Cowardice is defined as an ignoble fear in the face of danger or pain. An ignoble fear, a base, mean fear in the face of danger or pain. It surprised me. I don’t know anything enobling about fear; it turns your knees to water; you feel your stomach churn; your mouth goes dry, not an ounce of spittle left. If you have loved ones, your fear turns into fear for them.

I wonder how far outrage really outpaces fear. Outrage is all well and good, but when you’re allowed to think things through, I wonder how fast conclusions are drawn about your own fate. I wonder how long the government will continue to encumber us with outrage, but maybe I’m more concerned about how long the government intends for us to fear them.


You’ve got to admit: he’s right. It’s the name of the game, and we’ve seen it happen with our own eyes: attempted media black-out on Noh’s statement, ACA’s call for more people to fight graft (”be part of the team, be part of the team that oppresses you”), affirming the legality of “standard police procedures”, the veiled threats against possible “whistle blowers”, newspapers that downplay the situation.

I wonder if the government feels fear. Fear of people finally turning against them. I don’t think they do: with the kind of control they can exert, I don’t think it’s the citizens they fear. When you don’t fear the people who’ve given you power who do you fear? No one, or perhaps themselves. It’s like a baroque drama, prince and princesses drunk on their excesses with ever more lurid and horrendous entertainments for themselves. Career politicians, career princes and princesses who stake their birthright on a certain belief in their own invulnerability.

I wonder about how Badawi’s reacted; was he furious when he heard or read Noh’s statement? Anger because his authority was being questioned, or anger because the people and the lesser mollasses of the UMNO hierachy now know he can be questioned in public? I was thinking about LKS’s post warning us that Badawi could find himself isolated: what do you expect, really? A weak and ineffectual leader isn’t just a boon to Opposition politicians, but also to these equally ineffectual UMNO politicians who jostle for positions and then do nothing else.

And so Badawi and the top echelon boys bring out their big guns: suppress, suppress, suppress. Alvinyv in his post above blames some of this on the lack of direction within civil society. We’ve got to be clear, I think, when we say that. We aren’t deprived of direction; heck directions are like plots of a novel: a dime a dozen. What we lack is the will to follow through, and the will to follow through has been thoroughly crushed by the government: what are the NGOs we have but hold-outs for those too stubborn to give up?

In the end, because real power is consolidated in BN, vested interests will ensure the status quo remains. I think in the final analysis, the failure to capitalize on the lokapgal issue isn’t really because we weren’t as organized as we should have been, but because of the impediments which would otherwise give weight to the rakyat’s aspirations, no matter the issue to be debated.

Real power, to my understanding, is power to effect real change. I think NGOs have been slaving away for decades, now, only winning concessions but no real, substantial power. If organized groups of citizens can’t effect change, there is much less hope for a generation of citizens weaned on the milk of indifference and apathy.

When a politician wields a kris, it’s an implicit threat, a declaration of war against dissenters. When the government employs the threat of the Emergency Ordinance against snatch thieves, its intent is to strike fear. When the government sweeps up people under the ISA, it’s not just to punish people, sirs. The government does so so that there are examples for us: do this and you get this.

All these stories about brutality under ISA detention only serves the government: fear is bred. Even among those who disagree with the government, these stories are spread as proof of the government’s abuse of its power, but it’s a double-edged sword because it sows the seeds of fear. But above all of this, it’s a very clear proof of power.

But it’s quite a bind, isn’t it? To encourage more citizens to speak out, impediments to fear must be removed. But to effect this kind of change, citizens must speak out. There was a recent call from some quarters for those who speak too loudly to join the ACA. Besides acquiesing to the government, think what that means for you: you will live in fear, not just of the government, now, but every illegitimate crook or gangster (politicians included) who has an interest in seeing you 6′ under.

I think too many of us fail to realize that the balance in power isn’t really in the hands of politicians or the government. I believe when Abraham Lincoln declared that the government were of, for and by the people, he wasn’t repeating some mantra with the sole idea of the government as the chief idea. The chief idea is that of the people who, by democratic elections, compel to be formed a government to safeguard, maintain and extend their interests. We must vote, and we must vote wisely.

Because there are cracks in the incumbent’s mask, now.