Who would believe it, 10 years on...

... we say these words with more urgency than ever. Read it and then read Jose Saramago's "Seeing"

DEKLARASI PERMATANG PAUH
Menyedari gesaan al-Quran yang bermaksud “tidaklah kami mahu melainkan untuk melakukan islah sekuat daya kami";

Dan berilhamkan tradisi budaya-budaya Asia yang keseluruhannya menganjurkan pembaharuan diri dan masyarakat; Dan menginsafi bahawa Malaysia kini dicengkam kemelut yang dahsyat dan memerlukan kekuatan dalaman untuk bangun semula; Maka kami rakyat Malaysia yang berbilang bangsa dan agama bertekat untuk melancarkan gerakan reformasi yang menyeluruh:

Gerakan reformasi yang terpancar perjuangan hati nurani,dari kesedaran bahawa sesungguhnya diri manusia itu mulia dan merdeka, mempunyai hak dan tanggungjawab, diri manusia haram dizalimi dan diaibkan, haram di belenggu dan disekat tanpa mengikut proses dan undang-undang yang adil;

Gerakan reformasi untuk menegakkan keadilan untuk semua, yang kuat dan yang lemah, yang kaya dan yang miskin; membersihkan institusi dan proses undang-undang dari dicemari oleh penyalahgunaan kuasa dan rasuah;

Gerakan reformasi untuk mendaulatkan kuasa rakyat melalui proses demokrasi. Demokrasi itu satu kemestian, kerana semangat keadilan yang ada dalam diri manusia membolehkan demokrasi dilaksana, tetapi kecenderungan manusia untuk berlaku zalim menjadikan demokrasi satu kewajipan;

Gerakan reformasi untuk memperjuangkan keadilan ekonomi,menjana pertumbuhan dan pengagihan yang saksama, jangan yang kaya bertambah kaya yang miskin papa kedana. Dunia ini mencukupi untuk keperluan semua, tetapi tidak mencukupi untuk memenuhi kerakusan individu;

Gerakan reformasi untuk membanteras rasuah dan penyalahgunaan kuasa, mengikis manipulasi pasaran oleh segelintir golongan rakus dan mahakaya;

Gerakan reformasi untuk memperkukuhkan jayadiri budaya yang dinamis, setia kepada warisan bangsa yang murni dan terbuka kepada segala yang baik dari semua budaya;

Gerakan reformasi untuk membawa bangsa Malaysia ke zaman maklumat dan dunia tanpa sempadan, menjana kebijaksanaan, keyakinan dan keterbukaan untuk menjalin persahabatan sejagat berdasarkan prinsip kebenaran dan keadilan.

Kami akan menggerakkan reformasi ini dengan aman, mengikut semangat perlembagaan dan bernafaskan prinsip pemerintahan undang-undang.

Masanya telah tiba. Bersatulah untuk reformasi.

Permatang Pauh
12 September 1998


PERMATANG PAUH DECLARATION
Being conscious of the Quranic injunction which urges striving towards betterment;

And inspired by the Asian traditions, which all encourage renewal for the individual and for society;

And acknowledging that Malaysia is in the grip of a terrible crisis and requires recourse to its inner strengths in order to rise again,

We the citizens of Malaysia of all cultural and religious backgrounds are determined to launch a movement for comprehensive reform:

A reform movement shining with a light radiating from aspiring and pure hearts; from the awareness that man is truly noble and free, with rights and responsibilities, that it is a sacrilege to abuse and denigrate any man or woman, to bind and restrict any man or woman without following the due process of just laws;

A reform movement to establish justice for all, the weak and strong, the rich and poor, to preserve the institutions and processes of law from the defilement of graft and abuse of power;

A reform movement to sanctify the power of the people through democratic means, for democracy is an imperative: man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary;

A reform movement that champions economic justice, one that advocates fairness in economic growth and distribution so that the rich do not get richer at the expense of the poor, for the world has enough for everyone, but too little to satisfy everyone’s greed;

A reform movement to eradicate graft and abuse of power, to strip the opulent and greedy clique of their power to manipulate the market;

A reform movement to reinforce a dynamic cultural identity, where faith in our noble cultural traditions is intact, but there is openness to all that is good in all traditions;

A reform movement to launch the Malaysian nation into the information age and the borderless world, encouraging wisdom, self-assurance and openness towards a global friendship based on the principles of truth and justice.

