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By Mihar Dias (C) Copyright April 2023
"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." Seventy years after the publication of George Orwell's dystopian masterpiece, Nineteen Eighty-Four, the book's first lines are a crystal clear warning of what we have become. Observed, angry, with surveillance abound funded by the State and the corps which work for and with it."
While surveillance equipment are in abundance now watching our every move under the guise of security, the ubiquitous state watches your every move.
But it's clear that most of us are "angry, with surveillance abound funded by the State and the corps which work for and with it" and we choose to demonstrate our frustrations in different ways.
Some have become so cynical and even downright aggressive against intrusion by agents of the state poking into their private lives
Sometimes these agents have to bear the brunt of frustrations among citizens angry about being watched and monitored by the corps employed to spy on its own people.
The religious police is one of those corps that makes other people's business their own.
They have been known to knock on doors of innocent couples late at night with the excuse of preventing cohabitation "khalwat" or close proximity between two unmarried individuals.
Most recently a Tiktoker shows his disgust (comically) against such intrusions on a video clip for everyone to see of a re-enactment of a scene when he is about to have a meal at a restaurant during the month of Ramadan.
He starts by sticking on his forehead an official identity card (IC) issued by the state to prove that he is not a Muslim Malay. To reinforce the point he grabs hold of rosary beads with a dangling cross in one hand and proceeds to eat his meal.
Obviously, he intends to make the clip cynical and funny on what the state (in this case the religious police) takes it seriously as their job in preventing Muslim Malays from eating in public during Ramadan.
Tiktoker @Dawenkoh looks like an average Malay but he isn't. He makes what is serious appear funny and cynical to discourage the intruding religious police from enjoying his meal. His story first appeared on Goody Malaysia.
So, for those Malaysians who look like Malays take a leaf out of Dawen's book, stick your IC on your forehead this Ramadan before your eat in public.
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