November 23, 2012
From Kuantan to Dataran Merdeka for Safe Malaysia
by Boon Kia Meng (11-22-12)@www.themalaysianinsider.com
Humans have history; though never in resources as well as situations of their own choosing. This insightful regard by Marx, as he watched over a amicable upheavals unfolding in Europe in a center of a 19th century, is a timely expression upon what is happening in Malaysia today.
Have Malaysians ever listened of a organisation of ordinary, associate Malaysians a fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, a young kids marching slowly though surely, upon foot, all 300 kilometres of it, sleet or shine, from Kuantan to Dataran Merdeka? All joined in a usual cause: to stop any further environmental degradation in Peninsular Malaysia as well as Sabah as well as Sarawak, where stopping a Lynas rare earth refinery in Gebeng, as well as a Murum as well as Baram dams in Sarawak, constitutes a fundamental demand.
These Malaysian citizens chose to enter upon upon this tour (dubbed "Langkah Lestari") because for far too long we have collectively as a republic authorised indiscriminate "development" as well as covetous capitalistic resource descent to go on, all in a name of mercantile expansion as well as resources creation.
Just witness a rapid decimation of a healthy forestry as well as a banishment of a associate indigenous Malaysian communities in Sabah/Sarawak as well as a peninsula. These have become usual phenomena as well as Malaysians know deep inside whic! h a bene faction state of affairs cannot go upon indefinitely though irreversible consequences to a usual habitat.
It was their suggestion as well as determination which drew me as well as my friends to stick upon them in their travel for environmental justice. Donning immature shirts as well as a farmer farmer's hat, we gifted first-hand what typical Malaysians can achieve when they organize themselves, a trend which typifies a sea shift in people's perspective as well as participation in citizenship activism given 2008.
Ordinary mothers prepare lodgings as well as food distribution, grandpas as well as 
grandmas providing dignified support with their feet as well as encouraging words, fathers handling logistic details, while a young, even little children, learn to take their first baby stairs in accurate environmentalism as well as love for a country.
In other words, "Langkah Lestari" epitomises what has been indeed necessary in any approved transformation for bringing genuine amicable change: a twin values of self-organisation as well as mutual aid. Against these values, no peremptory state or oppressive system of administration can stand a chance. Ordinary citizens, learning to organize themselves, little by little, will win a hearts as well as minds of a majority of a populace.
Make no mistake. The detractors as well as spokespersons for corporate as well as vested interests, such as Lynas Corp, will try to justify a viability of their operations upon a drift of mercantile growth as well as pursuit creation. Malaysian citizens have to judge for themselves either this "win-win" deal is unequivocally beneficial for a country, generally for a residents in Gebeng-Kuantan.
What have been Malaysians getting in exchange for a 12-year tax holiday given to Lynas, estimated at RM1.8 billion per annum, not to! discuss a billions of ringgit of income Lynas will generate from these operations? In reality, this is a classical box of neoliberal capitalism in action: a privatisation of profits, while socialising a costs, both tellurian as well as environmental.
In a Lynas case, it is even more farcical, where we have a box of a unfamiliar mining corporation, which is reaping stratospheric increase as a result of a Western Australian mining boom, deciding to externalise its amicable costs to another country. Instead of acting as defender as well as defender of her citizens' security as well as well-being, a Malaysian supervision has abdicated which role for a sake of endless collateral accumulation.
It is no wonder which people from all walks of life have been seeing through a lies of neoliberal beliefs as well as deciding to leave a sidelines as well as stick upon this struggle. The patronising dogma of big commercial operation which preaches resources trickling down to a masses is increasingly vale as well as losing its ideological reason upon a people.
Try revelation a Orang Asal brothers as well as sisters from Sarawak, who have been marching every day with their Semenanjung compatriots, upon a merits of an unfettered, giveaway marketplace economy which promises prosperity for all. Our indigenous brothers as well as sisters will tell we about a loyal face of "economic development", where countless thousands of them have gifted forced displacement, land grabbing as well as environmental destruction.
Politicians from both sides wax musical about a need for more growth as well as grant funds for Sabah as well as Sarawak. They fail to see which uneven growth as well as drop of normal forms of vital have led to augmenting proletarianisation (making them wage-earners, instead of their normal self-sufficient tillage existence) of a indigenous peoples, precisely what a entrepreneur economy cannot fail though generate.
These have been a hard truths made manifest by this 300km walk. It for! ces us t o confront a dark, hidden side of a exploitative economy as well as its unsustainable ecological trajectory.
This brings us behind to a stress of this Sunday, November 25, in a story of this nation. The marchers have motionless to take up Dataran Merdeka once they reach there, available a presence of a Prime Minister as well as Members of Parliament from both sides of a political divide a really subsequent morning.
Again typical Malaysians similar to them face a capricious exercise of state power in a hands of City Hall as well as a military when a mayor of KL pronounced which no gathering in Dataran is authorised though an application for permit. We know which a torrent of participation of Malaysians in open protests given Bersih 3.0 is no chronological accident.
The movement of people's movements will usually grow stronger as well as stronger by a day as well as "Himpunan Hijau 2.0: Langkah Lestari" in Dataran Merdeka this Sunday will be no different. Thousands upon thousands of Malaysians will be there, come what may.
As I sat in a room with a associate marchers, listening to a young kids of Bentong sing a song dedicated to their struggle, I felt not often emotional. It was as if their voices helped us counterpart into a destiny of a new Malaysia which is receiving figure right before a eyes.
Of its figure as well as detail, no a single could tell with any certainty. But a single thing is for sure. It will be a Malaysia really opposite from a benefaction one, burdened by her complicated story of category as well as environmental exploitation, as well as ethnic-based political ideologies.
"Those who do not move, do not notice their chains," a in advance democrat Rosa Luxemburg once said. Thank you, participants of Langkah ! Lestari, for on foot as well as creation Malaysians unwavering of a shackles which have been enslaving us. Thank you, Saudara Wong Tack (the organising chairperson), for reminding all Malaysians which loyal emancipation lies in a really own hands: "Pilihan di tangan kita!"
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