We should not rest in our little cocoons while the rest of our countrymen, true blue malaysians are under threat. Now the current threat is mega dams in sarawak!! 12 of these white elephants, pets of the white hair head of sarawak and his proxy, Sarawak energy Berhad, with the first among many to come, the Murum dam. and heres why you and I, urbanites, rural folk, armchair politicians; all malaysians should take this personally. By B.K.O Why urban Malaysians-mostly in West Malaysia, should support the Murum blockaders? Let us not take this for granted: there need to be rational reasons for us to do anything-including this one. If we support them out of sympathy-there are many other deserving cases around-even in town as well eg the homeless. If we support them to get their votes-many of the blockaders may not be registered voters or some of these dont even have IC! If you think you want to, as an NGO, support Penans because you may be able to use the issue to get some overseas funding the time when the Penans made international headlines are over-just ask NGOs which have lapsed or slowed down after their funding dwindled or dried up. So: why?? There are actually many reasons for supporting the Penans who re-started their blockade in front of the multi-billion Murum dam. I would focus on one: to give meaning to being a Malaysian, as these Penans rightfully are! Citizenship confer equal rights to all its members-so it differ from all sectarian groups eg ethnic or religious groups. If you feel that the banning of `Allah by the government and the court is serving only the selfish wishes of certain sections of the citizens then how are we different when we dont consider all citizens as deserving all the basic services that we take for granted to be our rights as citizens of this country? Are we urbanites only serving our own interests when we are happy with 24/7 electric supply, mobile networks, education and health services that we all enjoy-though with admittedly some complaints, but not bothered if some other citizens in the interior are denied these all these while from the starting of Malaysia? If we are happy with the status quo where some big section of the population are denied the services that we `all enjoy then there is little argument we can fight back other groups in the country who clamour for their sectarian interests only, at the expense of freedom of belief for all! A good citizen should not be sectarian-so ignoring the right of interior citizens like the Penans basically expose our sectarian thinking.To be specific, it is urban-centric thinking-same row as ethno-centric or religious-centric thinking in the supermarket of modern prejudices! So if urbanites feel disadvantaged by sectarian forces in this country-the one way to show how narrow-minded these religious/ethno centric sectarians are, is to show them that we the citizens will take care of the most excluded, ignored and oppressed community in the country! Respond to the `me, me, me... demands from the sectarians with `we, we, we... agenda! Respond to the parties who demand for more and more power with campaign for basic rights of the minorities in our country! Respond to claim for exclusive privileges with universal rights! This is the way to secure a moral victory over the sectarians -whether ethno or religious types! In addition: citizenship means we take collective responsibilities for decisions made in our names! In most democracies there are many major decisions where the citizens are by-passed eg decisions to go to war could probably never be approved if there is a citizen referendum in most countries! There are also a lot of other decisions where the citizens are taken for granted -even though opposed by the citizens in big number! Now: we are not just facing Murum dam alone-this is a long term agenda to roll out 12 mega dams in Sarawak-with half of them located around Belaga! Imagine if this were to happen in any state in the country-could the people there welcome their lands to be so defaced just to cater for, not energy need of the locals, but faceless and yet to be identified or unconfirmed clients for the electricity production? Question: would you want such major projects to be done in your name as a citizen of the country? Many people operate on the basis of `not in my backyard (NIMBY) -which run counter to the spirit of citizenship mentioned above. But if you do some thinking you will find that many destructive and imprudent projects will hit us one way or the other eg if the marketing plan of the mega dams are not well based the citizens are the ones who will end up footing the bills of these unwanted mega-dams and their mega-bank loans! If we treasure the eco-system, the bio-sphere and the indigenous culture in the areas the country as a whole will suffer irreversible lose from the flooding of the lands with multiple values-and convert it to a mono-target, cash only, function! Someone is betting away the public/indigenous peoples lands with all its richness for profits which will flow to a few hands! Would any responsible citizen support a plan for the country where the citizens take all the risk, bear all the loses, and a few top politicians keep all the profits? So in the end it is coming down to citizens vs elites if we were to look at the struggle as a citizen of any country! The ideal of democracy is one where the country serve the citizens equally-not the elites lording over the citizens under any excuse and doing it in the names of the un-consulted citizens! There are many questions you may want to ask about joining the anti-Murum dam campaign eg how does the Penan David fight the SEB Goliath? But I think the idea of building a common citizenship, of fighting for a national common good, is one idea where we can build from this campaign. We will do a major historical correction to the until-now urban centric thinking of the already pro-change middle /urban class. With this historical bias removed/reduced we will join force with the rural communities to unleash a major force for democratisation in Malaysia that we have never witnessed yet. When a people are moved to change no dictators/sectarian class can stop the history clock from ticking forward! So: YOU-the citizens of the country will decide if you are for the citizens, and fighting the democratic fight by yourself, on your 2 feet! Democracy is after all, of the people, for the people and by the people! No more, no less! So when the Penans and other Orang Ulu fight for their IC we should take note of the challenge to urbanites: they are ready to take on the fight for citizenship of the nation-knocking the door from outside. Are we-fighting on the inside, ready to join the other citizens to make the struggle for common citizenship a historical chance to pry open the iron grip of the repressive regime of this country, and to deliver another democratised country in this region?
Posted on: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 00:25:33 +0000
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