The Minister of Misinformation on The "Walk of Justice"

Our dear Datuk Zam (our esteemed Information Minister) has voiced out on the "Walk of Justice", held by the Malaysian Bar Council, involving lots of people walking (most of them lawyers) for a certain cause, that clearly seems to have annoyed him.

Now, I usually wait in nervous anticipation at what our dear Zam says, since he suffers from a particularly nasty case of chronic foot in mouth disease. Here are his own words:

“It’s about time the Government find out if the lawyers were allowing themselves to be used.

“It’s clear they were being directed by a certain individual or political party out to discredit the Barisan government,” Zainuddin told reporters after presenting Ramadan aid to pensioners at the Kuala Muda district welfare department.

Source.

Apparently, lawyers are dumb enough to allow themselves to be used (says the all knowing and infinitely wiser Zam) by a certain political party out to discredit the government.

Woe be the Malaysian legal system then. But in the end, one wonders who is being used by which political party: our dear Zam or our dear lawyers.

That, my friends, is for you to find out.

Preaching to the Choir

So, when one tells a group of people about something that they already know...

Hey, did you know that velcro works because of millions of little hooks that stick to little loops!? Isn't that faaaascinating? Or or or did you know that Blogger is owned by Google!? Woooow!!!

...that's preaching to the choir.

Oh wait. That's what this blog is doing! My my my. We're talking about problems in Malaysia that bug us and that also bug people who come to read this blog (this is a generalization). But wait! You didn't know that velcro works that way!? Or that Blogger is owned by Google!?

What I wanted to say was that even the choir might not know everything about so-and-so. I might not know everything about the lawyers march this morning. But even if this blog might not reach millions of people, it reaches me. And that's what counts. I can learn something from this, and use it to make myself a better and wiser person.

I consider this blog as a place for me to learn more about Malaysia, and also a place where I can share my own thoughts - as one of the "choir".

Astronaught

The news has been making its way around local blogs: our glorious Malaysian astronaut to-be is a spaceflight participant. Check out NASA's International Space Station Expedition 16 crew profile here. While the rest of the crew sports profiles sprinkled with words such as "flight engineer," "commander," "specialist," and "NEEMO," our local hero Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor "will launch with Expedition 16 and land with Expedition 15."

Period.

Participate away, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor. Make us proud.

Heartless ppl

What on earth is happening to Malaysia? Recently, the Nurin Jazimin case struck many in my school. Her brutal murder actually made a friend of mine cry (yes, she really cried until I got creeped) reading the papers. My Science teacher stopped the lesson when she found newspapers in my class, started reading about the case and decided to teach about DNA instead of her energy change lesson. My Sivik teacher spent more than half the lesson talking about the brutality of human beings nowadays. And I, for one, didn't read the headlines during first few days of the gym-bag episode (it was too gruesome).

So if so many in the society actually care about human existence, why did this person actually proceed to murder a little kid who only wanted to buy hairclips from the pasar malam? And about the cucumber and brinjal, let's not even broach that topic. Whoever did that, man he's REALLY cruel.

So how did Malaysia morph into this state, with serial killers who prey on little kids at the pasar malam? I don't know. The world ain't a safe place no more. I just hope that maybe... someday... Malaysia's condition won't be anything like this anymore.

Freedom of speech?

Sure, we Malaysians have freedom of speech. Who says we don't? If anything, we're in danger of having too much freedom of speech. Look at the fellow who came up with Negarakuku. There's a fine example of freedom of speech for you. He's just one of a thousand voices screaming to be heard. Freedom of speech ensures a cacophony of opinions in all their inane, nonsensical glory.

I have freedom of speech, every moron with an opinion thinks, and so I can say whatever I want. It's not true. Freedom of speech is shackled to social responsibility. It's another way of saying there are boundaries. Yes, each and every one of us have opinions. But the only opinion that matters is of a supreme authority: that of our government. What they say goes. They draw the boundaries, no questions asked. There are consequences for crossing those lines in the sand. It could be anything from death threats to actual death. The truth is that nobody really cares about your opinion. They do care, however, about how you say it. Keep that in mind and you can say whatever you want.

Some might protest that this defeats the purpose of freedom of speech itself. But if you drank deeply from the wisdom of our government you'd see it isn't an issue at all. Mind the rules and it won't be May 13 all over again. Remember, in Malaysia freedom is not something you do, it's something that is given to you. We have only what our government sees fit to give us. We can say only what they allow us to say.

Don't worry. Try to be positive. Give thanks for what you have. Come now, be fair, they've already handed us freedom of speech on a platter, never mind how small that platter is. Just because there might not be freedom after speech doesn't mean you have to bite the hand that feeds you. I for one am going to go with the path of least resistance. Opinions are better left where they came from, in the deep, dark corner of the mind.

But that's just what I think.

Freedom of Speech

Ahh... the Red Writing Hood made me find freedom of speech quotations. Not many though.. =)


A people which is able to say everything becomes able to do everything.

Napoleon I (1769-1821) Napoleon Bonaparte. French general, First Consul (

People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid.

Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) Danish philosopher and writer.

Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself.

Salman Rushdie (1948-?) Anglo-Indian novelist.

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer and historian.

If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.

George Washington (1732-1799) First President of the USA.

Daniel: So, what's the point of all of these quotes? Well, this entire blog was founded on the presupposition that everyone has the right of freedom of speech (which I and hopefully others would soon define).

All of these quotes (I'm still trying to figure out what Kierkegaard meant though, help me Hannah!) basically are bits and pieces of the philosophy with which this blog is built on.

Unfortunately, in Malaysia as in other countries, not many people are happy with such an idea. Take for example Salman Rushdie; (in)famous for his work "The Satanic Verses". While it was certainly inflammatory to many, indeed, blasphemy, nevertheless the reaction was certainly unreasonable (and caused harm to many, in fact).

I think at this point we should take into account the quote above attributed to Voltaire. Marina Mahathir wrote in the The Star awhile back about how Christians responded to the publication of the Da Vinci Code (by Dan Brown) and contrasted it to the Muslim response to the Danish cartoons depicting aspects of Islam, which they considered blasphemy.

While both works were insulting/blasphemous to their respective religions, nevertheless there is a marked contrast between the violent reaction of some Muslim extremists to the critical but nevertheless reasonable response by Christians. Indeed, many scholarly books have appeared in an attempt to counter Dan Brown's claims in his book.

I think this should be what our Government should do. Rather than rely on censorship and on other extremes such as the ISA, I think that the best response in handling such issues would be to present a counter-argument to the opposition, rather than simply waving away and/or stifling their opinions.

And this is, I think, the spirit of the freedom of speech, where everyone has a right to his own opinion. And we may disagree, but we do so with reason, care and respect.

Meet The Contributer. Mwahaha.

Daniel asked me to introduce myself as a contributer to this blog. Okay, so how do I start? Well, I guess I'll start by saying I'm one of the original 4 Red Writing Hoods. =) And I don't really follow enough politics and stuff about Malaysia to write well... but I guess I gotta try. But I do enjoy writing, so I'll just.... write!

Oh and I'm Hannah! (I forgot. xP)