For Assanges, Snowdens of Malaysia

In spite of the conflict in deciding the limits of freedom of speech and where the press stands in revealing information to society, one cannot deny that it is the granting of this freedom that makes up the characteristic of an open, democratic society – something I believe that Malaysia aspires to be as well.

We do not live in a world of well-kept secrets any more. The best example to testify to this would be Julian Assange and Edward Snowden.

The Edge and Sarawak Report are as close as it gets to being the local versions of “The Fifth Estate”, with Ho Kay Tat and Clare Rewcastle-Brown as our own Assanges. While it seems “wrong” from the moral standpoint to mislead a whistle-blower to reveal details about the involvement of Jho Low and PetroSaudi International in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal, it cannot be denied that the leakage of such information celebrates the concept of democracy because it upholds the entitlement to truth, free speech and people’s power.

As much as these characters seem to portray the kind of “civil obedience” that we find to be unprecedented, it is these actions that signify the global epidemic of weakened check-and-balance institutions to push for social and political justice.

Perhaps we could consider this as an act of “necessary evil” to reveal the greater evils of the world because, let’s face it, we are all sinners – it is just a matter of who is the biggest one.

1MDB is a matter of public interest because it involves national funding. With the suspension of The Edge Weekly and The Edge Financial Daily, it is brutally cold evidence that we belong to a nation that shreds the revelation of truth and our leaders still believe the people are ignorant, or too afraid to speak up.

The censorship of these publications is, in my opinion, a “knee-jerk reaction” that stemmed from a failed understanding of how press freedom is the greatest feature of a democratic society.

In a country which has experienced an overwhelming crackdown on dissent by making selective use of the Sedition Act, the clampdown on free media is considered a much darker episode in the continuous erosion of our fundamental liberties.

It is truly a terrible betrayal to instil fear in individuals that wish to express opinions, and it is even more grotesque that the right to access information of national interest in different angles, to consider and evaluate, is taken away from the people and defeats the principles of liberalism that this nation was founded with.

Even Tunku Abdul Rahman admitted that a lack of freedom of information was one of the greatest regrets of his prime ministership because he believed in encouraging active public opinion to avoid dictatorship in this country – which is why it is so crucial that Malaysians understand the role of press freedom in the representation of civil society.

With the empowerment of press freedom, transparency in governance becomes inevitably a public demand that must be met in order to preserve political stability. This is because it reflects on the accountability and credibility of our politicians based on the assessment of crisis management skills and public image projection that abides to the respect of civil liberties as conferred in the Federal Constitution.

Instead, there has only been tremendous effort to silence critics by shutting down avenues of voicing consciousness. A government that understands that its position is not above the rule of law ought to make clarifications rather than shallow, unjustified denials as we witness today.

Ironically though, some of our politicians dispel the impression of running a “shady business” but appear to do so in the public eye, indeed a rather offensive insult to everyone’s intelligence.

Doubt has cast its dark shadow over all that seemed perfect and infallible. The most appropriate thing to do is to seek answers to the burning questions that we always thought were the truths, when they were only the truths that made us feel our trust has not been breached.

However, it is also these truths that create insecurity, shocking some others out of their comfort zone simply because it acts against their self-interest to remain in power. It is this void of unanswered concerns that intensely compels us to further interrogate and connect the dots to make sense of the bigger picture.

As Albert Camus once said, “A free press can, of course, be good or bad, but most certainly without freedom, the press will never be anything but bad.”

In a situation where the integrity of our institutions are being compromised and continues to be on the verge of collapsing, press freedom was the final option to promote check and balance in democracy.

Unfortunately, the persistence to remain 147th in the global press freedom index seems to supersede the desire to preserve the progressive ideals of the nation, pushing us all over the edge. – July 30, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.