Let us have our challenging conversations

Text without context is a pretext, goes the saying. We must allow ourselves some room to doubt the information served to us on our social media feeds to avoid unwittingly becoming pawns in a chess game.

Not everyone has the time or ability to fact-check and investigate, but we can all take a beat and ask, “betul ke?”

That dose of healthy scepticism is a necessity in this age of misinformation and it needs to be applied towards both information that we dislike as well as those we favour, even when it looks, sounds and appears credible.

It does not mean that we have to stop believing, it is to prevent ourselves from believing in anything and everything.

Should our interactions and activities be respectful and conscious of how they may be perceived by others? Yes, I believe it should. Should our thoughts and identities be muted to avoid disturbing the peace? Hard no. Every person living in Malaysia has made their respective contributions, large or small, and their presence must be acknowledged.

After all, Malaysia is not just Kuala Lumpur, Damansara, or Bangsar. It is not just Bangi, Shah Alam, or Putrajaya either. It may be difficult to break through the cultural and concrete bubbles we live in but we have to always remind ourselves that we are at best a small section of the larger fabric of Malaysian society.

Beyond slogans on billboards

The injustice of erasing the actual existing diversity is two-fold, once towards the communities that are left without a voice, as well as towards the larger community who are led to believe that the society they live in is neat and simple. That comfort is illusory and disintegrates quickly when large disruptions occur.

We need to reaffirm tolerance as well as learn how to manage differences constructively. Difference and peaceful dissent should not immediately be seen as an existential threat that needs to be eliminated.

We must allow ourselves the opportunity to be challenged, disgusted and even offended, without instantly reaching for pitchforks or authoritarianism.

By being so quick to react, it makes the job of outrage contractors much easier. Make some noise about a short video clip or purposely frame anything challenging as insults, amplify it through a network of like-minded agitators on social media and voila: “public outrage”.

Curiosity is healthy

The government certainly needs to encourage a critical and reasonable society to flourish, as suggested by civil society and creative practitioners in a recent statement on the ‘Mentega Terbang’ witch hunt.

It cannot, however, be left to the government to “teach” society to be more literate and critical. Society as a whole has to be committed to a shared set of values that allow disagreement and difference democratically, ethically and peacefully. This means learning to recognise the biases that we and others may have and being willing to give the other side a fair hearing.

We cannot outsource the work of building a harmonious society to the National Unity & Integration Department or to any administration. Ordinary people, like you and me, need to be ready to adjust our perspective on dealing with differences and diversity.

We can allow space in our minds for a dissenting thought to visit, without feeling alarmed. We should welcome the challenge to seek and better understand alternative views, as well as our own.

This healthy curiosity is what we sorely need, for which our thinkers and creatives will be essential. Minds that are not afraid of independent thought will not be easily taken in by propaganda and conspiracy peddlers that speak to existing world views.

It fuels a thirst for a broader range of knowledge and experiences from a variety of sources within and outside of the country.

It creates an environment where our talents can be appreciated here first, not long after they have left to achieve success somewhere else.

It fosters dialogue that allows us to see fellow citizens better as human beings, who live, work, play and believe differently, and learn to live with, not just next, to each other. - Mkini

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LUTFI HAKIM ARIFF is co-founder and podcaster at Waroeng Baru, a not-for-profit collective to promote democratic participation and resilience. He is also the co-author of the book ‘Parliament, Unexpected’ and an unrepentant believer in the power of local independent media. Lutfi tweets at @ltf_ha.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.