Freedom of Speech

10 June 2008 – Finally the workload has gone down. I was busy as hell (pardon the crass use of word J) the last few days. Except for the few daydreaming sessions during lunch, the rest of the time I can’t even leave the table. Excursions to the restroom were virtually reduced to the bare essentials and sometimes I did not even go for the whole day. Yeah it was that kind of week. And when the internet, which usually provides stress relieve, was down most of the time, I get stressed out and that in turn flares up my psoriasis.

Anyway, today I took a half day leave to take my mak to the bank and managed to watch the last few minutes of Debat Perdana. If I am not mistaken, the topic was about the government (which is the proposition, the school was Sekolah Tungku Abdul Rahman, Ipoh – yeah, kinda proud it was a school here in Ipoh -> Ipoh! Represented!) was proposing laws on how to censor bloggers and internet users. And the opposition (Sekolah Sains Alam Shah) was against the ides because it was against freedom of speech. I have to admit that I was on the proposition side.

Now don’t get me wrong because I hate censorship too. I always think that we should be left to decide what we watch, and say and write because it is our basic right. I still hate censorship of movies mainly because they are doing the worst job in the world. So really it is not the censorship that I am against but the implementation of it and mainly the people behind it that in my opinion are a weird bunch of people for the way they interpret what should and should not be censored. I am still puzzled when a loving scene of an old couple bathing near a well was deemed inappropriate and yet we have movies about mat rempits and their conquest of girls and drugs and scenes of them in bed together and girls wearing skimpy clothes (which old folks from the kampong will ask if they did not have enough cloth to make a full dress) and racing dangerously on the road being a menace to all other innocent road users.

Oh, the movies makers will claim that the movie was made to show the bad things about merempit but really I just see how they glamourise the rempiting and the bad way of life. You know what they say about when you ask for certain parts of chicken at KFC, you better tell them about the parts you want and not the parts you don’t want because they always hear the wrong part. Example : you tell the KFC cashier that you don’t want chicken wings, wallah you will find chicken wings on your plate. You really have to say I want drumstick and breast, only then you will get the right order. Why? I think it is because we sometimes get the obvious and not get the message behind it. Meaning, showing the rempits doing cool stunts, getting laid and having fun will erase the memory of one mat rempit dying or getting badly injured. The good stuff outweighs the bad and that is how they make the movie. Sex sells some people say. So I think if we show the good things like love between old couples, people who are friends with all races and familiar with other religions and culture and people forgiving other people, then the obvious message will get through to the audience too.

I saw a documentary on TV3 I think about how some mat rempits are professionals and only merempit to relieve stress and not to harm other road users. I say, if you are really thinking of other people, how about racing properly in a proper racing circuit far away from innocent traffic that did not sign up to be you fellow racers on the road. And to the ones that do that, racing properly on the right track I mean, I salute you. Now that is healthy stress reduction activity. And how I have digress….:P

Back to the censorship, I say there is a level of censorship needed for the young impressionable minds but for those who are older, they should be left alone to make up their own minds. And naturally censorship will cough up the topic of human’s right to choose. To not be treated like a two year old that does not know any better. And this in turn will lead to the freedom of speech. Where we believe we have the right to criticize, to argue, to write, to say, to act any which way we think is right without considering other people. Pardon my language, but that is bullshit! I believe we do have the right to speak up our minds. And I do believe in freedom of speech. But I look at the motive for saying the things that some people are saying. And I draw a line when people speculate or make up stuff but say it like it is the truth. So really, what is the motive?

In my opinion, freedom of speech must come with responsibility. However I only see the quest for freedom of speech and no responsibility in some actions and words written. Like the short movie “Fitna”. It was clearly a movie that champions freedom of speech but at what cost? Fitnah, in Islam means telling a lie in order to sully another person’s good name. Like for example, telling people that the widow in the kampong in seducing other people’s husbands and sleeping around and causing the wives to ostracise the widow and in some cases to do more harm than that.

Fitnah in Islam is as bad as murder, that’s how bad it is. Sowing the seeds of hate is practically murder. And I believe that. People kill themselves over gossips that ruin their lives. People kill other people over things said that are not true but was believed to be true. Taking for example the cartoons by the Danes about depicting Muhammad S.A.W, they say why should they follow the rules of another religion that they do not believe in. And they say it is their freedom of speech. But I say that even you do not believe that religion you still have to respect the people who do. Like following the customs and practice of a foreign place that you visit. You don’t laugh at other people’s way of life. You don’t insult them purposely. You try to blend in and learn a new culture. Would they be as bold as to do that in an Islamic country? I don’t think so. But they are bold because they are in their own land and seem to think that it is merely their right to use their freedom of speech.

I am asking you now, if someone goes up to your face and say that your mother is a questionable woman (I would not like to use the word itself here), would you not get mad? It is, after all, their right to say whatever they like so why should we react to that? But we do get mad and we do react, some, more violently than others. And frankly the question to ask here is; what is the motive of the person who said such things. Is it merely to speak his mind or to provoke reactions? We might not agree with how other people dress or what they believe but it is their right to live life the way they saw fit. And not respecting that only show how shallow and the cowardice of people who hide behind the freedom of speech reason. Where is your responsibility to respect other people’s right? Does freedom of speech outweighs everything else in life? Do you provoke a killer who has a gun aimed at you by saying the truth like he is stupid to try to kill you because he would go to jail if he did or would you shut your mouth and try to stay alive?

There are other things that are more important than all out freedom of speech that does not consider other people’s feeling, other people’s lives and other people’s faith. And those people who champions all out freedom of speech are losing the real “human rights”. The right to be respected and the right to live together in peace. There are things that we should speak up for and then there are things that we should consider how it affects other people and whether it will bring good changes in the world or merely create hate and violence. Provocation and in turn violent reactions are what causes war and fights and in the end the loss of human lives, some of them innocent. A few Danes disrespected Muslims and all Danes get the bad name. One Dutch make an obviously biased movie and all Dutch bears the brunt of anger of Muslims around the world. And the fanatics will turn to violence and I have to make a stand here that violence is wrong. Murder is wrong. Killing innocent people for any reason is not acceptable. Ever. Even in war you don’t kill the innocent and you only kill those who want to kill you to protect your live and your family.

By the length of this posting, you can guess that I feel strongly about this and I do. I feel sad that freedom of speech is used to justify everything. Even at the risk of sparking hate and violence and never ending revenge. Don’t just see the violent reactions and not see the provocation. We are after all humans, with deep feelings and passion and desire and anger and hate and love and so many other feelings that could lead to actions both good and bad. People kill over love gone wrong. People kill over long term bullying. People kill for the death of a pet. People can kill for so many reasons. Some actions can lead to chain reactions that destroy lives. Things spoken can hurt more than pain of the physical. I just hope people remember that and use freedom of speech responsibly and use it with the aim of making the world a better place.