We launch this reform movement as a peaceful movement, in accordance with the spirit of the Constitution and in observance of the principles of the rule of law.

The hour has come. Unite for Reformasi.

Permatang Pauh
12 September 1998

Tibet II

Interesting how China, the world's growing superpower, seems equally as intent as the USA has been on murdering language.

Yu Heping, spokesperson for the Chinese office of public security says: “In Tibet and surrounding regions, armed groups are preparing themselves to battle for independence. These, at the instigation of the Dalai Lama, intend to use suicide bombers to carry out their attacks and destroy our nation’s social harmony”.

So now the Dalai Lama, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, is instigating suicide bombing attacks. Note in the above short statement: 'armed', 'battle', 'instigation', 'attacks', 'destroy', 'suicide bombers'. Make no mistake, this is the slow churning of language against reality - like water against rock. Already the world will begin to see the rock as something that it isn't. Suddenly the Dalai Lama is a terrorist. But worse, far worse, is when the rock begins to believe itself to be something it isn't - that's when it changes shape. That's when a peaceful, pacifist people strap explosives to their bodies and walk into crowds.

John Berger: 'it takes about six half-truths to make a lie.' That's on our side of the wall, I guess. What happens on the other side of the wall (the side of Superpower) is inversion: 'it takes about six half-lies to make a truth'.

I have heard the Dalai Lama speak. Every word sounded like a clear bell in troubling times. I have no doubt he knows the way - he will wait, or act, or speak, with his customary wisdom and compassion. Superpowers believe in the politics of profit and power - they will attempt to divide, in order to rule. They set the limits of power and room to move. But in the politics of truth, there is no need for division between religious doctrine and political will. To resist Superpower, we must become water, not rock.

Today, when you're feeling stressed, remember the Dalai Lama's pragmatic advice: "Try to slow down, breathe in happiness, and breathe out suffering".

Does that sound like someone who instigates suicide bombers to you?

Tibet

The Dalai Lama is still one of the sane and human faces in the global political circus.

For those who think Buddhism is a passive belief and cannot reconcile political resistance with the concept of detachment from worldly affairs, generally we can be said to look at it this way: if you can help, then help; if you can't, then at least do no harm. We cannot let oppressors do what they want willy-nilly, because to allow them to do that is bad for them. We continue to take the path of love and compassion towards our fellow human beings, but we are certainly not passive. I think this concept can be easily applied even if you are not a believer.

Remember that the Dalai Lama is seeking autonomy for Tibet, NOT independence. He is willing to deal with China on those terms. I feel this is the right path. It is clear that this is not simply about preserving sovereignity, it's about preserving culture, knowledge, language and the way of life of an entire people - now that's something worth fighting for. It MUST NOT be allowed to lenyap begitu saja.

Sorry but

...the new Ministry of UNITY, arts, culture and heritage is just fucking stupid. Is this the government's version of lateral thinking?

Any one of these okay aso wat:

Ministry of Unity and Internal Security
Ministry of Unity and Human Resources
Ministry of Unity, Trade and Foreign Affairs
Ministry of Unity, Forestry and Agriculture
Ministry of Unity, Youth and Sport
Ministry of Unity and Islamic Affairs
Ministry of Unity and Transport
Ministry of Unity, Women and Welfare

So, janganlah keep unity just for the arts! The honour is too great.

Someone please start a Miss Unity pageant. Tudungs compulsory.

Thoughts on art, exchange and going beyond pressure

Hanging with M.S. again the other night, he told me some bad news - that his grant application for the international performance art festival he was planning in Myanmar had fallen through. Commiserations for this perplexing, depressing blow took the form of dinner and beers.

Smoking some criminally strong cigarettes (thanks z.), our conversation stumbled and flopped around broken language. Silences were punctuated with random, gratuitous cries of 'beyond pressure!', raised glasses, cheesy laughter. It was so totally geeky I'm glad no one else was there to witness it.

