution where people from all walks of life in stand united fighting for what we believe is rightfully ours.
The desire to sacrifice an entire lifetime to the noblest of ideals serves no purpose if one works alone - Che Guevara
Anwar, Kit Siang, Nik Aziz, Nurul, Tian Chua, Haris and opposition leaders have demonstrated their desire to sacrifice. They can’t fight this battle without the support of Malaysians. Our neighbour Philippines has faced a similar political situation in the past. The people of Philippines applied the similar method as us by non-violence civil resistance against electoral fraud and regime violence. For them it’s Yellow Revolution and for us it is Black Revolution.
The highlight of the revolution is two million Filipinos demonstrated along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (ESDA) from Feb 22-25, 1986 and forced then President Ferdinand Marcos to resign. The unarmed civilians took to the street and the atmosphere was almost festive like. When faced with the army troop, the nuns knelt down holding rosaries and the people linked their arms forming human barricades. The troop retreated without firing a bullet. The people power is what the leaders need to continue their fight. Without us, the struggle serves no meaning.
The life of a single human being is worth a million times more than all the property of the richest man on earth – Che Guevara
The life of every Malaysian is worth more than any infrastructure or buildings in Malaysia. The lives of prisoners who died inside police custody is worth more than the most expensive property or project in Malaysia. The government could go on with the MRT project, reducing car prices, national reconciliation, etc. The prisoners who died under police custody is something we need to think about. It could be you or me. We could be arrested for any ‘creative’ reason seen fit, locked up and beaten to death. The price tag for Malaysians is cheap.
Our lives are not worth more than the political agenda pursued by the ruling government. We live in a country where we don’t feel safe and we are afraid of the police force. We rather avoid them than embrace them.
Our newly appointed Home Minister is ‘busy’ with his new project to arrest leaders supporting the reformation agenda. We urge the Home Minister to focus on reforming the police force, restore the confidence of public with the police force and turn Malaysia into one of the safest places to live.
Forget about the political uprising, rallies, demonstration, etc. Harris, Tian Chua, Adam, and Tamrin are not the threats to the country. They are Malaysian expressing their disappointment with the election fraud. Instead of arresting them, the Home Minister should organise a dialogue session with them to hear them out and assist them accordingly. The Home Ministry is supposed to serve all Malaysian not Barisan Nasional.
In 1998, our current Home Minister spoke against Mahathir on cronyism and nepotism. Subsequently he was arrested under ISA. In 1999, he joined back Umno and blamed Anwar for his misconduct. On that note, our country needs a leader who speaks his mind and stands for his values. It doesn’t matter which political party you belong but having your own mind is important in performing your role. We don’t need ‘parrot’ leadership in our country; we need leader of integrity, honour and value.
Great leaders are born because of situations; Zahid has paved the way for the great leaders to rise. Politically speaking, the move to arrest them is a no brainer strategy that will further reduce the popularity of the ruling government. We thank the Home Minister for arresting the ‘black’ warriors. You helped to transform good leaders into great leaders.
At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality… We must strive every day so that this love of living humanity will be transformed into actual deeds, into acts that serve as examples, as a moving force – Che Guevara
Pocketbook voting is a concept in which the voters select the government based on individual economic circumstances (selfish factor). The concept is that the voter will choose the candidate based on the belief that the selected party will benefit the voter. In our case, all Malaysians are in a way pocketbook voters. We voted for the party on basis of our economic condition, for urban voters we voted for PR on basis that our economic condition has deteriorated and we voted against the incumbent government. For rural voters, we voted on basis that the Barisan Nasional government promised to improve individual financial conditions. It reflects our real nature to vote for selfish purpose. In a nutshell, we did not vote for greater cause but rather for our very own selfish reason.
Echoing on Che’s words, did we really feel the love for ‘black’ revolution? Did we genuinely aspire for the changes in living humanity? Did we transform this love for revolution into actual deeds? The answer is a dilemma for every Malaysian. The economic greed plaguing us has turned us into demonic selfish beings without consciousness and empathy for other humans.
The election has taught us struggle, courage, wisdom, unity, democracy, political awareness, rights, etc. But it did not teach us how not to be selfish. The actual fight is not with the external enemy, but within you. You are your worst enemy. Defeat the demon within you. That’s the true victory of this ‘black’ revolution. The ‘black’ journey is a long hard road. No one said it was easy, but it is worth fighting for. True democracy is when all Malaysian are turned into selfless leaders who serve humanity. Hail the ‘black’ revolution.
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