[ Laman Ehwal Semasa ReformIS ]

The MALAYSIAN  - 31.8.99

Date: 31 Aug 1999
Time: 21:55:24
Remote User: -

Comments

The MALAYSIAN justice, progress, unity Issue No. 27 - 31 August 1999

Merdeka Means Independence and Democracy!

An Open Letter to All Malaysians

Fellow Malaysians 31 August is a date dear to Malaysians. The reason: On that day in 1957 our people claimed their right to govern themselves. In that historic exercise of self-government, they terminated their lowly status as the unfree subjects of a colonial power. They stood up instead as the proud citizens of a sovereign nation.

Since then, Merdeka Day has been celebrated yearly with pomp and pride as a symbolic reminder of that liberating transformation in the status of the Rakyat of Malaysia. This is as it should be because the winning of independence from the injustice of colonial rule was a matter of immeasurable significance to ourselves and to the rest of the world.

Each State in Malaysia has had its turn in hosting the official Merdeka Day programme. This, too, is appropriate because it is a symbolic recognition that all our people equally participated in the struggle for independence, and have an equal stake in defending the integrity of this, our nation.

The Malaysian people intuitively know this to be true, because if Merdeka was simply a ritual and the parades just a spectacle, why would they have bothered with it for the past 41 years? If 31 August were just an excuse to declare a day of rest, why should they commemorate it again this year?

Merdeka has real meaning. Merdeka’s meaning lies in the sincere reaffirmation of our right to govern ourselves. It is founded in the unending participation of our people from all communities, of all religious convictions and in all walks of life, in deciding Malaysia’s fortune and future.

In other words, Merdeka means independence and democracy!

If we understand this, we understand three important things at once. 31 August is not any single party’s trademark. Merdeka is not any one leader’s intellectual property. Malaysia is not a theme park franchise that can be licensed to a different corporation each year after someone arbitrarily chooses a Merdeka Day ‘theme’ to suit his own purposes.

Politicians and leaders have a choice. They can choose to remain faithful to Merdeka’s true meaning of independence and democracy - that is, government of the people, by the people, for the people.

Or they can choose to betray it. Because of the people’s strong attachment to Merdeka’s significance, those who betray its meaning often do so in the name of protecting the independence of our nation from foreign plots.

As events that took place between Merdeka Day last year and this year have proven, the truth is something else. Lim Guan Eng was imprisoned days before 31 August 1998. Anwar Ibrahim was sacked and vilified two days after 31 August 1998. Thousands of Malaysians who were brave and honest enough to protest against those two cases of injustice were assaulted, arrested and prosecuted.

Now, our people know better. They realize that those who have betrayed the true meaning of Merdeka are those who most loudly claim to defend Malaysia against unnamed foreign conspirators and “foreign” agents. As such, the real threat to the integrity of our nation and the integrity of all the branches of government and public institutions is unfortunately “Made in Malaysia”. But it is not made by loyal and democratic Malaysians.

When our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and fellow Malaysians struggled for independence 42 years ago, they struggled for democracy as well as independence. But they who struggled for the right to self-government never intended to replace an unjust foreign government with an unjust domestic government.

They never intended that government of the people would result in a government sending the Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) with tear gas, water cannon, canes and batons after Malaysian citizens who were peacefully demonstrating at Dataran Merdeka. They never planned that government for the people would enable the leaders of the day to misuse the rakyat’s hard-earned money from the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and the nation’s resources in Petronas to bail out their own children and cronies.

They never wanted government by the people to be twisted into a rule by law wherein leaders selectively decided who to prosecute and who to protect, which crimes to cover up and which conspiracies to hatch, or which officials to use to neutralize, ‘turn over’ or put away people of conscience.

On this day, which marks the 42nd year of Merdeka, we, the Rakyat, stand very close to another general election which, more than any other election before, will decide whether we permit Merdeka to be reduced to a hollow ritual. The self-proclaimed guardians of the nation now have found the funds to bribe and the gall to issue threats in order to cajole or to frighten us into allowing such a catastrophe to take place.

But we, too, have a choice. We can resist their corruption and intimidation and remain faithful to the noble struggle and vision of those who made Merdeka a reality.

Only thus, can we preserve the independence and democracy which will make Merdeka meaningful for ourselves, and for countless Malaysians both young and yet unborn.

Greetings on Merdeka Day 1999

END

To subscribe to KINI & The MALAYSIAN, please send a blank message to: the-malaysian-subscribe@egroups.com <mailto:the-malaysian-subscribe@egroups.com> kini-malaysia-subscribe@egroups.com <mailto:kini-malaysia-subscribe@egroups.com>

To unsubscribe from the list, please send a blank message to: the-malaysian-unsubscribe@egroups.com <mailto:the-malaysian-unsubscribe@egroups.com> kini-malaysia-unsubscribe@egroups.com <mailto:kini-malaysia-unsubscribe@egroups.com>

Please visit our Websites at: <http://berita.webjump.com/> http://kini.webjump.com/

Readers are urged to print, copy, forward and distribute The Malaysian to those who may be interested. We would appreciate receiving e-mail addresses to which we can send this daily newsletter directly. Thank you for your cooperation.


Last changed: August 31, 1999