The headlines on a Malaysian online newspaper today, (05 August 2007) centralised on the opinion of the PM on Freedom of Speech issue. The whole article and the speech that has been quoted were a bit absurd for me. It is frightening to hear a threat on your freedom, especially when they say that they CAN take it away and even your bloody tears will have no effect on them.
For all I know, he might have said it with love and I might have taken it out of context but what I read made me feel less likely to stay on my goody two shoes. Owh well, my reality might be another fiction thrown out of proportion but if I felt that way, how many others out there think so too? any, of not many...
Do have a read at http://www.utusan.com.my
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6 comments:
we can say anything we want whenever we want because we have the voice of democracy..
br smlm aku bace another blog, titled "bloggers beware"...
have a read ...
http://maxgif.blogspot.com/2007/08/bloggers-beware.html
Hey there ana, nice topic...i have read the article and i have some opinions....
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“Saya bagi banyak kebebasan dan semua orang boleh bersuara, macam-macam boleh cakap tetapi pandai-pandailah uruskan kebebasan, kalau tidak dihargai semuanya (kebebasan) akan hilang,” kata beliau ketika merasmikan Program Mesra Rakyat sempena 50 tahun merdeka anjuran Badan Perhubungan UMNO Pulau Pinang di sini hari ini.
Perdana Menteri berkata, kerajaan tidak akan memberi ruang kepada mana-mana pihak yang terbabit dengan kegiatan melampau dan ekstremis kerana ia boleh menggugat keamanan.
“Jika kebebasan ini telah hilang, menangis sampai air mata berdarah pun sudah tidak berguna lagi dan ia akan mengambil masa yang lama untuk memperbaiki keadaan,” kata beliau.
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that was the quote from the article i assume u read...
basicly, when he said "semuanya akan hilang" in the first para, my understanding is that the freedom that we have can be lost if freedom itself is not used responsibly...but it doesnt mean he'll be the one taking it away...i dont think that's him threatening us.
so, what's the threat?
imagine, if freedom is limitless, then is there real freedom? anyone can do whatever or say whatever, there will be no order in society...freedom will be lost.
even religion limits freedom, and in that sense, it shows that freedom must be well guided by knowledge...God is all-knowing, and that's why we trust in god when it comes to His restrictions.
So the point is, if freedom is mis-used either by poor knowledge of reason(emoness for example) or by hidden motives, the general freedom we all have will indeed be at risk.
So unlimited freedom IS the real threat to our freedom. Not the authorities...they are but a possible subset under the real threat, a mechanism if u may...
and indeed, any one of us could well also be a subset under the main threat...anyone is a threat to greater freedom if he or she mis-use freedom in the first place...
when the very freedom we all fight for is mis-used and comes around to haunt us, we might find that we have lost real freedom, and when that day comes, it wont matter how many seas of bloody tears we cry, we have lost it already.
and as a side note, im not sure what u mean by that 'bloody tears' quote u dread...from reading ur entry, i find implied the message that: the authorities can take away our freedom and no matter what we do (even crying bloody tears), they wont return it to us...
sorry if i misunderstood ur meaning, but i feel the 'bloody tears' bit is just something to tell us how valuable freedom is, once it's lost, it wont be easily regained...
as a final note, i too, like u, fear the lost of freedom...and i think the real threat we should fear is the bigger threat...and not authorities.
zaidi: feel yeeeewww.. hehe
nina: thanks for the link, much appreciated
sunny: thanks for the response. the things you said is true, that the government ought to take actions against extremist and those who go overboard.
but in the case of the current freedom of speech that we do have, i don't think that it's "enough". we don't have a platform to really approach an issue thoroughly and objectively except some online thingy that are not thrown out there for every malaysian.
we barely have what is essentially "freedom of speech" in the first place, so i can't quite imagine how an "extremist" would be labelled then. For example, The New York Times published some of the US government secrets that the people ought to know but is that being an extremist or simply informing? They got away with it but will we ever?
Yes, Allah is all-knowing but certainly that is not the case with human. Thus even in islam, we are not encouraged to be taklid. We are to question anything that puzzles us from those who are more qualified and to achieve an understanding of what we are supposed to do. Not just do it when you're asked to, especially when there are some discrepancies that arise from the situation.
It's just that everything is loosely captured in Malaysia. Too many secrecy yet not many to believe. When he said that "semuanya akan hilang", who do you reckon will take it away? I found that statement as ambiguous and vague as always..
*sunny, i'm not saying anything other than i just happen to see it a bit differently.. hehehe*
me too Ana..i find secrecy as really annoying as it is really everyone's business to know what's happening around. We are not talking about some other people's secret which we have nothing to do with. It is supposed to be public. It's everyone's issue. Maybe the way they[bloggers or anyone] present their doubts and confusions are not very appropriate but i think that somehow there is a need to question..BUT not wham the government with groundless accusations.If only the questions could be expressed in a more appropriate manner kan..
But i wonder now whats the best way to question the government then? If they don't want this to happen then they should reserve a channel where doubts can be verbalized..And if they don't- don't you think that we just lost our freedom to question?
p/s:Even Tun was slammed and bombarded with harsh critiques and threats when he once tried to question, apatah lagi la org2 yang tade ape2 important post in the country..
i see this as an act to cover their flaws. Berani kerana benar la.Nothing to lose kan..if you're on a right track just explain yourself and everyone would be happy, the bloggers will get their answers and in the end people will stop talking about the nonsense la because they will learn that semua tu just rumours. :)
hai ana.. care to chat?
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