COMMENT Several days ago, I was drawn into being a rather reluctant participant in a conversation with a businessman about how and why people leave Malaysia to seek greener pastures in other countries.

The person sitting across me had just returned from overseas to grow his business here and felt Malaysia offered him more opportunities to grow.

While I tacitly agreed with him, I quickly summed up that his statement about there being opportunities aloft in Malaysia applies strictly to businesses, maybe, but not to other professions in general.

Probably out of necessity of justifying his own decisions and ideologies, he attempted several times to disagree with me: “I’m pretty sure there is a way for everything.”

I told him, with all due respect, that was not the case - not for journalists, not for authors like me. Again, however, he reiterated that there must be a way for everything.

I slowly excused myself out of the argument, merely nodding in response. I did not wish to wage my intellectual tongue against a person who clearly is trying to make himself, and not me, feel better by convincing himself that there must be a way for everything in this country.

Probably it stemmed from the ideology that if you worked hard enough, you can get all the riches you desire in Malaysia. There is no such thing as being unfortunate or leaving it to circumstance.

heat When he compared the layman to the “plenty of people who are rich and successful” in the country to illustrate his point, he probably haven’t seen the level of political patronage that interferes our everyday life.

“No lah, I just ignore them. It will affect you only if you let it affect you,” he contested.

Barely two days later, The Heat , a newsweekly was suspended indefinitely for running a story that ruffled some feathers, possibly, in the Prime Minister’s Office more than it did in the Home Ministry.

If I was not too knackered to educate the ignorant that day, I would have showed him this news to prove my point. I would have thumped my knuckles on the table passionately, and tell said businessman to wake up and face the reality that politics does indeed interfere in everyday life, at least for quite a number of us.

How are the people in The Heat supposed to just ignore the politics and “not let it get to them”? They were just doing their jobs, and now the publication has run into trouble. No business as usual for them because they obviously can’t “ignore” the Home Ministry’s suspension order, can they?

Is there true freedom of choice?

Oh well, those who insist on arguing that there is a way for everything in Malaysia would probably say “just do your jobs without ruffling any feathers”.

Just be nice to everyone, don’t have to see anything as a form of controversy, they'd say. No controversy equals to no threat to your bread and butter.

Yes, this argument, to a certain extent, does make sense, if you follow the Malaysian (or should I say BN) logic of looking at things. That’s exactly the kind of mentality BN component political parties have embodied in many Malaysians.

bersih But that in itself, in a way, defeats its own argument, for isn’t that mindset a result of political interference in the way you think?

The interference that politics has in your personal space need not be measured by your actions alone, but the way your thoughts has been shaped as well.

When you deduce how much of your thoughts and fears have been moulded by political interference ,you need to reflect and ask, as a Malaysian, how many times a day do you feel true freedom in Malaysia?

And when I talk about freedom, I’m not referring to where you eat, drink, work, or party. Rather, it is important to have the freedom to say no, and the freedom to say yes to any particular issue, depending on which side you have greater inclination towards.

For example, some people find themselves reluctant to take to the streets for fear of being arrested, because a leader would have said “jangan soal” (don’t question the government or system).

Hence, how much of freedom do you actually exercise when you say yes or a no- do you say it in fear of not wanting to upset the system cart which trickled down from political patronage, or are you doing so from actual freewill, without any political indoctrination?