Inside and Outside the Stadium in Kelana Jaya
Recently, some people gathered in a stadium to protest some things that they were to told to protest. To gain support and to try an convince people to join their cause they made a number of videos that they put on Youtube. One set of these videos was of them cleaning up the stadium before they leave. It was accompanied by captions saying how disciplined they were.
The next day, my colleague took a taxi to a meeting at an office not far from the stadium. The taxi had to pass the stadium but it had to do it carefully avoiding the massive amount of trash that was littered on the road. IN particular, there were bags of rubbish that were just left in the middle of the road. These were the bags contained the rubbish from the inside of the stadium. Apparently, the rubbish collecting was not a show of discipline but a concerted effort in public dishonesty. They cleaned the stadium to show how good they were but littered the rubbish outside without a single thought to the people who would have to pass the area.
Were they lying? Obviously yes.
This however is what politics in Malaysia has come to.
What do we need then? For one, we need to be able to separate ourselves from “immediate knee-jerk believe in anything” readings or listening to media. What the media say is not what happened: the map is not the territory. It never is. All media choose what they want to show. That choosing is never without a purpose and an agenda.
Of course, you can argue but they will try to shut you up. They will claim that they have said all that is to be said about something. This is a fallacy: the non-allness fallacy.
Most importantly, they things they show you really reveals who they are more than what they show. It shows what they choose, it shows how they colour it and it shows how they want you to think: the principle of self-reflexivity.
Visit the link below and see where I am coming from.
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