The meaning of March 8 deepens
It is a really our choice — to be on the side of chaos and anarchy or on the side of social order. And that decision will offer our children a glimpse of the future we aspire for as a nation, and enable the world to record an important part of this nation’s democratic history.
M. Nadarajah, The Malaysian Insider
March 8 is just a few days away.
March 8 of 2008 challenged the old order and gave us the opportunity to build a more authentic, multicultural democracy in Malaysia. It has been one eventful year with all kinds of challenges thrown at the effort to build a New Malaysia.
But as we return to the day a year later, it is neither enthusiastic anticipation nor a festive mood that greets us as a people. Far from it, our political leaders and our institutions have thrust upon us a set of choices, far more critical than what we faced at the last election.
Today, two major events affect most of us, if not all, and have stretched us across opposite extremes of the socio-political canvas. They have a significant symbolic value for us all and for our future together.
One involves the brutal death of an unconvicted and supposed luxury car thief, A. Kugan. The manner of his death has taken us to the boundary between barbarity and humanity.
As the second independent post-mortem reveals the truth of his death, we are witnessing the system scrambling for ways to deal with it. And the way we authentically deal with this death in the short and long term will locate us either on the side of barbarity or on the side of humanity.
It is really a choice we have to make. And this is what we would want our children to know, and want the world to record as history of this nation.
The other major event involves Perak State Assembly Speaker V. Sivakumar. His action has taken us to the boundary between order and chaos. Here is a citizen who has stood his ground — a citizen with guts and with clear knowledge of the institutional responsibility he holds and the legitimate power he wields.
Without yielding to any threat, he has defended the constitution and has remained on the side of constitutionally-supported social order.
Again, it is a really our choice — to be on the side of chaos and anarchy or on the side of social order. And that decision will offer our children a glimpse of the future we aspire for as a nation, and enable the world to record an important part of this nation’s democratic history.
The “Kugan-Sivakumar” spectrum on our political canvas brings up and throws at us citizens many areas of concern that define our future together. It is a symbolic election, and the contestation is between barbarity and chaos on one side, and humanity and constitutionally-supported social order on the other.
It is an opportunity for us to re-evaluate our adolescent immaturity with the exercise of power, and to critically reconsider our relationship with and democratic management of political power.
The significance of March 8 has now deepened — here is an opportunity for a deeper and meaningful pathway to our nation’s multicultural democratic future.
But will we be able to go beyond partisan and myopic politics, and acquire the maturity to seize the option for Mother Malaysia?
Dr M. Nadarajah is a sociologist by training. He belongs to the Asian Public Intellectuals (API) Community, a community of filmmakers, theatre people, songwriters, poets, activists and academics working in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Japan for a better Asia. His work focuses on cultural and sustainability issues.
