Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park
Yes, even Hyde Park has its limitations. There are certain things allowed and certain things not allowed. There are always boundaries you need to observe to ensure you do not stretch the limit of freedom of expression and stray into the boundary of indecent behaviour. So should Malaysia Today be regarded any different?
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
There are many kampong-minded people here in Malaysia Today. And I am not only talking about Malays. You will also find many Chinese, Indians and ‘lain-lain’ with the mentality of a country bumpkin — which you can detect from the way they comment. And most times their comments are out of topic.
I can of course offer many examples of this but allow me to show you one, the latest comment to my previous article: The Islamic concept of Hijrah (http://mt.m2day.org/2008/content/view/23507/84/ )
written by Steven Ong, June 24, 2009 13:11:54
Dear Pete,
Another term for Hijrah is to be ' born again ' . To be transformed by the renewing of the mind. The old self dies and a new life begins free from sins.
Maybe Pete, you should explain the harsh and cruel verses in the Quran like ,;beat your wife if she disobey you (man),. ; kill the infidels and unbelievers,; do not befriend the Jews and the Christian,; carry out jihad to defend Islam by killing the suspects,; a martyr goes to heaven and enjoy life there.; Muslim women should be fully covered to stop men from sinning and many more which I have forgotten.
A religion or culture or party or standard should be view as a whole in order to fully gauge its goodness or badness. Each would like to advertise its goodness in order to attract followers or members. One would not realise the truth till one has dwell deeply into it and could not escape alive! As joining a mafia or Islam?, where one could not leave anymore. Sorry for I view entering Islam is like joining the mafias or drug syndicates. Once entered forever a member till death.
Okay, Steven Ong may hate Islam just like some Muslims hate Jews. In the West such people are called bigots or racist pigs. Steven Ong, however, may prefer that we call him a democrat who is just exercising his democratic right of free speech. But then Hitler too thought it was his God-given right to exterminate the ‘evil’ Jews so that the world would be free of the Jewish scourge and once again be cleansed of all evil people.
Would we rank people like Steven Ong at the same level as Hitler? I doubt it. I doubt whether we can even rank him at the same level as Hitler’s butler. But in terms of warped mind and misplaced values I suppose we can safely rank people like Steven Ong alongside people like Hitler, Saddam and whatnot.
Now, what was my article about? I wrote about the concept of Hijrah and the true meaning of the word. This article is not only meant to educate those not of the Islamic persuasion about what Hijrah means and to give them a better understanding of the concept but also to remind Muslims about their own religion in case they have forgotten. Most times Muslims themselves stray from what Islam stipulates and end up holding on to so-called ideals and dogma which are actually opposed to Islam.
Steven Ong’s response to what I wrote can be read above. However, I just can’t link what he wrote to what I wrote. What has Steven Ong’s comment got to do with the subject matter, which is Hijrah? I write about one thing and he comments about something totally unrelated — although he may think it’s related since his comment is about how bad Islam is.
Of course, if I were to delete his comment he will scream that Malaysia Today is not sincere in allowing freedom of speech. He will accuse me of being a phoney and a hypocrite who does not walk the talk.
Did I say Islam is the best religion in the world? Did I say Islam is the true religion and that all other religions are false? Did I say the best thing for everyone would be to convert to Islam? Why then does Steven Ong feel he needs to ‘counter’ my arguments with such comments? I talk about the nice weather in Australia and he talks about how the whites introduced opium to the Chinese.
Let’s close our eyes and imagine we are thousands of miles away from Kuala Lumpur. We are even further away from Brisbane where a certain Malaysian is alleged to be in hiding — although he appears to be walking around openly on the streets and shaking hands and taking photos with Malaysians he happens to bump into; so he can’t really be in hiding.
Anyway, let’s close our eyes, wherever we may be, and imagine that we are standing on Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park. For those who have never heard of Hyde Park you can click the links below to learn more so that we can avoid another cheong hei article.
Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park is where you can bring a soapbox and stand on it to deliver your speech. You are free to say anything you want. Some people may stop to listen. If you have something interesting to say you may even attract a large enough crowd. Or maybe no one will bother to listen to your ranting and raving and you may actually end up talking to yourself.
But you will not be allowed to stand stark naked on your soapbox to ‘make a point’. If you scream that England is a Godless society and that the Taliban should bomb every British city to teach the enemies of Islam a lesson they would probably arrest you. If you declare that Hitler should have exterminated every Jew and by not doing so the world is now a bleak place you would probably also get into trouble with the law.
Yes, you do have freedom of speech in England and you can exercise this freedom in public places such as the Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park. But there are certain ‘rules of engagement’ you must observe. And if you exceed the boundaries of decency then this will not be tolerated, as this would not be regarded as free speech but indecent behaviour.
Malaysia Today is almost like the Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park. The only thing is you do not stand on a soapbox to scream but instead use your keyboard to ‘talk’. So there are still certain rules of engagement and boundaries between decent and indecent behaviour to observe.
Hyde Park is a public park, which is open to any member of the public who would like to enjoy its facilities. Malaysia Today is almost like a public park but not quite. It is privately owned so there are owners who have the right to define the rules of engagement and the boundaries between decent and indecent behaviour. And you are admitted into Malaysia Today and allowed to comment only after you sign the online agreement that you will observe the rules and agree that you will lose these privileges if you violate the rules.
So understand what is meant by freedom of speech. And understand where freedom of speech ends and indecent behaviour begins. And, most importantly, understand the subject matter and if you do wish to comment — either to rebut the opinion or otherwise — then stick to the topic in question. And when we talk about the lovely weather in Australia don’t fly off the handle and start foaming at the mouth and curse everything under the sun with comments totally unrelated to the subject matter.
Many harbour the fallacy that under the ambit of freedom of speech anything goes. This is not true. While you are free to speak your mind on Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park you are not free to demonstrate your views by indulging in sex on the park bench — even though you feel you are just demonstrating your views and what you are doing is within the ambit of ‘freedom’.
Okay, you may hate the brown-skinned Indians and Pakistanis. You can even launch an all-white political party and campaign for support so that when your party comes into power you will amend the immigration policy to limit the number of non-whites coming into England. But you are not free to incite whites to kill all the non-white immigrants on grounds that these immigrants have brought down the standard of living of their host country.
Yes, even Hyde Park has its limitations. There are certain things allowed and certain things not allowed. There are always boundaries you need to observe to ensure you do not stretch the limit of freedom of expression and stray into the boundary of indecent behaviour. So should Malaysia Today be regarded any different?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyde_Park_Corner
http://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/hyde_park/