Are Malaysians the Willing Executioners of Barisan National ?

I have been thinking of the notion that are we, ordinary Malaysians, the willing executioners of the current ruling party of Barisan National's policies? I mean, just look at all the oppresive laws that we have been living with - ISA, OSA, Printing Act, University Act, etc, are ordinary Malaysians deaf and blind to all these laws? Or are we, although well informed of its notoriety still voted for BN to rule this country, not for 5 years but for 5 decades??

It's not my intention to draw similarity in between the two - ordinary Germans during the Nazi period and ordinary Malaysian, but after reading the book, I can't help but believe that we the ordinary Malaysians have indeed knowingly and willingly contributed to the continuation of the oppresive laws by voting BN into power for so long. Nazi in Germany could not possibly carrying out the massive killing of the Jews without the help of the ordinary Germans. Goldhagen argued that these executioners were normal human being who had the capacity to disobeyed orders that he/she deemed morally objectionable and yet would not object to the "duty" entrusted by their superior to kill Jews. As a result, 6 million of the Jews were executed during the Nazi period.

Well, there were a lot of explanation that said,

1) The perpetrators were coerced. They had no choice but to follow orders.

2) They were blind followers of orders.

3) The perpetrators were under tremendous social psychological pressure by their comrades to conform.

4) They were just petty bureaucrats or soulless technocrates who persued their self-interest goal.

5) They could not understand what was the real nature of their "work" because the task was so fragmented.

The explanations can be reconceptualized in terms of their accounts of the actors' capacity for volition: The first explanation (namely coercion) says that the killers could not say "no." The second explanation (obedience) and the third (situational pressure) maintain that Germans were psychologically incapable of saying "no." The fourth explanation (self-interest) contends that Germans had sufficient personal incentives to kill in order not to want to say "no." The fifth explanation (bureaucratic myopia) claims that it never even occurred to the perpetrators that they were engaged in an activity that might make them responsible for saying "no."

Goldhagen tells us that on the contrary to these explanations, the executioners knew very well what was expected of them and they in turn willingly carried out the task. The explanations treat them as if they had been people lacking a moral sense, lacking the ability to make decisions and take stances. They do not conceive of the actors as human agents, as people with wills, but as beings moved solely by external forces. They assume and imply that the mass killing of human beings is fundamentally no different from getting them to do any other unwanted or distasteful task. The author concluded that, " Simply put, the perpetrators, having consulted their own convictions and morality and having judged the mass annihilation of Jews to be right, did not want to say "no"."

On the same token, we may ask ourselves these questions:-

1) Are we coerced to vote for BN? Knowing full well what is BN stand for on issue such as social justice, democracy, transparency, human rights, press freedom, etc. Do we left, by the threat of punishment, with no choice but to vote for BN?

2) Do you think we the Malaysian voters are all stupid followers of orders or authority?

3) Are the Malaysian voters under tremendous pressure to conform by their fellow voters to vote for BN?

4) Do you think the voters are all soulless bureaucrates that were force to vote for their sponsor - BN? Or are we free agent that have career of our own, not neccesary have to succumb to the bureaucratic procedure and pressure?

5) Is the task of voting so fragmented that we cannot comprehend what is the BN's stand on social justice? Are we pretending that the fragmentation, if there is any, of the task that we deny the importance of our own contribution and display responsibity and blame onto others?

Looking from this perspective, do we the ordinary Malaysians have a choice or do we just choose a bad leader and then comforting ourselves that we have little choice. Yes, we do have a choice of not supporting the BN regime. The answer to the above questions is a resounding NO. We are free agents that are perfectly capable of morally siding with those who are for good governance. We must remember that our leaders are a reflection of who we are, what we are and what we want to become as a nation (to borrow from Feroz Qureshi, 7 July, Malaysiakini). Let our conscience be clear on this.