I was speechless, confounded with the series of incidents in my beloved country unfolding before my eyes. It was simply unbridled abuse of power.
I wonder how there could be no check on one person’s power regardless of his position; how there could be no institution that can balance his power; and how a person’s act against the clear dictates of conscience could turn the whole nation into an authoritarian regime.
The words of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who has suffered under the totalitarian regime of the postwar Soviet Union, come to mind: “Justice is conscience, not a personal conscience but the conscience of the whole of humanity.
“Those who clearly recognise the voice of their own conscience usually recognise also the voice of justice. The obverse was equally true, that those sufficiently corrupted that they have ceased following the dictates of conscience are those most susceptible to the perpetration of acts of injustice.”
Justice matters. In one of his speeches, Daniel Webster in the eighteenth century articulated: “Justice, sir, is the great interest of people on earth. It is the ligament which holds civilised beings and civilised nations together.”
I just read a letter from Rev Paul Tan - ‘Malaysian Christians must stand up for Justice’ - and remember another letter written on scraps of paper from a prison cell a long while ago.
Martin Luther King, Jr, a pastor who led the freedom movement in America in the sixties, penned these words - ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’ - speaking directly to the church’s failure in time of need: “Let me take note of my other major disappointment. I have been so greatly disappointed with the white church and its leadership... I do not say this as one of those negative critics who can always find something wrong with the church.
“I say this as a minister of the gospel, who loves the church; who was nurtured in its bosom ; who has been sustained by its spiritual blessings and who will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen.
“When I was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus protest in Montgomery, Alabama, a few years ago, I felt we would be supported by the white church, felt that the white ministers, priests and rabbis of the South would be among our strongest allies.
“Instead, some have been outright opponents, refusing to understand the freedom movement and misrepresenting its leader; all too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anaesthetising security of stained-glass windows.”
“More cautious than courageous.” “Silent behind the anaesthetising security of stained-glass windows.” Those words caused me to pause and examine my conscience.
King then went on to conclude that a church that has lost its voice for justice is a church that has lost its relevance in the world.
Equally relevant to any group and individual
Though directed at the Church, King’s words are equally relevant to any group and any individual then and now.
I, for one, had long decided not to be more cautious than courageous and repented for my appalling silence in the past, as King puts it: “We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.”
What will my grandchildren ask me when they look back 25 or 50 years from now and wonder how I could have just sat by and watched when justice was demanded?
Bersih 4, to me, is essentially for matters of justice and justice matters. I thank Bersih 2.0 for organising it with its chief demand for institutional reforms so that justice will prevail. For that, I will be there.
“Let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream.”
(Bible, Amos 5:24)
