Do you think that celebrity entrepreneur, Datuk Seri Aliff Syukri Kamarzaman knew beforehand that the five-minute music video that he had uploaded on his social media account two years ago during the Raya season, which featured exaggerated feminine movements that would later be deemed offensive, disrespectful and promoting values contrary to local norms by public?
I don’t think so.
I truly did not think that a lot of people might have found it disrespectful and offensive, but he genuinely didn’t. I won’t be surprised if the video was probably just an expression of who he is.
Aliff supposedly appeared visibly upset after he was told to enter his defense for uploading the video, and I can understand why.
He probably thought that he was just “being himself” – or saying and doing what comes naturally to him – but a judge, and perhaps a number of people amongst the public, deemed it to be “offensive” and “disrespectful”.
Aliff’s case, by the way, is not an isolated case.
In the last couple months especially, there has been a series of cases where a creator of a content thought they were just expressing themselves normally, according to their standard of what normality means, but many people who saw their expressions deemed it offensive and disrespectful, and because of that, they found themselves in trouble with the law.
The Harith Iskandar Ham sap coffee controversy is one such case – Harith likely identifies as a Malay, and he also likely identifies as a Muslim, and identifying himself as such, he perhaps thought that he had a right to pitch in his two cents worth, on how one should react and behave as a Malay and Muslim, but it turns out, a lot of people didn’t like Harith’s take on what it is to be a Malay Muslim.
According to them, not only is to be a Malay Muslim is not as how Harith deems it to be, Harith’s interpretation might actually offensive to the Malay Muslim identity, because his thoughts and expressions on what the Malay Muslim identity should be, is attacking their interpretation of what the Malay Muslim identity should be.
Another similar case is also in regards to the case of a trio of ERA FM DJ’s who found themselves in hot water for “mocking” the Hindu Thaipusam ritual recently.
I honestly don’t think that trio of DJ’s were intending to “mock” the Hindus – I think life Aliff and Harith, they probably just thought that they were “being themselves” – nobody in this world ever thinks that being oneself – or acting or expressing oneself in a way that syncs with one's heart and mind is in any way wrong or problematic – but it is also often the case that while we don’t think that there is any problem with us being ourselves, other people might disagree.
We might think that we are being honest, but other people might deem us to be rude.
We might think that we are being polite, but others might think that we are hypocritical.
We might think that we value our culture and tradition, but others might think that we are racist and narrow minded.
So who gets to decide what the reality is?
If the Radio DJ’s were to say that they meant no offense, but we deemed it as offensive anyway, or if Harith were to say that he has his interpretation of what is the right way to be a Malay Muslim, but others think that his interpretation is not only wrong, it is offensive or ignorant, or if Aliff Syukri were to say that he was just trying to showcase a humorous side of him, but others were to say that that part of him which he seeks to showcase does not belong to him alone, but them too, and they found the way he showcased that aspect of him, which belonged to all of them, to be demeaning to them, or if Zamri Vinoth were to say that in his point of view, that people who chant vel vel during Thaipusam are possessed and intoxicated is “factually correct”, while we deem him to be spiteful and mean spirited, who is to say who is right or wrong?
Are we supposed to say that we are supposed to just let the authorities decide?
Even if we were to say what, what is the basis of the authorities decision ?
For example, if today, the government was to side with Aliff Syukri’s accusers, what if tomorrow Aliff Syukri retaliates by finding fault with someone else, for doing something that they thought were funny or kind or intelligent, but he found it to be offensive and malicious and ignorant?
Everything anybody does is bound to seem wrong by somebody else - are the authorities going to adjudicate as to what is right and wrong for every case of offense that someone feels over the action of someone else?
What is the basis of the authority’s decision, that the people can use as a basis to understand by themselves as to what the authorities consider as right or wrong, without forever requiring the authorities to intervene in every case of grievance that the people might have against each other ?
Right now, it seems that the basis of the authority’s decision as to what is right and wrong is that it will be determined according to their interpretation or opinion.
The problem with this method, or a method of allowing the authorities absolute discretion in determining what is right or wrong, is that it is unsuitable for democracy.
It is only in a dictatorship, a totalitarian state or an absolute monarchy, that the authorities will be able to decide what is right or wrong by full discretion, because in a dictatorship, a totalitarian state or an absolute monarchy, the authorities are deemed to be intrinsically “superior” to the people, in the same way that parents are deemed as intrinsically “superior” to their underaged children.
In a democracy, where everybody is deemed equal, letting the authorities decide what is right and wrong merely on the basis of their interpretation or opinion of what is right or wrong, will only cause everyone to eventually feel that that the authorities are taking side against them or acting favourably towards others, and cause everybody to clamour to become the authorities themselves, in order to avoid unfavourable decisions against them or gain favourable decisions for them.
Right now, we are already seeing people agitating about the authorities taking too many liberties in determining what is right and wrong according to their discretion, and we are already seeing signs of people disputing the the authorities decision or perhaps even taking authority in the on hands, out of dissatisfaction with the way that the authorities are exercising their discretion.
At the end of the day, the government will need to decide – if it wants to determine what is right or wrong by discretion, then it will have to stop pretending that it is a democratically elected government, but if it aspires to be a democratically elected government, then it should stop using its discretion to determine what is right and wrong, and instead restrict itself to act uniformly towards everyone, according to the rules and regulation that is set according to universally recognised and long established principles.
For as long as it rules by discretion without taking an authoritarian position, or acts like a democratically elected government without governing according to rules and regulation, it is just going to engulf the population with the proposition that they are all being subject to double standards, simply because they are not in favour with the powers that be.
You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
The government must choose – if it doesn’t, it is only going to cause everybody in the land to believe that they are being subject to disfavour, discrimination and double standard, which in turn might easily turn into something more negative, the longer they remain in doubt.
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