Who should Malaysians believe anymore
It was an intriguing title, “Who should Malaysians believe anymore”. This was the title to an analysis that The Malaysian Insider ran on Friday, 4th July, 2008. More commonly the question would be, “Who do Malaysians believe?”, or “Who can Malaysians believe?” “Who should Malaysians believe?” phrases the question as a moral issue. It presumes that there are certain people or institutions that that deserves our trust and it implies also that we have a moral obligation to trust these people or institutions.
The article applied the question to P. Balasubramaniam, asking:
Should they believe P. Balasubramaniam of July 3, who tossed a confetti of allegations against Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in a statutory declaration.
Or should they believe P. Balasubramaniam of July 4, who retracted the explosive allegations and said that he had been acting under duress...
In asking the question from a moral standpoint, of a situation that forces a person to exercise judgement by examining the circumstances, the article not only suggests to the reader that one Balasubramaniam deserves our belief much more than the other, it also implies that we have a moral obligation to know who we ought to believe, and to clearly stand with the person we believe. It implies that we are morally obliged to abandon our neutral stance, claiming insufficient evidence and knowledge.
The larger question, which I am sure is intended by the article as well, is in the context of the nation. And this is where the word “anymore” comes into play. Normally, the people and institutions whose mandate is to uphold the law deserves our trust and respect. And when there is a breakdown, due to moral corruption, other institutions will step in and with careful investigation and due process, transgressors are punished and our trust and respect restored.
In the past few weeks, we have the government virtually acknowledging that a grave wrong was done against the top judges of the nation, to the extent that the integrity of the judicial system had been gravely compromised. We have a royal commission concluding that there was indeed abuse of this compromised judiciary through manipulation of the process of judicial appointments. We have a very senior judge claiming that he and other judges have been threatened and influenced in the course of their duties.
We have the Attorney General and the IGP accused of being “involved in fabricating evidence in the infamous 1998 black-eye case.”
We have an elected state representative showing a deeply racist streak by boldly asking a question that insults an entire race during the state assembly proceedings, and a member of parliament making the point in parliament that “all non-Malays were descendants of immigrants to Malaysia.”
Which P. Balasubramaniam you believe will also determine whether you think we now have police and prosecutors suppressing evidence, and a deputy prime minister linked to a murder.
How much more can the nation absorb before the system irretrievably breaks down? Who should Malaysians believe anymore? It was just a title to a news article. But it gave me much pause for thought.
TK Tan is just an ordinary guy who puts his years of familiarity with computers and the internet to productive use.
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