Earning the Right to Complain

Bitching about the Government is easy, but will words amount to anything?
By Zara Kahan

It is no surprise that people bitch a lot about their government. Taxes, holes in the road, squabbling politicians. The ISA, clampdowns on public protests, police brutality, squabbling politicians.

It is also no surprise that while a select few citizens actually do something about their dissatisfactions, the majority don’t. This happens for various reasons—apathy, ignorance, cynicism with life in general—but it happens mainly because of fear. Fear for yourself, for your family or that the very thing you’re bitching about will lock you up in a dingy hole without a lawyer.

All of the above has become increasingly apparent to the world this year. America’s recently concluded midterm elections, where the Democrat party took control over the House of Representatives and Senate, featured some of the most brutal smear campaigns against President George Bush and his administration. In Thailand, a year’s worth of criticisms against Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra culminated in a military coup that ousted the much-maligned government in September. And in June, former Prime Minister Tun Sri Dr Mahathir Mohamad launched his verbal assault on Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and the Malaysian Government, an assault that has escalated from month to month, with no sign of reprieve.

And suddenly, as I watched all this happening, an epiphany hit me: in most countries, an entire population is afraid of a mere 10 percent of the people among them. This was an admittedly late epiphany, as legal training had temporarily eradicated my mathematical abilities, but also because the concept of ‘Government’ seems to signify a large entity. When, quantitatively at least, it is not.

BIG BROTHER, BIG BOTHER?
Even in the most anaemic of democracies, a democratic government derives its authority from the people’s mandate. It is voted in, and voted out. The main check and balance of a democracy is the people themselves.

Putting aside all the various mechanisms therefore, the one object of power that is directly accessible to the average person is his fellow man that feels the same way. A democratic government cannot prevail in a situation where it has to constantly restrain hordes of angry people, whether they are on the streets carrying placards or spitting vitriol to masses on the blogosphere.

All this works in principle, but as we have seen across the world this year, often not in practice. Why do people not use the power they have?

Perhaps we feel that certain processes need to take place before democracy is a reality. Or, we sense that there will never be a consensus that will create an overwhelming majority of the same opinion; two large groups might disagree over matters as inane as whether Manchester United is better than Liverpool, or as pertinent as whether Malaysia will become or is an ‘Islamic state’.

And so we wait, not realising that change can happen in the blink of an eye, or with a loud-enough choir of “nay”s. We wait, unaware that there are people who are of the same mind, and who share the same interests common to every human being, like the need for freedom of speech, or the right to a fair trial before detention, or an aversion to politicians building large dream mansions for themselves. And even though this consensus mentally happens, and the alarm bells ring collectively in all our heads—it is a wonder when nothing is done about it.

SOMEDAY, BLOODY SOMEDAY
Ideally, change should happen without bloodshed, which, as history has proven, is entirely possible. The 1986 EDSA Revolution saw 1.6 million Filipinos taking to the streets over the course of four days in peaceful protest, which led to the dethroning of their then-President Ferdinand Marcos. Nuns knelt in front of tanks, and women gave flowers to fierce-looking soldiers, who eventually broke down and wept.

Just think if a similar miracle could happen here. Imagine if enough people peacefully stood up to call for the closure of the Internal Security Act (ISA) detention centre in Kamunting and to scrap what was meant to be a short-term preventive law to deal with communists.

Naturally, the biggest fear is that peaceful protests will give way to physical confrontation. And I wonder if it would not be worth it. Americans fought a civil war to end slavery. Martin Luther King died for his beliefs. I am not attesting to a liking for blood and gore; I am simply stating that I believe that there is never too high a price to pay for freedom and justice. Yet it seems to me that most people in this country are not willing to foot the bill.

TOWERS OF POWER
The power of the people doesn’t have to be about dissatisfaction with current rulers, or even an entire administration. It can be about one policy that isn’t constructive, or a new law that shouldn’t be passed. And unlike the junta in Myanmar, the Malaysian Government is not bloodthirsty. Neither is Dato’ Seri Abdullah Badawi a Kim Jong Il (he’s certainly better looking).

But it has to be more than complaining. We have more power than that. People who are not actively involved in trying to create change should just shut up and accept their lot. They are part of the problem, and it is quite annoying when the aggressor also claims to be the victim.

So relinquish your right to complain, and embrace the mire that you are in. Or stand up and pay the bill. But remember, when you quietly watch by the sidelines, you are also responsible for any injustice that may happen.

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil, is that good men do nothing.”
- Edmund Burke