Where is the people’s outcry?

Pondering the state of affairs in Malaysia can be depressing. Very often I sulk not of the event itself. How many scandals have leak, how many transgressions have been told? Too many to tell, too many to recall. However, more dismaying and disheartening is the eerie silence. I may understand many have lives to live and food to put on the table. But why is not it the talk of the town. Why is it not in the coffee shops? Why are many still silent and ignorant? Where are the incessant cries of fowl and reels of information pamphlets? Where is the expression of concern? Where is the people’s outcry?

Highest judge entrusted in preserving justice in the land is implicated in a scandal. Where is the people’s outcry? Corruption scandals from ministers to state assemblymen. Where is the people’s outcry? Silencing of alternative voices. Where is the people’s outcry? Electoral abuses from general elections to campus elections. Where is the people’s outcry? Separate laws for the weak and the powerful. Where is the people’s outcry? Reckless inflammatory and hypocritical racial politics. Where is the people’s outcry? Detention without a fair trial. Where is the people’s outcry? Media monopoly and restriction. Where is the people’s outcry? Dubious and shady dealings under the veil of Official Secrets Act siphoning hard-earned tax-payer’s money. Where is the people’s outcry? Money politics and vote buying. Where is the people’s outcry? Continuous harassment and intimidation of the opposition. Where is the people’s outcry? Continuous abuses by corrupt and unaccountable policemen entrusted for our safety. Where is the people’s outcry? Billions of hard-earned taxpayer’s money siphoned to government supporters and cronies. Where is the people’s outcry? Overpriced cars and rising cost of living. Where is the people’s outcry? An increasingly uncompetitive and underperforming economy. Where is the people’s outcry? A corrupt government who minds more of the fate of themselves and their supporters rather than their people. Where is the people’s outcry?

It alright if we lose all we own. It is fine if we are ignorant. It is tragic if we lose our loved ones. It is unacceptable if we lose our conscious. We deserve nothing and should expect nothing if we lose our conscious. Even animals have the conviction to love and care for one another. Yet here I am, dumbfounded and pondering. Where is the people’s outcry?