Batman, Gandhi and Democracy - A closer look into the Bar Council Conversion Forum
By Julian C.H. Lee
The Bar Council Forum
On Saturday 9 July 2008, the Bar Council held a forum in its auditorium in Kuala Lumpur on the topic of Article 121 1a of the Federal Constitution. The constitution in any country is regarded as the highest law of the land and which no other law may contradict. Article 121 1a of the Malaysian constitution is the article that deals with the jurisdiction of the Syariah Courts vis-à-vis the civil courts. As is well known by now, this forum, which was scheduled to run between 8.30 and 1 PM, was halted by the police at 10 AM. The police were reacting to some 200 hundred protestors outside the Bar Council building who were calling for the forum to be stopped.
Participants within the forum venue, of which I was one, could see down the crowd of protestors on the street below. We could also hear them passionately chanting slogans, including "Hancur! Hancur!" and "Hidup Islam!" A number of them also held notably well-produced banners calling for the Bar Council to respect Islam and to not play with fire, or "Jangan bermain api."
At 9.30 AM, during the first session, police informed the President of the Bar Council, Ambiga Sreevenasan, that the forum had to close at 10am in view of threats by protestors to storm the Bar Council building. At about 9.50 AM, the police escorted approximately three representatives from the demonstration below into the forum and they marched to the front of the auditorium and stood near the stage, obscuring most people's views. The police had escorted these demonstrators, which included PKR's MP Zulkifli Noordin, so that they could be satisfied that the forum did, indeed, end at 10 AM. During the closing remarks of a final respondent, one demonstrator-representative grabbed a microphone and in a loud hysterical voice cried "Tutup! Tutup! Tutup!" With only a little more to-do, the forum was ended and, well before the scheduled close of proceedings, the participants dispersed.
Race and Democracy
I need not dwell here on the close relationship that 'race'1 and religion have in Malaysia except to note that one of the most vocal of the three demonstrator-representatives who entered the forum claimed to be a representative of UMNO ("Saya wakil UMNO"), which is of course a Malay party, not an Islamic party.
I would suggest though, that although the demonstrators were successful in achieving their goal of stopping the forum and exerting their strength, what happened at the Bar Council on 9 August 2008, as well as in Johor Baru in July 2006, bodes very ill for inter-ethnic politics in Malaysia.
That these demonstrators were able to bring the forum to a close, to gain sympathetic remarks from political leaders, and gain the co-operation of the police in shutting down the forum, indicates their political strength. When parts of our highest law can be regarded as untouchable taboo subjects or 'sensitive issues' and that any apparent discussion of these matters may permissibly be threatened with violence, and that those charged with defending the peace do not act to ensure the peace when it is threatened, is all evidence that a fundamental element of democracy is missing in Malaysia.
Democracy is founded on discussion, the presentation of views, ideas and policies for discussion and debate so that inferior options are weeded out. Violence and the threat of violence, both of which are in every sense of the word 'unreasonable', are the ruination of democracy.
Lessons from Batman and Gandhi
In what will probably be the biggest grossing film in history, The Dark Knight, there is I think a lesson of which we all, and especially the demonstrators against the Bar Council forum, should take heed.
At various points in the film it is emphasised that, regardless of how good-willed Batman's intentions are, he is nevertheless acting above the law, executing what he regards as justice, and is unanswerable to any authority which is vested with democratic legitimacy (such as the police and judiciary).
What we learn throughout the movie is that the ruthless and chaos-bringing Joker was, in effect, the result of the means by which Batman tried to clean-up Gotham city. Batman, through his behaviour, his unaccountability, and his violent methods, brings into being a person who employs similar methods, but to far more sinister ends.
What the Nolan brothers (who wrote the screenplay to The Dark Knight) were getting at is actually similar to what Mahatma Gandhi tried to tell us when he said, "I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent". Although one's short term goal may be achieved by violence or the threat of violence, the fact that it was rewarded makes violence more likely to be repeated in the future. Thus, through violence, one creates, indeed fosters, a culture of violence.
This is what I fear we see in the apparent success of the demonstrators against the Bar Council forum in August 2008 and the Article 11 Forum in July 2006. Not only have threats of violence worked - and so rewarded those who threatened it - but that members of the government and the state (including the police) have facilitated it through either their sympathetic comments which do not condemn those actions or by raising those who levelled threats to the status of legitimate negotiators who were able to enter the forum to ensure that it is was curtailed as they demanded (whereas anyone who threatens violence should instantly lose - not gain - negotiation rights).
What this spells for inter-ethnic politics in Malaysia is all very bad. If efforts to arrange calm reasoned dialogue are to be punished, and if threats of violence are to be rewarded, what we can predict is that inter-ethnic politics will be increasingly characterised by either violence or its threat.
If we all want peace - and I am sure the protestors will admit that they too want peace -dialogue, reason and openness need to be rewarded. We need to unhesitatingly rule violence and parochialism out as acceptable modes of conduct. The methods of Batman must be rejected before a Joker is called into being in Malaysia. We need to move towards Mahatma Gandhi. We all (but some more than others) must remember that, as he said, "You must be the change you want to see in the world".
1 Race is used in inverted commas to recognize that race is an outdated and erroneous term and to recognize that in actuality the notion that there are varieties of human races is actually false. Those interested in this matter can view the American Anthropological Association's statement on race.
