Jacqueline Ann Surin in today's Sun makes a plea for government accountability in the matter of censorship of the arts and the banning of books:Malaysians' exposure to the global marketplace of ideas, research and thinking, it would seem, is one that needs to be monitored and regulated. But perhaps what is really being controlled isn't the kinds of ideas we should be exposed to, but the kind of thinking we might be capable of.And she says, quite rightly:
Power that is arbitrarily used to make decisions for 26 million Malaysians should be questioned. Just as ideas, images and other works produced for the public should also be open for critique. It is the act of critiquing and questioning that makes us resilient and mature as a people. For it is when we are asked to engage with different ideas that we can better appreciate the strength and value of our own thinking.
I do hope the right people read the page this morning and took the contents to heart.
