The fight for rights and anti-corruption bears no boundaries
One good thing about the assignments I have to do for my Journalism masters programme at City University is that, I am getting to meet new people, experience new situations and as a result attain new realisations.
So, as a part of my assignment I had to cover a news potential on video. I went through some events and I found that a Bersih rally was to be held on 19th November. The rally would start in front of the Malaysian Embassy in London and end at Trafalgar Quare. Some 400–500 people, majorly Malaysian population and some, including me from other parts of the world joined in.
The main themes of the protest were: for free and fair elections, calling for Prime minister Najin Razak to step down due to his involvement in the 1MDB scam and for freedom of speech as many Bersih leaders were arrested due to so called ‘anti-estbalishment’ activities.
As a reporter I obviously had to keep a neutral frame of mind. Firstly, because journalists must not get biased when reporting. Secondly, I am not a Malaysian and it is expected I would feel indifferent to the sitaution.
I made new friends and talked to many people there, one of the perks of my future profession. Gradually it was becoming tough for me to keep hold of my indifference.
Government corruption and violations on freedom of speech are things which I relate to quite well as I come from India.
Bersih 2.0 chairman Maria Chin Abdullah, has been arrested and detained for more than 48 hours under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012. She has been booked under 124C of the Malaysian Penal code which talks about activites detrimental to parliamentary democracy.
This can be related to the JNU incident which happened in India where students were booked under an archaic sedition law in order to curb “anti-state” activities. They were arrested and detained which led to nationwide protests
The thing to notice is that, dissenting voices are being shut down by the governments who came to power through a democratic setup. Be in Malaysia or India, corruption has infiltrated the system which as led to low transparency and has resulted in scams.
Another common point, the unhindered, ruthless and unlawful use of force by both governments when faced with public outrage.
I was not shouting the slogans at first. But after thinking about the above, I also started to assist my fellow protesters in making them heard.
In the fight for freedom of speech and against corruption there is no such thing as international boundaries.
Suffice to say, amidst a crowd of Malaysian people, I felt quite at home. I realised that struggle for our freedoms is something we are all in together.
So the next time you see any protest for freedoms of people, don’t hesitate to join. Their struggle, one day might be yours.
