been such a long hiatus. but today is important enough to warrant a mention.
i’ve got a new header for this blog. I really dig it. similar to the previous one, but in motion. it feels kinetic and i look funnily enough, garang (angsty). that’s azmyl in the foreground. the picture was taken from a recent gig we did at the Malaysian Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall, in aid of the fundraiser, Rescue the Merdeka Review gig. Merdeka Review is an alternative news medium on the internet. They mainly service news in Malay. Running low on funds as advertising is low. It’s obviously low, because in Malaysia, advertisers, for better or worse, suck government cock, and have this inbuilt mechanism of asking, “will it offend so and so”. this irrational fear, dims my trust in the advertisers ability to be creative.
The band has been fairly active, considering all of us are holding day jobs. Ammar’s been with us since September last year and our new addition, Mr Hwang, on ax duties, has been with us since our very very epic, Rock4Rights gig in Penang. In short, we needed a guitarist for some depth and layers, and couldn’t find one we were comfortable with. then we realised hey, hwang’s running the studio where we practice, and we popped our head out of the studio door and literally asked him, “hey, hwang want to play with us in penang?” and there rest was history.
We’ve had some pretty far out shows and some really odd ones. But i think i enjoyed them all, ask the company was good. We’re slowly coming up with material to record. and that’s been fun albeit at a pace, mr mertle the turtle would appreciate.
More importantly, today is an important day in Malaysia. The Bersih 2.0 rally is happening. you’d only need to scour the internet for news on this to know, that the government is suppressing the citizens right to peacefully assemble and ask for reforms to uphold free and fair elections. Whether they are right or otherwise, that right to assemble has to be preserved. Alas, the government of the day has turned this into a police state and they have been complicit in lying, wrongfully arresting persons connected to the rally and allowing the spread of false allegations to perpetuate their agenda.
The government thinks this is the local version of the “arab spring” or “jasmine revolution”, but they are so grossly ill-educated and misinformed on a basic level. Those riots or demonstrations, started because of demonstrations directly aimed at questioning the legitimacy of the government in power. The Bersih 2.0 rally objective is to ask the government to reform the Elections Commissions and clean up house. There is in no way any attempt to “bring down the government”. Unless of course, the government thinks that it is an affront to criticise the Elections Commission, then you know for a fact that the government is colluding with the commission to ensure that they retain in power over what are considerably reasonable demands from the Bersih 2.0 manifesto.
It does not matter what forum the people choose to air their grouses. The government and all these lame ass people opposed to the Bersih 2.0 rally say that there are more constructive means to deliberate on their grouses. But that is not the point. Perhaps they are right, but the point here is that every citizen has a right to express themselves how the see fit in a peaceable manner and in accordance with the Federal Constitution of Malaysia. That cannot be denied. No act of parliament can extinguish that right. You can regulate it but you cannot extinguish it. Once you do it, you become an illegal government and a police state.
Think about it.
Today is a new chapter in Malaysia.
Tags: Ammar Khairi, Arab Spring, azmyl yunor, bersih 2.0, BN government, Federal Constitution of Malaysia, Hwang Boon Tee, Jasmine Revolution, medeka review, Penang, Right of Expression, Right to Assembly, Rock 4 Rights, Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall, the Maharajah Commission