Somewhere along the way we managed to have bouts of furious back and forth about performance, language, access, economics and power. A light started to shine on that confused part of my mind that's been pondering on relative inequalities - reflected in all levels of living in the world, and thrown into stark focus when two artists like me and M.S. interact. In between the market, national and global politics, biennial fever, superstar curators, supernova artists, criticism, writing, professional careers - where is art?

Here is art. The importance of M.S.'s proposed festival of performance art - Beyond Pressure - is this: one, that people who are not in Myanmar have access to different ways of looking at what is happening there now, which I am certain is nothing like what's in the media; two, that it creates from within a space in which people who are in Myanmar can take part in the representation of themselves, a reaffirmation of their place in the global community. Here is art - that beyond day to day survival, we can resist the pressures from within and without that insist on keeping us where we are: firmly in our places in the first or third world, firmly dependent on a feudal system of global economy.

This is not about inequality and a futile attempt to level it. This is about representations - access to an alternative system of representation can profoundly change the way we look at (and act in!) the world. An example close to home: who amongst us middle-class Malaysians has not harboured thoughts of suspicion and fear towards immigrants from Myanmar, Bangladesh and Indonesia? And if it's not suspicion and fear, then isn't it a profound discomfort underpinned by guilt and a sense of helplessness each time you're served by a waiter for Myanmar and you know she has no rights in the eyes of either her employer or our government? This is where art comes in and does what nothing except art can do - it presents an alternative. Beyond the language of politics and NGOs, which in many ways reaffirms conditions of inequality even as they attempt to allay the symptoms of it, there are other ways of approaching and getting to know each other.

Performance. We were talking about how there seemed to be difference in approach. For convenience we were throwing around the category 'west' with total hubris, like a beach ball - how a 'western' approach to performance seems to invest hugely in language and text, evidenced in how more meaning is put in to the text of a performance instead of the action. True. Many times I catch myself conceiving of a work using language first, then the image emerges from that, almost as if seeking a way to illustrate the text in my head. Looking at M.S.'s work, it's different. The action/image holds the meaning, and is the starting point. The action is long, pregnant, complex; usually no text accompanies it. Why is it important to identify this difference? Because the way we access power in the artworld (manifest as connections, market value, etc) is through the 'western' (there's that beach ball again) system of language and text. Where and how a performance is written about perpetuates it as a commodity (lets call it nothing else) in a global value system that may have absolutely nothing to do with the very MOMENT and PLACE in which that performance was enacted.

What this is means is the degree to which you are valued (critically and commercially - although the two seem interchangeable these days) depends on your access to this system of language. For a country like Myanmar, the access is almost nil. Why no Burmese artists at Biennales? Why relatively few (but steadily growing) number of Malaysian artists? This isn't a question asked from the outraged position of the marginalized, rather I ask it instructively. Let's not kid ourselves. It may be one day we'll see Malaysia represent strongly at Biennales all over the world. It may be one day we'll have our own. Beyond glamour and recognition, what would it mean? It's high time art regained some of its teeth and courage; it's high time biennales take an honest critical position about themselves by putting the system of biennales squarely at the center of its own curatorial concern. Back to why I think it's imperative that Beyond Pressure performance art festival is held in Myanmar: it helps us to invent a new language of performance - both in the action and the word - that sheds light on how to believe in an art that goes beyond market politics and power. I want an art that lives, breathes and acts in the world today. It's possible, and it's important. It's not a utopian challenge, but one of resistance.

Beyond pressure! Cheers!

Privacy, imagination and voting

It's 3pm the day before Elections. I shall tell you that the sun is shining outside with rain clouds not far away on the horizon; that I'm alone at home writing this, and that this is a moment of blessed privacy. Soon, I'll get into my car and step into the communal chaos of an election campaign.

Being an artist in Malaysia, you're always wondering about your own usefulness. It seems there's an outer realm of reality (can we say politics?), and then there's an inner world of unassailable privacy in which you create (could we call it art?). The two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. In fact, things get interesting when they overlap.

