Dare to be free, on a lazy Sunday
By Sim Kwang Yang
In Malaysia, whenever we ask for more political freedom, for freedom of expression, freedom of information, freedom of assembly, we are often told that if people are too free to do whatever they want, there will be riots, chaos, and instability.
There would be those conservative Malaysian citizens writing letters to the editors in the mainstream media supporting this view. In their fearful mind, freedom is opposed to social stability and personal security. They should be reminded of Rousseau’s famous saying that the most secure and the safest place in the world is between the bars of a prison cell!
This goes to show that public conversations in Malaysia is till stuck in a primitive, patriarchal, and feudalistic stage. They mistakenly think that freedom is doing whatever you want, when if fact they are talking about licence. Freedom is much more complex than that.
Then, there are people who always remind us that freedom must be accompanied by responsibility. Again, this is primitive thinking. Freedom without responsibility is not freedom.
In the haughty system of moral and ethics erected by Immanuel Kant, personal freedom is the pre-condition for ethical responsibility.
This idea has been incorporated into many principles behind modern laws. For instance, if you are mad, you will not be hanged for murder; instead, you will be judged to be mentally sick, do not know what you are doing, and so be sentenced for life in a medical institution. Perhaps that is partly why so many murderers still claim “temporary insanity” as an excuse for their crimes.
