So there’s this big furore now over the Malaysian rapper Wee Meng Chee who is studying in Taiwan, over his Negarakuku video on YouTube.

I was reading about it in today’s The Sun (which only made page 10 today, hmm, clearly with the upcoming Merdeka celebrations and possibility of General Elections, the media agenda is to push ‘nation-building’ and all that fluffy stuff to prominence while issues such as these which would normally easily have made it to page 2-5 have been stuck further back), and it pleased me to see that The Sun actually took pains to quote both parties–Wee himself, and the government.

What angered me (or at least irked me a whole lot) was the Gabungan Pelajar Melayu Semenanjung’s (GPMS) statement on how the government should review the laws (because since Wee is not under government sponsorship,they have no power to call him back for interrogation, nor take action against Malaysians who ‘commit crimes under Malaysian laws in a foreign land’) so that “action can be taken against Malaysians abroad for ‘committing any form of offences that could jeopardise the security and dignity of the country” according to Pauline Puah of The Sun.

PLEASE LAH.

First of all, I’ve seen the clip, and I suspect, so have many others out there. How could the GPMS be so narrow-minded in the sense that they want to get all righteous and uppity over this, calling for law reforms just to target Malaysians overseas who wish to have the chance to speak out? We live in perpetual fear of the Internal Security Act (ISA) in our own countryas it is, which is bad enough!

It seems to me that them, and many other factions out there have forgotten the constitutional right of Malaysians to Freedom of Expression. Other than that, the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) also under Article 19 as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) both guarantee the right to freedom of expression. The following is the clause from Article 19:

1. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of opinion.

2. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art or through any other media of his choice.

While of course these are obligations on the international front, Malaysia has its own obligations to its citizens, as seen in Article 10 of the Malaysian Constitution, albeit one that is not absolute *flings hands up in air in frustration*. Parliament, as usual, has endless clauses to restrict this, both formally and informally. If you ask me, Malaysia’s laws are retrogressive enough as it is—we have so many restrictions on what we can and cannot speak of, formally and informally; tell me how does this increase Malaysia’s competitiveness and development on the global front?

The 50th Merdeka celebrations are coming up. Please stop making calls for more laws to further restrict us; and so many wonder why so many good activists and journalists have left the country? We’re not allowed to write or speak about the things that really matter, and Wee, in his crude and satirical music clip, has done precisely this (I am silently applauding him, as I’m sure many others out there are, but of course nobody will admit to it because we all also silently acknowledge, to our chagrin, that he is one roast duck).

All hope is not lost, however. The Sun report also cites Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s Youth Wing vice-chair Amirudin Shari calling for Malaysians to look at it in a broader context—it is the “wish of a Malaysian youth for a fairer government policy”, describing the worries and insecurities about issues that permeate society. Too true—Wee, in his video, satirises the police, etc.

When I watched the video I saw the comments left by other Malaysians, and some very angry people asking for Wee to be ‘killed’ (among others), saying how he’s rude, stupid, etc, asking him to ‘balik tongkang’ (literally, get on a boat back to China)—so these attacks against someone’s character and ethnicity is all right, but him parodying the actual situation here isn’t? I suppose if you take a step back, you could say everybody is kind of missing the point—both Wee and the respondents to his video are exercising their fundamental right to freedom of expression; the media should highlight this instead of making accusations that either side are blowing things out of proportion!

What tickled me though, was Wee’s disclaimer at the end (something to the effect of this) —’Please don’t sue me, I have no money’. Clearly he knew he’d be getting into trouble over this, but he went ahead and did it anyway. You can say what you like (freedom of expression, etc), but in my heart, I’m rooting for Wee. True, the video may be crude and politically incorrect, but hey—contextualise, you twats. It’s a parody.

Lots of citizens of other countries constantly parody their leaders and their policies. In Australia, John Howard was a favourite target of comedians in shows such as The Glass House on ABC (or SBS? I forget) and Stand Up, Australia. Yet you don’t hear this overspilling of rage about the ‘integrity, security and dignity of the country’.

If you ask me, certain groups are just making a mountain out of a molehill because they want the ethnic minorities in this country further driven out even more so than they already are. Now this is something that is really saddening, because this is our home too. The recent arguments over Malaysia being a secular/Islamic state and the prohibition of anyone else save for ministers to talk about it just seems to affirm this.

If you really want to talk about doing things for the benefit of the country and its peoples, tackle this issue instead. Don’t pick stupid petty fights over a YouTube video produced by a young man with a misunderstood sense of humour.

My two cents is that before everything gets blown out of proportion, it’s best to look at the issue from a macro perspective—examine the underlying political issues and corresponding insecurities or worries before shooting anyone down. This applies to both supporters of the policies and those who disagree with it.

Sometimes I wish I’d taken up my minor in International Relations instead. Law and policies are such an ambiguous, technical and murky area, and I feel that attacking it from my somewhat-informed perspective serves to complicate and muddle it further for myself and you poor readers out there who have to tolerate my political moods.

I just find it so sad. This is supposed to be a happy time, 50 years of independence, Goddammit. Can we please stop harping on stupid silly issues and focus on bigger, more important things? And I’m not referring to breaking more new world records, or which big shot marries who next. I’m sick of all this silly nitpicking and childish accusations.

Grow up.