I don't know much about politics, but I do know quite alot about imagination. Now, I can't be sure, but it seems to me that imagination can't exist without privacy. One strange effect of this election period that I have observed is a steady taking over of the communal into the private. What I mean is, when you write, you'll think about who is reading; when you act, you'll wonder what it's for. You think bigger than yourself. You attach to a community, a team, a party. Your ballot resurrects and reaffirms your place as a member of society.

This past week has confirmed in me, stronger than ever, the place of imagination in every part of life and society. Without it, it means that no one has a space in which to be themselves. We become issues, and worse, language dies for us. This is the one thing I'll hold on to as I step out to vote, because it makes me calm to think that voting need not be divorced from imagination. That in spite of all the campaigning, voting is a deeply private act. In that moment I'll act as myself and not for any party or person. It's worth more than 'making it count', and imagination accompanies every X like a hope or a prayer.

Journalism, my a$$

Re: mainstream Malaysian newspapers - I rather go out and buy toilet paper la, like that at least got use before throw away.

Calling all Anak Bangsa Malaysia

(AFP photo lifted from elizabethwong.wordpress.com)

(11 Nov) The morning after: YAY! Different reports carrying different numbers, but the reliable one seems to be 40,000 - 50,000 people: the biggest public demonstration in Malaysian history. Is this one going to be in Malaysia Guiness Book of Records? Hahaha. Congratulations to us all! OMG, so proud right now. ^_^ Ya, gomen mana nak letak muka....?


(10 Nov) UPDATE: This is the day. Full updates and coverage on:

www.harakahdaily.net
www.m2day.org
http://elizabethwong.wordpress.com/

Road blocks were set up all over the city since last night. The gathering has been declared 'illegal' by the government and police, and those who attend are being threatened with arrest and jail. If Dataran Merdeka is closed, the alternative rallying points are:

1. Sogo
2. Majid Negara
3. Majid Jamek
4. Pasar Seni

All the best! Will be praying and meditating from 3pm onwards for a safe and peaceful rally. You'll see my spirit there! >_< (9 Nov) UPDATE on the eve of gathering: My distant but most heartfelt prayers go with those who are marching tomorrow. May all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas bestow blessings and peace upon you; may you march without fear, anger, hatred or pride, but with happiness and compassion in your heart. Namo O Namo Amithaba Buddha. (7 Nov) FURTHER UPDATE: I think this rally is really important and it kills me more than you know that I can't attend, and I'm sorry, but... BAD aesthetics are BAD aesthetics. BERSIH has made a 'video' for the Nov 10 Gathering: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4ycaduE_D4

On the scale of cheese, it's probably of the stinky blue veined variety. You have to watch it, but I will say this: it is set to Michael Jackson's 'Man In The Mirror'. Yes, all 5mins14secs of it. I mistrust and disagree with anyone who uses images gratuitously, as propaganda, to manipulate emotions and to further their own agenda under the guise of something else. After years of state-sponsored visual assault, I can't take it. I can't take the tacky over-statement and theatricalization of a movement that's so important and so powerful as this. Unless it's a spoof video. Is it a spoof? It could be. In which case it is ROTF LOL funny. I mean, it is THAT bad. And it features an endless run of images of 'important' people, such as Wan Azizah and Anwar Ibrahim (most recognizable). Fuck that shit. This is about the rakyat. No one else.

Perhaps hardly important in the scheme of things, but an unworthy exercise all the same.

(6 Nov) UPDATE: Damn this shit is serious. Yesterday BERSIH'S website was hacked to display a message that said the gathering was postponed. What a dirty, underhanded lil muthafuckin stunt! Ok, I just visited site, well shit, now the whole thing is offline. Whatever la. Everyone, let's go to this thing, jom, mari kita protes!
***NOTE: THE GATHERING IS NOT POSTPONED AND WILL TAKE PLACE ON 10 NOV, 3PM AS PLANNED.

