Earlier today, the highest court in Malaysia upheld the constitutionality of the Sedition Act of 1948, a colonial-era law which has in recent years seen heightened and arbitrary abuse.

This was in reference to a challenge brought by law lecturer Azmi Sharom, charged over comments made in a 2014 article in which he cautioned against using extra-constitutional means to gain control of a state legislature, referring to a hypothetical move by the opposition, and a past move taken by the ruling coalition of Malaysia.

This despite Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s assurances on taking office that this bygone law was unnecessary in a modern, democratic Malaysia.

Like many other moments in 2015, a question lingers - will Malaysians continue to watch the slow-motion train wreck that is the country’s governance, resigned to the destruction of our nation’s principles?

It is beyond farcical to seriously entertain suggestions that the abuse of this law boils down to race, religion or some flavour political partisanship.

At base, the situation - of which this is just the most recent example - speaks to the content of our nation’s democratic principles (as aspirational as they remain), and how comfortable we as Malaysians are with their erosion.

Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, languishing in a Birmingham jail, famously quipped: “More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.”

Indeed, Malaysians’ silence - notwithstanding important movements like Bersih, Gerakan Hapus Akta Hasutan (Ghah), as well as everyday expressions of dissatisfaction amongst close friends and family - remains, we must note, rivalled by the powers that be.

Those pulling the strings in our country continue to use time, and other, overwhelming resources of power, as if not more effectively than those fighting against the authoritarianism that lies behind an increasingly laughable veneer of democracy.

Malaysians must take these events not as setbacks, but as reminders of what obstacles remain, and how the powers that be in our country, tasked solely with acting benevolently on our behalves, remain steadfast in reinforcing, rather than deconstructing, these barriers.

Demanding more than outrage

Yet abuse of the Sedition Act, the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma), Section 124 of the Penal Code and other repressive legislation demands more than outrage, preaching to the choir, and slacktivism (indeed, I daresay, more than mere opinion pieces like this one.)

It requires reaching out to those ignorant of the generational implications for authoritarian consolidation - who (readers of this piece should not be surprised) remain legion.

In his letter, Dr King continued, “Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.”

The truth he speaks of here transcends the particulars of our country’s malaise, reminding us we cannot rely on the mere ‘obviousness’ of injustice to shepherd those around us to the answer we view as correct. Nor, can we hold them at arm’s-length, decrying their apparent ignorance and disagreement, all the while providing little way forward for constructive dialogue.

This, I hasten to remind my fellow Malaysians, makes us no better than those who justify their silencing of our voices in the name of the greater good.

Thus, in the hours, days, months and years that we have been granted, regardless of whether one is an individual of faith or not, we must remain humble as we are steadfast, in our speech and advocacy, as well as the substantive actions we take. We must ask why those who disagree with our commentary do so, listening as much as we speak, so as to understand why generations of development have brought us to where we are, and where we, as Malaysians, must go from here.

The struggle remains long; the agony, as many steeped in this struggle can readily attest, enduring. But we must continue, taking solace in the fact that with each day, we have the potential to share the significance - and the service - that our nation’s future has unavoidably pressed Malaysians into.