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The real lesson
to learn is that we need to dare and dare greatly. For freedom
and justice do not belong to the timid.
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Great
things happen to those who dare
Singapore
Democrats
9 Mar 08
Many of us in the opposition rejoice
vicariously in the electoral victory of our counterparts in
Malaysia. As we bask in the reflected glory from up north, many
of you hope aloud that a similar change will take place in
Singapore.
Unfortunately, it will not.
For change
does not come with timidity. It belongs to those who dare. And
the opposition and people in Malaysia dared greatly.
The
historic victories by Democratic Action Party (DAP), Parti
Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS)
in the elections did not come about because they opted to work
within the rules set by the Barisan Nasional (BN).
If they had done so, none of what happened yesterday
would have taken place.
Instead, they told the ruling
coalition what they wanted - a political system that is
democratic and one that respects the rights of the Malaysian
people. They called for Reformasi.
More importantly, they worked - and made huge sacrifices
- for the change they wanted to see.
Starting with Mr Lim
Kit Siang who was an ISA detainee himself for years. The leader
of the DAP was also convicted and jailed under the Official
Secret's Act.
His son Mr Lim Guan Eng, now the Chief Minister-elect of
Penang, spent 12 months in prison for
criticising the government's handling of a rape case involving a
BN official.
Mr Anwar Ibrahim, the one who broke away
from former prime minister Mahathir and led the reformasi
movement in 1998,
was himself jailed for six years.
One of those who
rallied around Mr Anwar in his dark years was Mr Tian Chua, Chief
Information officer of PKR. Mr Chua suffered ISA detention for
two years. He regularly graces the pages of our newspapers with
photographs of the police dragging him away during protests.
Mr
M Manoharan, a brand new member of parliament, was elected from
his prison cell in Kamunting camp, Malaysia's version of the
Whitley Road Detention Centre. The DAP man has been detained
without trial after he led the Hindraf protests.
For
every one of those who gained high profile in Malaysia's
democracy movement, hundreds more made sacrifices that didn't
make the headlines.
Folks like Dr Syed Hussein Ali, Ms
Elizabeth Wong, Mr Rasiah Sivarasah, and so on, have been
doggedly doing battle for democracy for years.
None of
them advocated for reform by working "within the law".
Instead they pushed the limits, they challenged the rules, and
they spoke up when told to shut up.
They did not seek
just to survive in an autocratic system by trying to appease
those that held the reins of power. They put the people first,
themselves second.
Yes they were often bloodied in the
process of fighting the BN and there were times when they seemed
all but obliterated. But they were never cowed.
Even Mr
Lim Kit Siang, official Leader of the Opposition, was often seen
in the frontlines of protests calling for change in Malaysia and
in his own words, the "voice inside and
outside of
Parliament." (empahsis
added)
Today,
they reap the bountiful harvest that their years of collective
sacrifice has produced.
Activism
and electioneering
There
is one more important lesson to draw from the earth-shaking
political change in Malaysia: These newly elected MPs were once
looked down upon by the BN as trouble-making, law-breaking,
good-for-nothing human rights activists.
And yet, the
Tian Chuas and Elizabeth Wongs didn't ride the high horse of
"respectability" by shunning human rights work. They
knew that in an autocratic system, one needed to engage in
activist work while running for elections at the same time.
This
is why they got together in the hundreds of thousands during the
Reformasi
Movement ten years
ago and why they continued to march for change in Bersih and
Hindraf protests last year.
Even the Malaysian lawyers
Walk(ed) for Justice when a couple of thousand of them marched
down the streets of Kuala Lumpur, demanding the rule of law for
their country.
The one thing that all these MPs and
lawyers had in common - they all broke the law. But they broke
the law in order to uphold the rule of law.
Mr Edmund Bon,
chairman of the Human Rights Committee in the Malaysian Bar
Council, was one of those who took part in the lawyers' protest
and was arrested.
He was recently in Singapore to help
conduct a workshop on Nonviolent Action. Asked why he broke the
law when he himself was a lawyer, Mr Bon said that sometimes
governments leave law-abiding citizens no choice when they abuse
the laws to deny the people their rights.
"I came to
the conclusion," he said, "that I was willing to take
the consequences for standing up for the rights of
Malaysians."
Our Malaysian friends have repeated the
time-honoured practice and reminded us again that the dissidents
of today become the leaders of tomorrow.
If there is
anything that Singaporeans should learn from the watershed
elections in Malaysia, it is not the
if-it-can-happen-in-Malaysia-it-can-happen-in-Singapore-too
thinking. This is daydreaming.
Without working for change,
change will forever elude us.
The real lesson to learn is
that we need to dare and dare greatly. For freedom and justice do
not belong to the timid.
The Malaysians have had to work
and pay the price for their achievement. They have shown us that
it can be done.
Singaporeans now need to begin our own
climb to the top where democracy and freedom awaits. Starting
this Saturday, 15 March, at 2pm outside Parliament House. Join
us, won't you?
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