Malaysian arts community's joint statement on human and cultural rights

This is a joint statement by the members of the arts communities in Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and English. It is also a show of support to the National Laureate A. Samad Said, who was investigated by the police for reciting his poem in the launch of the rally campaign.

July 8th 2011, Kuala Lumpur

Political Interference will lead to 50 years of backwardness in our cultural development. 

We are a group of people active in the creative communities of Malaysia, who take on the task of creating new culture, to gently encourage the universal values of freedom, equality and social justice as our milieu demands. The multi-ethnicities, multicultural and multi-faiths environment of our country provides us an endless supply of creative resources, and also inspires many possible aesthetic visions, which has clearly benefited the poets, novelists, musicians, dancers, playwrights or artists et cetera. 

However, the recent incidents of domestic repression of dissident voices and violation of basic human rights, have left us feeling injustice and disturbed.

As the law enforcement agency had evoked the Seditious Act and Police Act to question the National Literature Laureate A. Samad Said. We ask, has he committed a monstrous crime when the septuagenarian poet has only recited his poem Unggun Bersih at the `launch' of the BERSIH 2.0 rally? 
" Semakin lara kita didera bara - kita laungkan juga pesan merdeka …," as the poem runs revealing to us such poetic sensibilities as have always been who cares and feels for ones times and country. In this regard, we express our deep grievances. 

We feel disturbed that after half a century of founding of the nation, the space for creative freedom has not expanded much, worse still, our lives are still shrouded in a "culture of fear". We could foresee there would be more absurd "handcuffs" and "shackles" to further clamp down on cultural producers who advocate fairness and pursuit of democracy as A. Samad Said does. We are concerned that such heavy handed political ploys will lead to 50 years of backwardness in our cultural development. 

As part of the creative communities, we certainly cannot stay aloof but to issue the following statements together:


1. Self-expression: We recognize that all cultural producers have the right to choose a personal political position, and creative freedom – as in freedom of speech or personal freedom – is one of the constitutional human rights which cannot be the compromised by others. Only in a relatively free environment, could cultural producers fully realize the significance of self-expression, and he or she would not become the next victim of power game.

2. Rational dialogue: We call on the law enforcement authorities to adopt an open, fair, and professional practice with wisdom, rather than using outdated laws to disrupt the flow of rational dialogues. The poet A. Samad Said was simply expressing his longing for democracy and freedom, and not offering abusive, offensive irrational emotions. In an information age of intense interaction, attempt to demonize a good citizen means is just not feasible. 

3. Clean and fair election: We support the eight demands advocated by the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections, such as a comprehensive clean-up of the electoral rolls, reforms of postal voting, use of indelible ink, independence of institutions and end to electoral graft et cetera. However, regrettably to date, the appeal has not yet received a positive respond by the Election Commission of Malaysia. 

To conclude, while this statement is being drafted, it has been announced that the "709 Bersih Rally" is to be held in a stadium. Regardless of the consequence, we hope that all hearts and soul entrapped would be freed, and above the country would emit rays of humanistic brilliance!