Thursday, July 9, 2009

UNTIL YOU CAN CONFRONT FEAR, YOU WILL ALWAYS FEAR

WHILST moderating mu blog thismorning I was alerted by sms to a Malaysian Insider post:

Group threatens statewide hartal if Perak assembly is not dissolved

I particularly liked this bit:

The Perak People's Action Committee, a non-governmental organisation, today handed over a memorandum to the Perak Barisan Nasional government urging it to return democracy to the people through state elections or face negative repercussions.

The committee is giving BN until Aug 8 to seek dissolution of the assembly or a statewide hartal would be held.

"During this day, the people of Perak will not engage in any outside activity. We will not go to work, our children would not go to school and we will show BN that the majority of Perak folk want justice returned to them," said committee coordinator R. Mohanarani.

This is a brave move. It is a laudable move. If Perakians can make this happen, all Perakians working outside PERAK must do likewise and make a trip to Ipoh in solidarity with the Anak2 Perak. We, residing outside Perak feel for you people. We are aware of what is happening. As such it is our fervent hope that you will make this happen.

What I am about to say here is in no way an attempt to belittle this brave effort. First and foremost, Perakians must confront FEAR and BEAT IT. When the bully gets an inkling that you are no more afraid, he holds back. In the runup to GE12 MCA's Chew May Fun blatantly treathened that if the opposition won May 13 could happen. The co-alition ceremah speakers and Bloggers gave her the big end of the stick. The voters of 2008 confronted their fears and of course PR won 5 states and the Federal Capital and Ms Chew lost her seat.

It is tough to overcome fear. Fear is a natural instinct, a self-preservation instinct.But there comes a time when we have to take fear by the horns in order to uphold self-preservation. This is one time.

Are Perakians ready for this. I have my doubts. Just a simple example. On June 4, all those who were arrested in Ipoh were summoned to appear before the magistrate court. I talked to a friend about simple hartal measures, done once a week on an identified day, like not paying parking fees. He did not mark his parking ticket.. But when we got into the car later I saw a marked parking ticket. My friend was advised against this proposed measure by an MP. I rest my case.

But if Perakians pull this through, I will be in Ipoh on 8 August to congratulate as many as I can. I offer you Perakians this video on Hartal in Malaysia 10 years before Merdeka






5 comments:

Anonymous said...

a brave move indeed, not the smartest but nevertheless gutsy.
how will acts like this then reflect on decisions that have already been made by the judiciary?
was this not something that PKR had dearly fought for.
with the change in the state government to bn, are the people of perak being opressed?

Anonymous said...

Yup agreed. Gutsy move but not smart. Pointless..no commitments from the Perakians.

ipohHUNK

ahoo said...

My take is for them (Perakians) to Hartal the 3 frogs !!! Wherever they are ensure that people don't serve them food, drinks or even talk to them. Post their pictures everwhere and let them be known as the people's number 1 enemy (Pakatan people) and don't even sell them anything if they want to buy it. Just show them that they are not wanted by the people anymore. Use whatevr legal means to pressure them into resigning their seats. At least we can save lots of money without recontesting all seats in Perak.

This way, we save both time and money and not to inconvenience all electorates for the other seats not involved with the controversy.
Just my take on Perak issue.

Jong said...

Zorro,

Re your 'parking ticket' friend, hmmm sure your eyesight was ok, "he" or "she"? LOL !!!

peng said...

'Nothing is impossible if we raise our voices as ONE'.

That's the problem isn't that, not being able to raise our voices as one? Each of us have our own fears to deal with. Either we are afraid of what our family or friends will say of us. We are afraid of going against the establishment lest we lose our pension, or have a police record, or get ticked off by our bosses.

I am one of them, sometimes. I try to test my limit of facing this fear. Testing to see how far I would go to raise my voice. But Bernard, shame to say it, I failed miserably most of the times.

I realized one thing though. We have be our own master to face this fear. We must not allow others to dominate or patronize what we do, how we think. We must think for ourselves, act for ourselves. That will be a start to facing this fear.

Good day Bernard. Thanks for keeping us on our toes with your 'reality' posts.