Humanity – Out Of The Corner Of My Eye

2015 had a lot to say about humanity and human rights.  The year of dreadful depressing, with economic implication, political turmoil, racial conflicts, flows of migrants who perished while simply attempting to improve their lives, and terrorist attacks on the most sacred symbols of civilization - for both Muslim and Western world.

We dwell in a world teetered between technology and human regress.  We progress forward through our institutions, but not through our empathetic of each other, feeding the world where thousands of children died of famine everyday, and providing proper education to millions of people.

We get ourselves involved in farce movements against the religions that we don’t understand.  We close our minds from reading and seeing more.  Hence, we stigmatize them for being different.  We waste too much time on too many senseless issues.  People can be totally ignorant of our laws and how it works.  The world gave us the right to be open and to learn from one another, not to tear us apart.

Then, as technology and democracy have given us the ability to move forward, it has also corrupted us.

We yield ourselves to be governed by those that supposedly hold the power to improve our lives, but they make it inconsequential, thinking they know the best and forgetting that the nation’s collective power would choose what is best. 

These days through one law or another, our freedom to articulate what we feel about anything is being curtailed. 

My deep stance on racial issues, corruptions and human rights in Malaysia at present was strongly argued by an Editor.  How can divulge the good thought about another race can be so intimidating?  How can upholding what’s crucial to be ironed out in the name of equality and democracy is being called a traitor?   

The fears seem to be overstated!

Considerably, some believe that the way to shun from trouble is to simply shut up.  But then, we let our freedom that is ensured by our constitution being curtailed.  But then again, nowadays, is our constitution unwavering?  It is, however, another affair.

Gradually, we are missing some of the matters that we have always enjoyed due to our own laxity for taking things for granted.  We don’t seem to ascertain how we are losing our freedom and rights.

Lamentably, our disagreements are generally not fought over values or ideas, but more exactly focus on differences.

More sadly, mass media and social media obviously are the instruments for mass deception and misguiding.  Gone are the days of credible news.

In my homeland and most places that I have been, people only believe that the human right is only the freedom of speech, and disregard the other very basic rights that every human being is entitled – dignity, religion, education, work, our attire, nationality, right to live, a way of life, including the choice and opportunity, for example.

That is why knowledge plays an extremely significant role in our lives, and never underestimate the power of human rights.

The suppression of ideas and thought is a major sin. In every faith, there is tolerance, principles, morality and openness.  In Islam, our Holy Quran stands for knowledge and thought.  These verses do not call for sitting idly, unthinking, or to go through life blindly.  It has never been, at any time, against seeking of knowledge. 

Let’s care for humanity by understanding the human rights that apply to everyone that has the rights of the fundamental equality of justice and judgment - everywhere.  They teach us what is substantial and what is the right thing to fight for in our lives. 

When there’s a bond between people and knowledge, we can tear down the barricades, some try to build in the name of moving forward. 

Because the horizon has no limits, a vision cannot have any boundaries.