Does it really matter?
How about random strangers holding hands to form human shields to protect the weaker participants? How about people from different colours standing next to one another singing the national anthem? Why must the argument always lead to pinpointing the ‘wrongest’ of the wrong and not celebrating the ‘rightest’ of the right?
By J
For someone who voted only once in his lifetime, I am neither an anti-government nor am I a pro-opposition Malaysian citizen. Nevertheless, I do think of myself as someone who is quite critical of the political situation in Malaysia.
The recent Bersih 2.0 rally has no doubt created some awareness amongst the people in Malaysia and those abroad; and at the same time touched the hearts and souls of many. It is heartening to see people of various races, age group and background converge together holding hands and marching down the street with a common aim of wanting to make a change for the better.
Personally speaking, not only did it touch my heart but it also touched my other non-Malaysian friends to see how united we stand as a multi-cultured society.
However, it saddens me that the objectives of the rally were marred by accusations before and after the event. Some were to create political mileage, others to discredit believers. We as the registered voters of the country, who are we to judge and to interpret these accusations and actions? What concerns us most should be towards a better future for us as a nation; not just any one individual. After all, it is the judgement that we are capable of making that prompted concerned parties to execute all kinds of accusations and actions to try to sway our supposedly fragile ideology to parallel theirs’.
How does it matter if the chairperson of the rally movement is not of a certain religion? How does it matter which parties are involved in the movement? How does it matter if it was funded by certain organisations? How does it matter which race will turn up more eventually for the rally? How does it matter the actual count of participants of the rally? How does it matter who actually went for the rally and who were the keyboard warriors? How does it matter who can drum more participants? How does it matter the actual venue of the rally?
What does matter is the objective of the rally: That is to ensure my vote will matter in the next election. And 9th of July has certainly proved that if something DOES matter, we are willing to drop all our differences and come together for the better good. Or at least for those who bother to be bothered by the matter.
Saying this, it is really up to the conscience of those in the media to share what we think matters to the wider population. BUT does it really matter if 5000 or 50000 turned up? Does it matter that certain people were brought away in comfortable 4X4s?
How about random strangers holding hands to form human shields to protect the weaker participants? How about people from different colours standing next to one another singing the national anthem?
Why must the argument always lead to pinpointing the ‘wrongest’ of the wrong and not celebrating the ‘rightest’ of the right?
Is our society that deprived of values that we can only make judgement after finding out who is at fault? Do we really have to set up Facebook pages to bring down certain people? Or are we fused this way by the authorities for so long of a time that this is the only way to move forward? What do we gain from doing all this? Does it really matter?
