MARCH 15 — “Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness.” – Alejandro Jodorowsky
Let me share with you another analogy. One day, as a man was passing by elephants held by a circus troop, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these massive creatures were held captive only with a thin rope tied to their front leg. There were no chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at any time, break away from their bonds. But for some reason, they did not.
He asked their trainer as to why these animals merely stood still and made no attempt to get away. “Well,” trainer said, “when they were very young, we used the same rope to tie them up. At that age, it was enough to tie them down. As they grew up, they have been conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope will still hold them back, and because of that, they never try to break free.”
Malaysians have been raised exactly like Jodorowsky’s quote, birds in cages believing that flying is an illness and grown elephants tied down by the same rope that held them in their infancy, believing it still has power over them.
It is crazy to realise that no matter what our backgrounds are, we have been raised to keep silent, to appreciate the status quo, to stay quiet and toil incessantly in order to fill our material needs, rather than to get into trouble with the authorities.
This is glaringly obvious when one observes Malaysian university students. University is where students have the opportunity to explore ideas, challenge the status quo and learn new ideas. It is a place where we can afford to fall, pick ourselves up and move on wiser.
Nonetheless, when it comes to challenging political thought and engaging in student activism, university students in Malaysia have been rendered impotent since 70s, no thanks to the UUCA. Recent examples of the state of our higher education system can clearly be seen in examples such as the UKM4 and UM8 whereby the establishment cracks down on even the slightest hint of a progressive student movement.
Interestingly, and unfortunately enough, we observe the same mentality with students (even non-scholars) who have the privilege to study in universities overseas. We see educated, (sometimes) liberal, middle/upper class Malaysians going overseas to study with this very same mentality.
Years of propaganda and instillation of fear in Malaysians have formed an imaginary chain around them even when free of iron fist of Malaysian authorities. It has become apparent that young Malaysians go overseas with the same state of mental oppression.
Take for example what we have done in KPUM (United Kingdom and Eire Malaysian Law Students’ Union) in the past year and what Cassandra Chung's (also a proud KPUM alumni) petition has recently done. Essentially, we decided that we should start taking a stand on the things we believe is right and just.
As students who have been privileged enough to be exposed to World Class education, and are able to realise the full extent of the dire state that our country is in, we decided to act on our academic opinion and personal conscience. These are basically things that NORMAL student unions and student bodies in overseas universities would do.
It is in fact the very purpose of their existence as student interest groups. It is not rocket science that student groups should speak up. But it would seem that recent developments have gotten gasps of horror among the Malaysian students’ circle in the UK.
“Oh no they are getting themselves into trouble,” “oh no she will be arrested,” “oh no the authorities will be after them,” “oh no, how young and unwise,” “HOW BRAVE,” “oh no what if the High Commission calls her in,”
This baffles me. You can speak your mind, create petitions in the UK and university authorities and students would hardly bat an eyelid on the matter, and neither will they think for a second that you have embarrassed your country. Most would understand that you are just taking on your role as a student activist.
The pure fact is that there is nothing the Malaysian authorities can do to you when you are overseas and privately sponsored. There is absolutely nothing that can be done to you personally. Please wake up and realise that there are no chains around your legs and that they are all imaginary.
The last time Malaysian students were threatened with any action upon their return to Malaysia was in the 80s and that was before the time of the internet, which is probably why you have never heard about it. The rest of us came back to this “cage” fine and unscratched.
I cannot understand how privileged Malaysians, especially privately sponsored, would gasp at such actions and admire those who would speak up. I think it is an absolute waste of opportunity when you are strategically placed with no restraints, which is so much better off than your counterparts in Malaysia, and yet do nothing!
At this point, it is only appropriate that I quite the famous phrase by Edmund Burke: “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”
Nevertheless, I suppose it takes one of these “birds” to start flapping their wings to fly when they are overseas for the other “birds” to realise they are no longer living in a cage. I'm particularly proud to see the ripple effects of how UKEC (United Kingdom & Eire Council of Malaysian Students) and now Nottingham Malaysian Society taking their baby steps forward after KPUM started to flap its small wings in its small ways last year.
I hope that following "Cassandra-gate" that more Malaysian students and student groups overseas will realise that the “rope” on their ankles is merely imaginary and that they will be able to use their very privileged position to push for a better Malaysia from where they are, because really there will not be a better opportunity than this.
Epilogue
To be very fair to the target audience of this article, there may be counter-arguments about how pressure is also mounting about academic success because parents have invested that much in education. Also, there may be arguments about how many would prefer to stay outside these matters for future employment reasons.
There are also arguments about how some are simply not interested and you cannot force them to be interested. My question would then be whether these reasons justify the apathy. What are the options left then? Do we just let “politicians” and “activists” do their job and complain when they don’t? Or do we just carry on with life?
Either way, I believe this is worth discussing.
* Pang Jo Fan is former president of KPUM 2014/2015.
** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.
