By: Natalie Shobana Ambrose
When you're a ballerina in training,
one is taught discipline through conformity. Uniformed leotards, peach-pink
shoes, buns, belts, bars, tights and tutus are the same for everyone in class,
no exceptions. Every movement is coordinated with the music to precise timing,
and like the toys in the Nutcracker, the foundation of being a ballerina is
meticulous, coordinated and exact.
Conformity makes it
easier for those above to control us, but for the minions it provides two
options, the first relinquishes us from the painful task of thinking and the
second, it stops us knowing what we really want – it stops us from dreaming for
more and demands a sense of contentment.
For many that fear of
being put down stops them from standing up or speaking out against injustices,
or sharing their opinions for change. And so a large majority go along this
path of obey, listen and follow with the mantra – let's not rock the boat.
It sounds all too
familiar because the alternatives are always either be grateful or if you don't
like it here then leave. And that is exactly why we have so many qualified
Malaysians who do not want to return home. So where is the platform for mature
discourse?
In our country,
conformity equates to unquestionable allegiance to a political party while
solidarity means that we are cohesive based on race and religion, when really
our political leanings should be based on tangible policies that will benefit
the nation and its citizens, not just blindly following every claim and every
promise.
What we lack is the space
for political tolerance, a key principle of democracy (Personally, I am not a
fan of the word tolerance, but for all intent and purposes, as I continue to
quote social science research, I will conform and use the word tolerance).
Following Samuel A.
Stouffer's famous study Communism, conformity, and civil liberties: a
cross-section of the Nation speaks its mind, social scientist James L. Gibson
writes, "Those who do not feel free to express themselves politically are
more likely to be intolerant of others, to have less heterogeneous peer groups
and less tolerant spouses and to live in less tolerant communities." What
are the implications and consequences of such political intolerance?
According to the
Inter-Parliamentary Union which works in close cooperation with the United
Nations, it is the lack of education and political participation, freedom of
expression through open dialogue even with those of diverse political opinion
and a pluralistic media that is allowed to present diverse and critical views.
Instead in Malaysia we
have people who rally followers to burn Bibles, leaders who incite hate,
politicians in deep trouble blaming the media for sensationalist reporting,
when in fact their wrongdoings themselves have made even the dullest method of
reporting look shockingly embellished. Shall we then just listen, obey and
conform?
Perhaps what is most
disturbing is that this mentality to conform is limiting those in our schools
and universities. Being able to think critically and articulate an argument is
met with put-downs and lectures on staying in line. How then do we groom future
leaders, or maybe we only want to groom those who toe the line.
These are not skills they
need for politics alone, it is skills we need as a nation wanting to progress
in various fields. Our schools and universities should be building a generation
of socially engaged, politically aware and highly educated people. We don't
just need thinking people, we need thinking people who are vocal, speak sense
and have the conviction to uphold their civic duties.
We aren't the only nation
that suffers from political intolerance, but being an election year, our
tolerance levels for accepting and respecting viewpoints that differ are
noticeably below par.
Conformity allowed for
the 1993 "Project IC" to happen. Clearly, 20 years on, it's not as
easy to keep people silent. It's one thing to conform in a ballet class, but
looking at history, it wasn't the conformists who are remembered but those who
dared to speak their minds that made a difference.
Natalie likes Jim Hightower's
quote "The opposite of courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Even a
dead fish can go with the flow".
Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
