It was 4.35pm when the building shook and swayed. My chair rocked back and forth, suddenly less stable, less able to stay still beneath my bulk. It brought everything else into clear focus, as I sat in my office, trying to put words to a nagging feeling that has gripped me for the past few weeks.
And that amorphous feeling is expressed in a question I have been asking myself: how many people believed the hype BN has cloaked itself in? I couldn’t help but recall yesterday’s breakfast. I had my food and read the papers. My dad did his numbers. I asked him if he’d heard news about a scandal involving a lawyer and a top judge. He hadn’t heard anything. It reminded me once again how beholden the everyday person in Malaysia is to mainstream news sources.
So let me be frank.
The government’s hold on the mainstream media makes me feel powerless. It’s one of the reasons I’ve not posted for some weeks.
Powerless to stop Malaysians buying into the government’s new tact: “Barisan Nasional - A Government of Virtue”. A government of virtue, much less a republic of virtue. I feel a roiling, black disgust at the New Straits Times, and at our baby-kissing politicians, who are willing to stand beside Malaysians for photo-opportunities, who are willing to stroke their proverbial beards and wisely intone “unity, we are united, therefore we are better”.
It’s like, the basis on which this government fights for its survival is its apparent “ability” to bring the races together - to bring them together and the tear them apart in the ensuing friction. I hate this government like nothing I’ve hated before. It’s become an irrational thing for me, and that truly, truly disturbs me because now I feel there can be no good BN politician - each sustains the empire, each perpetuates it and each is a tainted reminder of how truly evil this government is.
Evil, because faux “unity” is more important than “justice” to them. Because to this government, the ends justify the means; destroy the judiciary, destroy our traditions, destroy their own culture, as long as they maintain their hegemony.
How, lah?
Comments (2)
powerless my ass :)
we’ll shake them yet good sir, we’ll shake them yet.
spread the video!
lawan tetap lawan :)
Ever the optimist hahaha.. Farish Noor wondered he there will be a Malaysia in the next 50 years. I wonder about that too. Still, must fight for what we want, ya? And ya.. good timing on DSAI’s video. Like Elizabeth, I feel outraged by the media’s anaemic coverage. Makes me want to go out and ask people if they are blind!