A lot of us Malaysians consider our government as the main bulwark towards greater free speech in this country. I thought so too until the Non Sequitur and New Straits Times (NST) controversy occured. As the issue unravels, it’s becoming clear that the principle hurdle towards free speech is not the government. Instead, it is the society itself; us.
The more I look at it, the more convinced am I of the fact that Malaysians, even the urbanites that on the surface are for free speech, are unprogressive and illiberal wherever the ideal is concerned. Instead, they practice selective free speech, which is an act of hypocrisy. In this controversy, same people that chastise the government for blatant disrespect of free speech are calling for censorship of NST. It’s scary to see these people working to undermine free speech. A fifth column in the most unexpected vocal camp – bloggers like Jeff Ooi!
Jeff Ooi is probably a free speech icon in Malaysian blogosphere. Worse, he seems to be jumping up and down seeing NST getting into trouble. It will be crucial to keep the whole episode in mind the next time Jeff Ooi get into trouble.
While bloggers don’t represent the Malaysian society as a whole, it does give a glimpse of what’s happening. And while not all Malaysians are supporting actions against NST, it seems to me, a sizable numbers are.
All I want to say is that, if we ourselves, Malaysians disrespect free speech and criticize other for disregarding free speech, then we shouldn’t blame the government for practicing censorship. We shouldn’t even get mad whenever the government practices it. After all, it’s we that elect the government into office. The government is an image of us, the people, the majority.
The right thing to do in the name of free speech is to come to NST’s defense. No censorship whatsoever.
Finally, in form of reductio ad absurdum: if NST is guilty of publishing and republishing the strip, then Jeff Ooi is also guilty of republishing it. If NST is being punished for publishing the strip, so should Jeff Ooi. Since Jeff Ooi supports action against NST, then Jeff Ooi must support actions against himself.
Absurd? If yes, then there must be a flaw in reasoning somewhere. Right?
4 replies on “[736] Of reductio ad absurdum and selective free speech”
… and yeah __earth listen to Rachael, write a book and world will carry you on the shoulders! :)
Interesting article, up to me Jeff is just testing how far he can go. God knows what’s his real agenda.
__earth I fully agree with you. Eventhough, NST is hypocrites in this case Jeff Ooi should have supported them in order to defend free speech. He should not have allied with PAS as this organisation does not know what “free speech” means.
I love to see what you have written on this blog, its so great to see people actually standing their ground for what they believe in, but, now here im not trying to critisize or patranise you but don’t you think you could do this in a more effective way? like write a book or something? Because here you are just risking a hell of a lot for all of this fighting you are doing that only a small percentage of the world are seeing.
One man cant win this fight that so many other people around the world have been fighting for most of their lives, people are fighting wars for this kind of thing and it still hasnt changed anything. BUT!.. If you WERE to win this fight, and get more people to say what they think WITH you, wouldn’t it be more effective to push what your saying out there to the world abit more? Write a book, get yourself known, get a bigger audience, im sure so many people will respect what you are saying, and you would be more on the path of actually making a difference- you would be more of an idol to those who believe strongly in what you’re saying :)