Freedom lifts us up to where we belong
By Art Harun
I must say I was surprised at how much attention my article Enemies of the State (I owe this title to The Malaysian Insider as my original title was lame in comparison) attracted.
There were many comments at my blog as well as The Malaysian Insider, where my article appeared. Zaidel Baharuddin, a fellow writer with the Malaysian Insider posted a comment and also ran a reply on his blog, Catatan Seekor Lipas. The famous Rocky of Rocky’s Bru also ran a post on the topic which basically pitted my stand against that of Zaidel’s aka the “Lipas Man”.
I must say I am impressed with the passion shown by most of the commentators on either side of the fence. However the debate at Rocky’s Bru had somewhat degenerated into a lawyer bashing event and the issue at hand transformed into: a question of whether lawyers are of any use to the society. And whether a doctor makes a better Prime Minister than a lawyer.
I will of course refrain from wading through such murky water because quite honestly I have a fear of vast, dark and vacuous space.
The article which I wrote was not at all intended to be a polemic on whether a particular system, be it democracy, socialism, communism or anything in between, could ensure more development and progress to the exclusion of other systems. Rather, that article was aimed at taking issue with Dr Mahathir’s apparent stand that “too much democracy” is a hindrance to development and progress.
Dr M’s position is obvious from the comparison which he made, that is between India and China. The former, according to him, was too engrossed in democracy, unlike the latter. And the latter has more progress. I therefore concluded that it is Dr M’s position that a dictatorial system or a less democratic system would be better for development and progress.
Dr M was at pain to show that freedom and liberty as enjoyed by the people, —or at least as demanded by the people — especially in the West are not good for development and progress. With that, I took issue.
What I wish to address here is the argument that human being would prefer to have food on their table or economic progress than freedom, liberty or even democracy in itself. Zaidel encapsulates this position when he commented:
“I’m pretty sure those starving hard working farmers in India who have to fight drought and fertiliser prices don’t give a damn about freedom of speech or expression. It is those comfortably well paid lawyers with some extra time on their hands who are more concerned about these things and write about it.”
The problem with that statement is the fact that it is rested on pure assumption.
READ MORE HERE: http://art-harun.blogspot.com/
