Aug 12, 2000

BARE KNUCKLES
Rom Nain

Hounding Musa

Many years ago there was a story doing the rounds in English university campuses about Labour MP and former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Denis Healey. The Tories, under Maggie Thatcher, were coming to power then and Labour was being grilled for purportedly having extreme Left members. 

In this environment, so goes the story, Healey was being vilified by the pro-Tory media for apparently having been a member of the radical Young Socialists in his student days. His sweet response was: "I also believed in Santa Claus when I was young".

After all these years, this story suddenly came flashing back to me the last couple of days upon reading about Suhakam head, Musa Hitam, being hounded by the mainstream, especially Malay, media. 

Mingguan Malaysia headed the pack with "Musa terus dibidas" ("Musa continues to be criticised") as its front-page headline. To belabour the point, its editorial page had columnist, Awang Sulung, reminding Musa - in not one, but two short pieces, mind you - that he too was once a home minister, and criticising his actions then. 

In this regard, is it not conceivable for the columnist and others who constantly and nauseatingly harp on the past to understand that often - and perhaps unlike them - people mature and develop new ideas? Ideas often opposed to views they previously held? 

This process is called growing up.

Indeed, there's no point in discussing a "K-society", a "developed nation", a "mature democracy" and all those other wawasan slogans if we simply refuse to grow up and learn from our past mistakes and indiscretions. 

Unless, of course, "growing up" and "maturing" are going to be deemed concepts that are "Western", hence alien to us. This is, of course, the stupid line that some politicians have been taking lately in the media in attempting to lambaste Musa and Suhakam.

Such indeed was the case when the Perak menteri besar was reported in the press as having chastised Musa for bringing over a "European" version of human rights into our "Eastern" setting. According to him, "Kadang-kadang kita mahu hak individu terlampau lebih, akhirnya menindas
hak orang ramai. Di Barat mereka boleh bogel di tengah pekan dan tepi pantai ... kalau kita buat di sini macam mana?" 

("Sometimes we want too much individual rights which, in the end, oppress the rights of the wider society. In the West individuals can go naked in the centre of town and bythe beach ... what would happen if we allowed that here?")

What, pray tell, was he waffling about? 

It's bad enough that one MB not so long ago publicly displayed his boorishness, and was rightly ridiculed for doing so. Must we now have another either deliberately distorting the issues at stake or simply displaying his ignorance, and yet another disingenuously trying to equate the Memali tragedy of 16 years ago with what was a proposed peaceful assembly?

First, let's please grow up a bit here and try to get our minds out of the sewer, hard though that may be. The issue isn't about frolicking naked in Ipoh city centre or on Pulau Pangkor. It's about the right to peaceful assembly. Reference to Articles 8, 9 and 10 of the Malaysian Constitution
would be in order here.

Second, to be as trivial and facetious as these politicians for a moment, the "West" is one helluva big area. Try romping around naked in the streets of Montreal, London, Brussels, Geneva, Madrid or Paris and chances are you'll be arrested for indecency. I would think that Malaysians have grown pretty tired of this infantile kind of stereotyping by now, wouldn't you?

Third, and more seriously, this constant demonising of the "West" and "their" version of human rights. Generally, I find it puzzling that, if everything is so bad and decadent in the "West", why on earth do these politicians go on holiday there, send their children to schools and colleges there, and even engage in trade with these heathens?

As far as the issue of human rights is concerned, this demonising leaves me wondering whether we, and Suhakam, are supposed to look at countries like Burma, Cambodia or Somalia as human right's role models as opposed to countries from the evil "West"?

Truth be told, it is not about adopting human rights standards derived from a mythical, cultured "East" or an equally mythical, decadent "West", as the mainstream media like to put it. It's about adopting internationally recognised and internationally acceptable human rights standards and norms. 

Let us not be so arrogant and pathetic as to assert that we have nothing to improve on as regards our human rights record, that we have nothing to learn. 

Let us not continue to make fools of ourselves in the regional and international arenas by making stupid comparisons in the media, such as that London has only one Speaker's Corner while we have a multitude of corners for speakers (in coffee shops, places of worship, etc.).

If we, more especially the mainstream media, really need to continue doing so, perhaps in the spirit of Malaysia Boleh, let us at least please remind ourselves beforehand that, together with the coffee shops and the places of worship, we also have the Printing Presses and Publications Act, the Internal Security Act, the Sedition Act, and the Official Secrets Act. Indeed, in terms of our human rights record, let us please try, shall we, to move one step forward without scrambling two steps back? 

ROM NAIN writes about the media in Malaysia, is critical of state and market control of the media, and yearns for the day when Malaysian media practitioners and educators can genuinely talk with pride about their work.