Who are we kidding?

 

Erna Mahyuni, The Malay Mail 

I find it quite amusing that we are up in arms over the US “spying” but have no qualms about spying on our own citizens.

We take it for granted, but my dear fellow Malaysians the government owns most of our data, mostly via our illustrious National Registration Department (NRD).

The IC number is tied to so many transactions in this country that it is far too easy for someone to misappropriate it. Credit cards you don’t remember applying for, loans you know you didn’t take out, everyone has heard the stories.

 And let us be honest, why do you think the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was formed? Merely to make sure the President didn’t get assassinated?

Countries spy on each other, the trick here is to not get caught. All a silly game of smoke and mirrors, this pretense of indignation when we probably keep close tabs on diplomatic appointees and staffers when they arrive.

Let me tell you a story of this director friend of mine. He directed me in a musical a long time ago, one he wrote about the Vietnamese boat people.

Being slightly cheeky, he had one refugee reference Tun Dr Mahathir’s saying, during the boat people influx, to just shoot them if they tried to land.

The musical was banned from being performed and Mr Director had to endure some difficulties from the authorities. Fortunately for him, they did not think his transgressions bad enough to throw him into the batcave we call Kamunting.

Mr Director refuses to have a mobile phone as those things are notoriously difficult to secure. He told me of this one time, where he was somewhere no one was supposed to know, in a location where no one should be able to contact him.

But wonder of wonders, he was informed that he had a phone call. From Special Branch. Just to, oh, keep tabs on him.

Funny that Special Branch puts so much effort to locate a harmless playwright/director but our cops struggle to catch thieves, rapists and conmen.

We also seem to be so free that we meddle in the affairs of our neighbours covertly or so we think. We did get rather too close to Muslim separatists in the Philippines and Thailand, after all.

Here is the thing: espionage is not going away. For it not to be needed, all countries need to be open and transparent about their dealings, there must be universal trust and adherence to basic principles of ethics.

But when we have a prime minister who says that some definitions of human rights do not apply to us, well, that isn’t going to happen any time soon, is it?