I Have a Voice Too!

 

If you who are eligible voters and candidates are not gonna stand up and speak for us then I have no choice but to step up to fill the role. Hey, although we are not yet eligible to vote, we are still citizens of Malaysia, and I believe that we, students, deserve the right to be heard too!

Asher Lim 

Does it ever bother you how the streets are just over-saturated with blue flags, that everywhere you go, it’s just a sea of blue? Have you ever wondered how is it that BN seem to find that much money despite the country being so heavily in debt to hold countless banquets that have been causing all the traffic jams lately?

Does it bother you that our PM doesn’t seem to be keeping his promise to observe that there will be a clean and fair elections despite having signed the Transparency International-Malaysia agreement? Does it bother you even more that whenever someone raises concerns about the transparency of the coming GE-13, BN seems to do everything in their power to silence their voices?

Does it bother you that up till today, officials still can’t give an answer the politically-linked deaths of Teoh Beng Hock and Altantuya? And how is it that the clues and evidence seem to all have been tempered with? Does it bother you at all?

If it does, then what is it that you are doing? Voting? That’s good, but is it really going to help if there is not going to be a clean and fair election? No!

Everywhere I look around, I see people, being afraid of the government they ‘elected’, if they won it fair and square in the first place. Is this democracy? No! There is no such thing as democracy based on fear. You see, from my point of view, this has become tyranny wearing the mask of democracy!

Can anybody explain how is it that BN could win 63.1% of seats in 2008 when they only got as much as 50.27% of votes? You tell me, how does that even tally?

I remember being in National Service, and how they held this so called ‘simulation’ of the elections but yet, we hardly learned anything about it at all. There was no mention about how zones are classified, how the number of seats are determined. Is it because they are too afraid to let the younger generation know how dirty it actually is?

Then there was this so called ‘Ceramah 1 Malaysia’ from a Ministry known as the Jabatan Penerangan Malaysia. In his 2 hours of very political talk, he asked the question: “Adakah ini bersih atau kotor? Adakah ini bersih atau kotor?”, to which I almost stood up and shouted back: “Adakah ini ceramah 1Malaysia atau ceramah BN? Adakah ini ceramah 1Malaysia atau BN?” What kind of ‘taktik KOTOR’ is this? Even the under-aged are not saved from the brain-washing of BN even though they are not eligible yet to vote. Teenagers today are being exposed to all these lies too and yet we can hardly do anything about it!

I have been confronted not once but several times about my postings on Facebook. I also have people complaining to those ‘above’ me saying that my postings on Facebook are inappropriate. Why the fear? Why? Let me tell you this, if you are given rights and power but are too afraid to use it, to exercise it, it will surely be taken away from you.

A classic example would be our freedom of speech. People did not rise up to speak for themselves and thus allowed the amendment of the Sedition Act to pass. People were afraid for reasons that weren’t valid. Maybe it was because the sources of media during those days were entirely controlled by the government, but not so today anymore. With the Internet, we get to hear both sides of the story and see from a third person point of view, see an ‘aerial’ view of the situation with access to the media of other countries, which of course in NS, they tell you it’s foreign powers jealous of the ‘harmony’ in Malaysia that they are attempting to sabotage the country and spoil the ‘good’ name, yes, ‘good’ name of our PM.

If you who are eligible voters and candidates are not gonna stand up and speak for us then I have no choice but to step up to fill the role. Hey, although we are not yet eligible to vote, we are still citizens of Malaysia, and I believe that we, students, deserve the right to be heard too! With all the lies that are being told to my peers, I can’t help but feel the responsibility to speak my mind and to speak the truth. Will you continue to allow this brain-washing to occur?

Maybe you’re afraid of what could happen to you should you stand up and speak, and I don’t blame you, with cases like Teoh Beng Hock’s and Altantuya’s. But that gives us more of a reason to actually stand up and speak.

It is not the ‘what could be’ that matters now, it is the ‘what should be’ that matters.

The Malaysia that should be will never be if we continue to stay silent and allow every hanky-panky to go by under our very noses. Let not Teoh Beng Hock’s death come to nothing, let it end in change! He died believing that Malaysia deserves better! All that needs to be done by the Rakyat is just to speak up and let their voices be heard, then BN will learn that it is the Rakyat that has the power, not them, and that they can’t just do anything and expect to get away with it.

I know that there are many of us who are aware of the situation in Malaysia and that many of us are already ready for change, but it is not enough to cast your votes into the ballot box. Malaysia needs a movement, one even of a larger scale than all the previous BERSIHs combined.

Everyone must recognise their rights and speak up. It doesn’t have to be marching down Putrajaya and confronting the PM face to face, it can come in many ways like through writing articles, poems, songs, etc. I am sure that if everyone speaks up, they, the ones at Putrajaya will be shaking with fear and will wet their pants knowing that they are about to lose everything.

Let’s be honest. We can see all sorts of dirty tactics being used by BN to maintain their power, and with the most recent being the ROS sending a letter to DAP telling them that their central executive committee is not recognised just 2 days before the nominations. That is an outrageous act and in DAP’s secretary general, Lim Guan Eng’s own words, biadap! This shows a country run with people without dignity and honour.

This is it, this is the dying gasp of BN, they have gone all out to use every single dirty tricks up their sleeves to ensure that they stay in power. Now it is the rakyat’s turn to respond, not by arms but through unity, through the common believe that this country deserves better! By taking the time an effort to write this, I hope that I may inspire you to take up the courage to stand up for the common believe that Malaysia deserves better, that we deserve better.

We can no longer wait, the time is now, it is time to speak up and let your voices be heard! It is time to bring a wind of change! Ini kalilah! Ubah!