The nation's lawyers have taken a bold step to highlight problems perceived in the Judiciary but in truth they need the support of all Malaysians.
This post is copied from a table of quotes from this site.
I chose the most succinct ones and added a little information about the person who said the words. However, sometimes it is not really certain who was the first person to say the words as people do use other people's ideas.
Some of these quotes are quite relevant to Malaysians as most of us are really still too complacent or ignorant or resigned about the state of affairs.
Freedom and control of government is not a new concept.
"Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you." -- Pericles, 430 B.C. (a prominent and influential statesman, orator, and general of Athens during the city's Golden Age)
"The secret of happiness is freedom. And the secret of freedom is courage." – Thucydides (an ancient Greek historian, and the author of the History of the Peloponnesian War)
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws." -- Tacitus, Roman senator and historian (A.D. c.56-c.115)(a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire)
The USA independence movement produced many interesting quotes on freedom.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -- Edmund Burke
(an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist, and philosopher, who served for many years in the British House of Commonsand supported the US freedom fighters)
"Those who have been once intoxicated with power and have derived any kind of emolument from it can never willingly abandon it." -- Edmund Burke
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." -- Wendell Phillips, (1811-1884), (abolitionist, and columnist for The Liberator and described as most dramatic orator in the American antislavery movement)
"The greatest tyrannies are always perpetrated in the name of the noblest causes." -- Thomas Paine
(Born in Great Britain, he lived in America, having migrated to the American colonies just in time to take part in the American Revolution, mainly as the author of the powerful, widely read pamphlet, Common Sense (1776))
"The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite." -- Thomas Jefferson(the writer of the first US Constitution)
"The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first."-- Thomas Jefferson
Writers also contribute to the debate on liberty:
"If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too." -- Somerset Maugham
"In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot." -- Mark Twain
"The government is merely a servant -- merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them..." -- Mark Twain
And finally the words of people in high office.
"The greatest menace to freedom is an inert people." – US Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis
"Man is not free unless government is limited." -- Ronald Reagan: Farewell Speech, 1988
"Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it." -- Milton Friedman
Perhaps you can reflect on these quotes and pick the one that strikes you most and then act on it.
What to do? Get involved soon in the local political party(doesn't matter which really) and help to make this country a better place for all. If you can read this message you are capable of helping this nation survive.
Graphics: Thanks to malaysiakini
1 comment:
words of wisdom indeed. therein lies the problem of Malaysia since the majority cannot ,will not , could not see nor understand what they mean. they are called kampung folks and they really are not interested. They have been like that since they were born
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