The fight for true freedom

In all honesty, how free are we, truly?

COMMENT

There seems to be a recurring theme in my articles here on Free Malaysia Today. Whether they discuss art or socio-politics, inevitably I tend to argue how stifled we are as Malaysians, bound by censors and a biased, paranoid government.

Year after year, we cry out “Merdeka!” every Aug 31. We pride ourselves of the fact that we freed ourselves of our western colonisers without going to war to gain our independence.

But in all honesty, how free are we, truly?

The nationalists in the days of yore are probably the only ones who have claim for the pride of our independence, for they fought the brave fight for liberty. They wanted to reclaim our lands as our own, with our own people to govern it, and prosper from it; to instil our own ideologies and beliefs, our practices and traditions.

However, ever since then, freedom and independence had taken on a very different meaning. Although we are now self governing, we are far from independent.

With an economy that is often unstable, a rising cost of living and a government that wastes the country’s income on projects that do not favour the people, we are always living in fear of bankruptcy like the countries in the EU.

Most of our hard labourers are foreign workers. From an economical standpoint, we are in actual fact, dependent.

Furthermore, with every passing year, there has been a steady increase in numbers of Malaysians emigrating elsewhere.

As government scholarships are being slashed with each annual budget, the current trend of the brain drain will leave Malaysia no choice but to reach outside assistance, as we would be lacking in our supply of qualified graduates.

We are already seeing companies outsourcing their work to countries with cheaper labour. If nothing is done to remedy the economy, it will only be a matter of time before unemployment rates reach a record high.

We are not free in other aspects as well. As a Malaysian, one would be a fool to believe that we are governed by a democracy.

Even our freedom to vote had dirty hands messing with it. When the ballots were finally cast, so many of us were naïve to think it would be a transparent and clean poll. No matter the numbers, the results were already decided for us.

Shackled rakyat

If we were to demand change, we are branded as a threat to national security. When the Internal Security Act and the Emergency Ordinance were ended, it was merely a publicity stunt by the government.

Very soon, a new law will pass with an even tighter hold on our freedom of expression.

Religion has been made into a political tool now. Non-Muslims no longer have the freedom to profess their faith, to practice their beliefs in public, and must guard their actions so as to not offend the Muslim community.

At the same time, moderate Muslims have to be weary of making statements deemed too open minded or ‘Western’.

Preaching tolerance and acceptance between different faiths and ideologies are not only frowned upon, it has come to a point where legal action can be taken against these bold individuals who question the status quo.

Therefore, if we were to ask ourselves if we are truly free, we must first examine the chains that bind us.

As we can see, the restrictions we face are presented to us by our rulers. They may claim that they have our best interests at heart, but we know the truth. The freedom of choice has been robbed of us.

We live in a police state. We cannot compare ourselves to worse countries under tyrant rules and claim to be the better nation. We must aspire to be like the developed countries before us.

We may have kicked our captors out, but our shackles will never be broken until we, the rakyat, stand united to break them.

When we can choose our own way of life, governed by the people we choose to represent us, to give us our voice back- only then can we proudly claim Merdeka!.

Elza Irdalynna writes about art, love, and other things she pretends to understand. She is also an FMT columnist.