Certain quarters in the country, including, and especially, but not limited to those from Taman Melewar, believe in banning certain undesireable elements in the society as the magical cure to every problem.

Smoking is bad ? Sure, just get Mufti to issue a fatwa stating smoking is haram. Akademi Fantasia allows boys hugging girls ? Issue a fatwa to ban it. They failed to look at Akademi Fantasia from the perspective of average Malaysians. But then again, as if they care.

There are two issues at hand. First, do we have a Malaysian population here that cannot think for themselves and decide on what is good and bad ? Second, do we want a gigantic administration which interferes every aspect of our life, while the modern trend in the world is to keep the government as tiny as possible, in order to award as much liberty as possible to its citizens ?

I believe Malaysians are smart. We have companies like Kompakar that are capable of attaining Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) Level 5 within 2 years, while there’s none from our archrival Singapore so far. We have rights activists like Madame Irene Fernandez who have bagged 2005 Right Livelihood Award, the alternative Nobel. The earliest alternative media initiative in the region, Malaysiakini, bears the name of our nation. Even the winner of Reporters Sans Frontier (RSF) Freedom Blog Asia is a fellow Malaysian.

Yet, certain quarters in the country have no confidence in us. They do not trust that we can stand on our own. They insist to police our life. They think it is government’s job to catch people who found drinking in pubs. I have never heard from leadership of this party on how to boost the dwingling Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) the country receives, or how to encourage Research and Development (R&D).

They live in their fantasy. Fatwas to ban this and outlaw that are the best policies they can ever think of. Partai Keadilan-Sejahtera (PKS) of Indonesia, also an Islamic party, is well received because they have introduced many programmes that are related to enhancement of people’s life. On the contrast, Pas just talk about introducing more ways to abuse our human rights. Is there any Malaysian out there who will surrender their conscience and liberty to these rapist of our rights ?

Differentiating wrongs from rights can only be learnt through education. A free media also helps in achieving an enlightened population. As proven by history, trying to ban something, such as Malaysiakini, will only drive more crowd towards what the establishment fears. Umno hasn’t learnt their lesson, neither is Pas. They don’t live in our world, they don’t share our feelings and thoughts. They have no knowledge about human psychology and modern politics. They are as relevant as what they called YB Ipoh Timur, an expired medicine.

Party of rhetorics. Party of hypocretes. Let’s drive the rapist of human rights and wisdom out of the country ! Perhaps, it’s time for Taman Melewar to take a clue from TM’s tagline, Merintis Kemungkinan, to think of ways so they can be well-accepted by thinking Malaysians, and be a better team player in Barisan Alternatif :-)