By: Natalie Shobana Ambrose
theSun, Malaysia (pg 14 )February 7, 2013
http://www.thesundaily.my/news/columns/onpointe
Totally floored by Beyoncé's rendition of the Star Spangled Banner at
Obama's inauguration, I admit, I felt cheated by the whole fakeness of it all
when lip-sync-gate broke out and was later confirmed true.
It kind of leaves a rusty taste of deception but far lighter than Lance
Armstrong's multiple denials which was followed by a pushed in the corner
planned confession not even in court but on Oprah nonetheless. Imagine the
profits from that interview.
Violating public trust seems to be a developing trend. What is scary is
how desensitised society becomes from all this deception creating a glazed over
public.
We become so used to things that should enrage us, that we contribute to
building a society that is cold, careless and somewhat inhumane.
Last month two Malaysians were gruesomely found dead. One was a cute
little six-year-old and another a 39-year-old security guard. Then there was
the housewife who was shot dead, the car she was in had 24 bullet holes
according to her husband.
So how do we feel that all this is happening in our own country and what
are we doing?
As a people, our outrage appears to be short-lived and mostly through a
rant on Facebook or sent through email forwards, and that's normal but what
happens after that? Another shocking-heart-tugging photo gets circulated, share
our outburst in 140 characters or less and then we go on with our lives. (I'm
equally guilty of this too)
It's easy to say the authorities are not doing their jobs but we are
equally to blame. Do we hold them accountable? Have we allowed them to become
so complacent? What have we done to demand that things change? And why have we
not reached our tipping point yet?
We need to start asking ourselves, what kind of society have we become
that whatever the story is – children are abused, kidnapped, killed or that a
mentally disturbed man is handcuffed and beaten by a mob while police officers
watched (quoting eye-witnesses accounts). Is this how we treat people who need
help?
If our outrage went past that of cyberspace, do you think the
authorities would have taken so long to make a statement or call for an
inquest?
Maybe this is not your thing, and you prefer to help animals – then get
outraged for the 14 Borneo pygmy elephants that were poisoned and demand more
be done to put their killers behind bars. Why are we so quiet about such
cruelty?
In a way it is understandable why we are becoming less humane. In the
recently released Human Rights Watch World report, Malaysia brought home a bad
report card. For a progressive nation, we still do not recognise or permit
refugees to work or allow for education of their children. The report also
noted how little we do to protect migrant domestic workers, something that has
caused us multiple moratoriums and strained relations between states.
Besides that, we are also in the business of violating the international
law of repatriation having even denied the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) access to asylum seeker Hamza Kashgari last year who is now
imprisoned in Saudi Arabia. We decided to repeat our actions on New Year's Eve,
when we sent back six ethnic Uighur Chinese despite intervention from UNHCR.
But as a society, we just continue to "keep calm and carry on"
with our lives.
Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