This is a sticky post, will keep it at the top until Nov 10. I am there in spirit. Let's show them and ourselves that it is the people who have the power. Remember to wear yellow! Note: this is likely to be a huge gathering, their target is 100,000 people. In light of this you'll have to make the choice whether to attend. Go on! I would. Good luck! More information at BERSIH - Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections.

Bullies in the schoolyard

UPDATE: Nat Tan has released a statement documenting his experience of being detained under OSA for four days. You can read it here. I was going to quote certain passages but on second thoughts, have decided not to. It is a remarkably succinct and cool-headed account that needs (deserves) to be read in its entirety. Although he details how he was repeatedly denied access to legal council and how he was physically and mentally intimidated by the police, he also notes that 'the substandard and rushed nature of this investigation is the result of political meddling and pressure in police affairs.'

I don't know what this means for bloggers like me who write about their favorite candy and weekend trips to the waterfall. One cannot help but feel that events like these have no bearing on day-to-day life in good ol' KL. They seem to exist in another realm, a realm so far removed from the MNG Sales or your next career opportunity. This realm is locked in oppositional orbit with state power - they whirl around each other to create a planet whose gravitational pull sucks those in who touch it.

I'm reminded of three different passages: one is the closing lines to Kam Raslan's eloquent essay 'A river runs through it' accompanying the upcoming exhibition Selamat Datang ke Malaysia (which I'm showing in! Don't miss it! Opening 22 Aug at VWFA): '...we're all looking for a place where we can be safe and feel at home. We're all so different, and our artists must be our rivers'.

Another is by Primo Levi: 'It is the duty of righteous men to make war on all undeserved privilege, but one must not forget that this is a war without end.'

And the last by South African novelist Andre Brink: 'The totalitarian order depends for its very existence on a precarious equilibrium. Without the heretic, the rebel, the writer, the state crumbles: yet by tolerating him, the ruler equally well seals his fate. As least by implication, Big Brother's mighty system disappears because he wanted to eradicate the dissident - but could not do without him'.

Fellow South African writer J.M Coetzee examines Brink's politics of dissent: '..two ways in which the writer can betray his mission: first, by subordinating his own aesthetic standards to lust for battle; second, by succumbing to the lure of uttering the forbidden simply because it is forbidden.'

May all writers and artists hold true to walking that fine, precarious line.

-----------------------------------

We get the government we deserve.


From CIJ (Center for Independent Journalism) website:

Nathaniel Tan was taken for questioning by three plainclothes police officers since 4:45pm on 13 July. The policemen, believed to be from the Special Branch, were said to have requested for Tan to follow them to the Bukit Aman police headquarters for questioning and did not provide any reasons as to why Tan was asked to follow them. Police confirmed at 10:00pm on 13 July that they have taken Nathaniel Tan.

July 14, 2007:

Police have remanded blogger Nathaniel Tan for four more days to investigate him under Section 8 of the Official Secret Act (OSA), according to lawyer Latheefa Koya. Nat was alleged to possess documents relating to corruption charges against the Deputy Minister of Internal Security [Mohd Johari Baharom].

CIJ was told that the police's investigation arises from a comment left on Nathaniel's blog about Johari, who was mired in allegations of accepting bribery for the release of high-profile criminals. Johari was recently cleared of the charge by the Anti-Corruption Agency. It was said that someone made a police report against Nathaniel over the posting.

Section 8 of OSA penalizes possession and communication of official secret. OSA is a widely criticized law because its definition of state secret allows unlimited amount of information to be classified. A person found guilty under OSA can receive a maximum sentence of life imprisonment or hefty fines.

Don't be sidetracked by the details of whether Nat Tan should have been detained or not. Don't forget that what this shows is how police can come into your house or office and take you away without telling you why. They can hold you for hours before arresting you or allowing you to consult a lawyer. This is unlawful, unconstitutional and a gross abuse of power. Nat's friends and family were frantically searching for him for 6 hours before finally being told that he was held at Dang Wangi Police Station.

Local blogger Jeff Ooi of Screenshots is keeping close track of developments. Human rights lawyer Malik Imtiaz blogs about how the OSA is unconstitutional, here. You can sign an online petition here. You can get updates and the Free Nat Now banner (above) from Mob's Crib, here.