No Discussion Please, We Are Malaysians!
I sometime wonder whether Dr Mahathir knew or expected what would happen. And I wonder whether he regretted his decision. But one thing is clear. When he suddenly found that he was on the other side of the fence, he embraced this very technology himself.
Art Harun
There appears to be a trend of sorts when it comes to public discussions on issues, sensitive or otherwise, in our country. Such issues may strike at the core of civil society’s movement or be of importance to fundamental liberties, or related to the proper governance of this country. Whatever they may be, these issues may strike the passion of some individuals or entities or tickle the intellect of some people resulting in a sudden outburst of opinions, views or mere rhetoric. These in turn would provoke reactions, responses, counter arguments as well as, again, mere rhetoric.
The proliferation of opinions and views on such issues is nothing new. Even when I was schooling, I would sometime be exposed to strong and passionate views on important issues from some of my more vocal teachers and lecturers. When I was in the university, all of us in the student council would sometime organise a debate on certain chosen topics which were close to our heart. We would then invite a representative each from the opposition party, the academia, the government and the student body to partake in a healthy, and sometime really loud, debate at the Dewan Tunku Canselor. We would call it “Debat Perdana”.
Those days, such debates would be well attended by the students. The Dewan would be full. Well before my time of course, the University of Malaya used to have a speaker’s corner, something not unlike the one they have somewhere near the Hyde Park, London. Images of Anwar Ibrahim, Hishamuddin Rais et al, with loud hailers in hand, giving rousing speeches would come to mind. That corner however was reduced to a mere corner after the student demonstrations in 1974, when the act of public speaking there was inexplicably – and short-sightedly, I must add – banned.
