i want to say this to YOU (709 Bersih 2.0)

My dear friends,

By now, I'm sure you've realized that I'm practically jaundiced-out by all this yellow BERSIH 2.0 talk! It has been exhausting, energizing, worrying. Everyday life and all its demands continue...and on top of that to resist and resist this gargantuan machinery utilized and abused by the current government to harass, threaten and attempt to intimidate us. Friends getting dragged away to the police station, mother questioned under the Sedition Act for quoting the Federal Constitution, t-shirts being banned, the colour yellow a threat - my grief! What a mad state of affairs!

I don't presume to know which side of the political agenda any one of you lean on, but I do hope that all of you are in utter clarity that this is NOT a "Pakatan Rakyat agenda". This is about democracy, plain and simple. It's about exercising our basic rights. It's about our fundamental liberties. It's not anything extra, unnecessary or far-fetched.

I am not an expert of the Constitution, and legal jargon throws me off completely, but let me take a stab at this: (paraphrasing) Article 10 (1)(a) of our Federal Constitution states that every citizen has the RIGHT to freedom of speech & freedom of expression. Article (1)(b) of the Constitution states that all citizens have the RIGHT to assemble peacefully and without arms. A RIGHT is not a right if you need to seek permission from the government for it to be realized. That would make it a license.

Human rights are there, inherent in all of us – regardless of whether someone says you have it or not. Human rights don’t exist in a list of optional choices, waiting for governments to choose whether "they" legitimise it or not.

It drives me absolutely insane that so many of you think Bersih 2.0 doesn’t have anything to do with human rights; that it’s a ploy by opposition parties to get more votes. The whole idea behind BERSIH is for there to be spaces necessary for us to realize our right to participate in government & in fair and free elections [Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, or UDHR]! The violent resistance by the people in power to this most basic of calls has led to the trampling of a whole series of other rights:

• Article 3 Right to Life, Liberty, Personal Security
• Article 5 Freedom from Torture and Degrading Treatment
• Article 9 Freedom from Arbitrary Arrest and Exile
• Article 10 Right to Fair Public Hearing
• Article 11 Right to be Considered Innocent until Proven Guilty
• Article 19 Freedom of Opinion and Information
• Article 20 Right of Peaceful Assembly and Association
• Article 30 Freedom from State or Personal Interference in the above Rights

Maybe all this doesn’t matter to you – maybe you’ve never had a mother sentenced to a year in prison for speaking the truth, or you’ve never been dragged away to the police station for holding a candle in a group; you’ve not watched innocent people proven guilty by the State without any facts or reason, and you’ve not been made to do nude squats while the very people who are suppose to protect you watch & laugh at your humiliation. And for that I’m actually very happy – for I’d never wish that degradation of rights on anyone, not even on my oppressors.

But I do hope you realize that every time you let them attack the rights of another person, you have given them the power to take away your rights. Today, your silence has legitimized the denial of the right to assemble peacefully – tomorrow, will you be silent as they take away your freedom of belief and religion? Will you stay absent as they strip away your right to have a home, to drink clean water, to send your children to school? Today, you’ve allowed them to stomp down on the freedom of speech – what voice will you use tomorrow, when they come for the rights you hold dear to you?

To all who have doubts about BERSIH...

This is what we are walking for, these are our 'demands': "Clean the electoral roll/ Reform postal vote/ Use indelible ink/Free & fair access to media/Minimum 21 days campaign period/Strengthen public institutions/Stop corruption/Stop dirty politics" -- not so crazy, eh?

I pray that you are not talking yourself into believing that that report you have due, or meeting you have scheduled, or client you need to see, or party you need to attend is so much more important than showing up with your fellow countrypersons as a stand that YOU BELIEVE in DEMOCRACY. I pray that you don't let the everyday challenges in life get in the way of your rights as a person.

I know many of you are scared, and for that reason will be staying away - truth be told, I'm a little scared too. The chemicals in the water cannons & tear gas will probably burn my chronically torn and scarred eczema ridden body. Also, I've never been arrested, and so I can't say I'm not at least a little scared of what it would be like should that happen to me. And so yes, I do have fears.

But - my biggest fear ,really, is being deserted by other Malaysians such as yourselves. To show up there with whichever activists that have not already been marched away to prisons on flimsy charges, and find that it's just the few of us against this beastly machine of riot police, blood thirsty Ministers and their posse of evil men.

I'm terrified that most Malaysians are either so fast asleep in apathy, or catatonic from fear - unable to realize that as soon as we let them take away some of our rights, we've given away all of our rights.

I'm so.very.scared that the tyranny that has prevailed for over half a century in our homeland, will continue to grow and feast on our rights, simply because good, honest persons like you would rather stay silent and away, then show up and make a change.

I hope I'm wrong. I hope there are far fewer scared or disinterested persons, than ones who want change to happen. Gosh, I hope so badly that I'm wrong.

If you want to take that first step in participating, but don't know how, let me know. Drop me a note. We can take that step together.

If you want to have a debate about this, or share your view point, please do so. I'm right here.

As was once uttered, it is up to us, as moral people, to break immoral laws. And to resist.

With sheer hope, and in utter solidarity,

katrina

source: https://www.facebook.com/notes/katrina-jorene-maliamauv/i-want-to-say-this-to-you/10150249347310688