[Governance] On Bersih, part 2
A follow-up to this post.
The cost is too high.
Marching for an idea and a concept carries sacrifices that are far too dear.
There are a number of people who say that the march is a bad idea because it inconveniences them. Those in support of the rally brush it off. Hey, so you face a delay in shopping and driving around for one day. Big deal, right?
Wrong.
I’m not talking the inconveniencing of daily lives. I know of at least one person for whom July 9, 2011 will be the biggest day of her life. She’s getting married.
Married.
That is NOT something you can tell other people to just bear with it this is just a small inconvenience. This march also affected my own plans. I wanted to go to KL to check out the Further Studies education fair in KLCC. I can’t now, mainly because 1. family obligations keep me at home, and 2. it’s unsafe for anyone to be in that area there.
Which brings me to my next point.
It’s easy to say that people will die for an idea. It’s easy for the individual to accept that death is a necessary component of defending that idea. That their physical death will somehow validate the idea and bring it to life. It’s easy to accept the death of strangers because you don’t know them.
It is much harder to accept the possible deaths of people you know.
I cannot condone the march, mainly for this single reason.
It puts lives at risk. Your deaths will not just affect you and your family, but everyone around you and those who have not. Are you all ready for that?
I know of at least three friends who will be marching tomorrow. Two of them are very dear to me. I know that if they die, their deaths would be on my shoulder. I have, in some way or other, supported their decision to walk. It may not have been my support alone, but I would be carrying the fact that they died with me till the day I die. If you’re alive you can still do something. Death is permanent. Seeking death to defend an idea, in my opinion, is the cause of much misery in the world today.
Some people may argue that this is for a future, a better future for all of Malaysia.
Is Malaysia going to bring my friends back should anything happen to them?
Is Malaysia going to take the burden of knowing her children died in her name?
Which parent can live with the fact that their children died for a bloody idea?
I will hate you all forever if you die.
Original entry as appearing at Ink to Screen.