Freedom Of Speech

I must start off by saying I salute the Malaysians who attended the BERSIH rally and saw it through. Despite all the pressure from the government and the police, tens of thousands (it seemed to me) gathered , braving the rain and the police blockade.

What does Freedom Of Speech mean? To me it means we as citizens have the right to bubble up our concerns to whatever level we deem necessary. If we feel our concerns can only be handled by the Agong, so be it.

As a democratic nation we as citizens have the right to gather and raise our concerns. Especially if the concerns relate to our democratic fundamentals and if our requests are reasonable.

Since it's a peaceful gathering, why do the powers that be feel so uncomfortable with it. As long as public or private property is not damaged. As long as there's no injury caused to anyone by members of the gathering. I would say by definition it's a peaceful gathering.

Why the worry over a little dissent. We can't all have the same opinion or be on the same side, can we? I believe it's due to the comfort zone of Malaysian's not questioning authority. It's been a long held belief that Malaysians will question the government only and if only their rice bowl is impacted.

What makes politicians so afraid of people voicing their views. This seems to be feared by politicians everywhere including in the show Boston Legal last night. :)

To me it's a sign that we as a country are maturing. There must be room to look at the other side of the coin. And it looks like we Malaysians are finally starting to see the flip side of the coin...after 50 years of independence. To me that's a good sign as any.