Caged Morality

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated” – Gandhi

Early this month, The Star reported on beastly conditions of our animal enclosures. This is definitely not the first report on inhumane treatments to animals and deplorable states of our animal enclosures as such plights have been highlighted by many parties for so many years. If I could point a finger or two on this on-going animal cruelty, I would point it to our government. You may say why we should make fuss about animals when we still have people living in dire straits in Klang Valley. It does matter because once we have the hearts (or the stomachs) to inflict such sufferings to animals, we will do that to other people. And for me, that is where we have been very wrong so far and thus, explains why we are burdened with our current corrupted, power-bloated government, as we are being treated like animals, reducing ourselves to mere commodities.

Being an overtly sensitive person, I am hurt whenone asked if I keep my cats in the cage at home, whenever I told them that I have 3+2 (mine plus my sis’) cats. While my sister feels that if I love my cats I should cage them so they won’t run away, I always believe that my cats deserve their independence, to roam the land and socialize along the way (yes, without much worries, I have neutered and spayed them). I could take these cats away from the alleys, but I could never take the cat out of them!

What if I were to put myself in my cats’ paws, would I be jolly happy, thinking my loved one cares for me so much I am now languishing behind bars? Well, lest, I am just like Syed Hamid Albar, my orang kampong, who detained Ms Tan Hoon Cheng under ISA for her safety reasons back in September 2008.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “For what avail the plough or sail, Or land or life, if freedom fail?” So, what is the purpose of having everything according to our heart’s desires at the expense of others’ liberty? So, if I may put my curiosity to you, why do we have this penchant to cage and chastise? Do we do so because we are concerned for their safety or is it more of us not wanting to allow freedom takes place as we tend to associate freedom with troublesome?

Such cruelty to animals reflect our insensitivity to our surrounding.

We are willing to pay to see animals in agony, as we thronged our animal enclosures during school holidays to show our children the beauty of nature while they see the harsh reality of being animals.

We are willing to threaten a lawyer (in the case of Cik Fadiah Nadwa Fikri who was threatened by our Men in Blue when she requested to talk to her Anak Guam in private) from carrying her duties. Based on my brother’s personal experience, this is definitely one of our Men in Blue’s trick to cut short their investigation, as herAnak Guam, out of desperation, would admit guilty. These Men in Blue would rather put people behind bars, without prima facie. They caged their morality in return for their livelihood.

We are willing to see people, for generations to come,dying from exposure to toxic effluents. Last weekend, 4 DAP members were detained by these Men in Blue again, during an Anti-Lynas protest. Yes, they were being held because they protested for the safety of the local people, who would suffer as much as Bukit Merah’s folks, if Lynas comes to Gebeng. Our government is more than willing to cage their morality so that our FDI improves.

But the worst of all is that we are willing to continue voting BeNd, which is now busy cashing in their ‘Fixed Deposits’ to finance their campaign for the next GE (cutting vital subsidies) without any care at all for detrimental socio-economic impacts to many of us.

Perhaps, our ego is too hard to be massaged or our heart is already dead.

Perhaps, we never realized that the door to liberty is unlocked, ready for us to open and make better changes to our Ibu Pertiwi.