Sedition Act ... or Sedation Act? | | | |
Posted by Super Admin | |
Monday, 19 May 2008 | |
When are we going to have national integration when we design educational institution that deliberately disintegrates society and discriminate each other. What hypocrites we are. This is our philosophy of education inspired by the keris. Dr. Azly Rahman
But the word 'sedition' is making me confused. Is it 'sedition' or 'sedation'? One is legal, one is medical. One connotes 'talking bad about others and about systems', the other connotes '"putting others to sleep' using medication. Although I am not a lawyer I have a deep interest in the philosophical, cultural, and class basis of law. My interest (among other fields) lies in philosophy and its possibilities for the creation of a republic of virtue wherever we are: in Raja Petra's Malaysia, in Mugabe's Zimbabwe, or in the late Altantuya's Mongolia. My interest is in how words get used or abused and how they perform action in society and how they even transform 'social relations of production' and 'inscribe ideology and institutions' onto the landscape of humanity. In fact this is the theme I explored in a doctoral dissertation at Columbia University New York. I wanted to find out the genealogy, the archeology, the complexity, the historical-materiality, and the post-structurality of language. I studied the relationship between cybernetics and social-philosophy of change, as these impact "cybernating" nations. I wanted to explore the dimensions of words and concepts, who defines what is defined and how words get to be defined. I also wanted to investigate how words can be oppressive and how those in power use words to mesmerise people, to make a living, or even to lie in political campaigns. I have been fascinated by words since I was a child. I have often felt overwhelmed with joy interacting with words and their power. From word becomes flesh. Travelling on a bus from Johor Bahru to Singapore, on a train from Johor Bahru to Bukit Mertajam, on a barge from Johor Bahru to Kuantan, or in a taxi around Kuala Lumpur, I would notice and contemplate upon names of roads, road signs and billboards - and wonder what those words mean. My mind would be in a dissonance, constructing images. In my kampong in Majidee, I was fascinated by the names of roads such as Jalan Rahmat, Shukur, Nikmat, Aman, Sentosa, Damai, Bahagia, Kurnia, Pendita, and Merdeka. These are words that are peaceful I interact with on a daily basis. These words resound in me. Like the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor would say, these words form the "language of personal resonance" in me. Johor Bahru the place I grew up in introduced me to names such as Tun Dr. Ismail and Ungku Aziz. These are good Johoreans with good ideas on human development. I grew up fascinated by the story of the late Abdul Razak Ahmad, the Parti Sosialis lawyer who protested by laying on the railway tracks. I heard the name of Hishamuddin Rais and the Tasik Utara demonstration. Now I am sharing a space with him in Malaysia-Today, what an honor!. These are good people with clear conscience. Johor Bahru was an interesting place to grow up in. One can "cross-over" to Singapore and watch Malaysian-banned Godfather movies. One can feel like walking in New York city strolling down Orchard Road talking about John Travolta and Saturday Night Fever. Crossing overs were a fun thing to do those days. To cross-over to Singapore you have to first have a haircut. National Service recruits will have no problem crossing over to watch those Godfather movies. "Crossing over" used to be a fun word. I would say to my friends: "Hei Mamat... gua nak cross-over causeway Johor lah babe... lu nak join tak...Gua nak jam dekat Orchard , lepak lepak tengok Saturday Night Fever... amacam?... lepas tu gua nak sambar tape Ramli Sarip lepas tu... Achmad Albar's GodBless... lu tak cukup sen gua sponsor, lu mau ka? What a string of slang words! You see, Johoreans are pretty "multicultural" in their use of "cross-over" slangs. I wonder if Johor politicians will also do their cross-over. I wonder if they will do this if they know the political-economic nature of the Iskandar Development Region -- who owns what and how this is hidden from the public. Nowadays "cross-over" is a dangerous word. You may also be charged for "sedition" if you overuse it or be charged for high treason by party leaders even if you need to cross over for ethical reasons. I hope those crossing over to change paradigms and after achieving enlightenment will not ask for a single sen in their pursuit for political truth. That cross-over culture will breed corruption all over. I am sure there will be anti-hopping laws passed on of these days, before it is too late. Our world these days is no longer peaceful. Our politics have become violent -- too violent by any means necessary. The most hideous crime we read these days is of course the murder of Altantuya. That was a Saturday Night High Fever; a deadly disco party onboard a Bahtera Merdeka. Not since the days of Mona Fandey had Malaysians heard such a hideous crime committed. In the word, Akujanji contains the legal and political implication of turning students and lecturers into automatons by silencing and sedating them into supporting any leader however corrupt and abusive he may be. While the political masters can break rules and fall like Humpty Dumpty, the academicians or the "managers of virtue" will need to kowtow to these Humpty Dumpties. This unfairness of life must be resolved. A good radical mental revolution will do the job. When are we going to have national integration when we design educational institution that deliberately disintegrates society and discriminate each other. What hypocrites we are. This is our philosophy of education inspired by the keris. I now wonder what an academician's definition of a "cross-over" is. Will it be ideological, theoretical, or simply political? Will academicians who wish to exercise their radicalism and nurture their passion for "crossing borders" and "deconstructing totalitarianism" be "crossing over" as well? How many students will these Noam Chomsky and Edward Said -type of Malaysian educators bring along in their "cross-overing" adventures? In the language of corporate management, they call "cross-overing" "thinking outside the box", "lateral thinking", and "using the blue ocean strategy" to thrive in chaos. These are cliches and slogans we live by. I believe a good academician is a subversive educator-- one who questions all forms of authority so that frontier thinking can be arrived at. I believe he/she should be a social and intellectual agitator making the mind of society restless, so that society will question its leaders, challenge them, challenge assumptions, and even replace them whenever necessary. In this way society will rejuvenate and become more intelligent that its elected representative. What we are seeing now in parliament is an evolvingly-intelligent parliament. We are not yet there. We still see precious problem-solving time wasted by those conduct-unbecoming of our elected representatives. I believe a good academician must challenge all forms of oppression and domination and, like many a philosopher such as the French Noble Prize winner Jean Paul Sartre, to help society understand how money. machinery, media, and the mind is being controlled through an "Official" definition and packaging of State propaganda. A good academician pays allegiance not to any political party but to the tentativeness of truth an the dialectical-materialism of our world. Philosophy, the mother of knowledge governs the realism of politics. A good academician is driven by philosophical passion, not herded obediently by political masters. Defining 'sedition' a) to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against any Ruler or against any government; |
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