Awake & fight!

Darkness has descended upon our nation
sadness has overwhelmed our hearts
madness has seized the minds of our leaders
it’s time to wake up & fight.
Empty the closets of apathy
bring forth the weapons of courage
gather all ye soldiers of peace
arise for the monster is nigh!

Awake! tarry no more!
fight with all your might
till the last of your spirit and breath
blow over all evil and harm
Flow! flow! the blood of righteousness flow
Awash this misery and sins
may our blood become the mighty floods
drowning, drowning the unjust!

my people, the time for slumber is over
wake up! go forth! carry the banner of justice!
march! fill the streets with the colors
of the bright brialliant sun
for victory is nigh.
for victory is ours!
tarry no more!

penang, Jul 3, 2011.

Note: The manner in which Prime Minister Najib Razak has handled the Bersih 2.0 issue has deeply angered me. Initially, I was not too keen on Bersih, too. The idea of asking the king to intervene in a democratic process for and by the people (elections) to me was rather a backward kind of thinking. The color yellow itself connotes and represents feelings and situations such as “slavery, submission, fear and cowardise”. However, in the face of extreme injustice – the police crackdown on anything remotely Bersih – makes me take a stand. We must not be neutral in the face of cruelty or else we would be siding with the Oppressor. Hence this poem, and the need for the fighting spirit to take flight.

Now the king has asked all sides to “lay down arms”. His Majesty has somehow ticked off Najib and his administration for the handling of the matter. Even if Bersih calls off its march on July 9, it would still have claimed moral victory. Najib, shame on you. Only a weak leader would resort to such monstrous responses to citizens merely excercising their rights in the country’s Constitution.

Najib appears to want to be even on top of the highest law of the land. The police, with salaries paid by citizens, have taken the side of the Oppressor. It does not bode well at all for our nation. The arrests of PSM Sungai Siput MP D Jeyakumar and others under the Emergency Ordinance for causing public disorder is madness.

I am optimistic though that justice would prevail. In history all dictators will succumb to people’s power. Sacrifices have to be made but at the end of the day, the power, warmth and the sting of the rising sun would blot out all evil. Be ready for the day, my friends.

*Image = Art by Susan Loone (2011).