Golden Silence

Silence is Golden. Really? What the heck does that mean? Sometimes silence can speak volumes more than even the most vocal or vociferous voice. So is silence good or bad? You have the bible that advises that a non-reply, ie. silence, can calm down an angry man. Then you have an old saying in Tamil which, when translated, means silence equates to agreement. So what the bloody heck is silence anyway? Is it the absence of sound? Or is sound the absence of silence?

Does silence mean you’ve got nothing to say or you don’t know what to say? Or does it mean you have something to say but would rather not waste your time and energy saying it? Or does silence carry a different meaning in different scenarios? What the bloody freaking hell does silence mean?

Forgive my preoccupation with silence but there’s a whole load of it happening around that’s causing me to wonder “what the f#*k is going on here? “.

A teacher in a government school verbally abuses a bunch of students by calling them and their ancestors all kinds of derogatory names. Yeah, a bunch of angry parents gathered and made some noise and protested. They were definitely not silent. But the response from the people in power has been deafeningly silent, don’t you think? I’ve definitely missed their voices. Voices that are normally blabbering incessantly about one thing or the other under the sky have suddenly become conspicuously silent.

Heck, latest on the grapevine is that the said teacher has been silently transferred to a supposedly better school, nearer to her home and whatnot. Was she given an increment or pay rise for indirectly promoting ketuanan “of-a-certain-race”? Who knows? What I know is that in her letter of transfer, the reason given had no inkling of any disciplinary action. Everything is so silent.

In another incident, a bunch of screaming, foaming at the mouth folks violently disrupted a scholarly gathering of people seeking to find a solution to a pressing national issue. And holy mackaroli, would you believe it, the violent protestors were actually escorted into the building (yes, the gathering was held INSIDE a private building) by the police? Yup, the same police who sprayed water cannons and tear gas at a previous group of protestors. I guess it all depends on who’s protesting, isn’t it?

Anyway, apart from our future PM wannabe, Najib, there’s been an absolute and total silence from all other leaders regarding this incident. Actually, come to think of it, even Najib should have just shut the fuck up instead of breaking his silence and further confirming his stupidity. His comment tried to shift the blame for the entire fiasco onto the organizers.
The only voices that could be heard in the aftermath of this were from the ordinary folk. Loads of us were critical of the storming invasion and violence and language used by the protestors. Dozens of NGO’s and other significant individuals are making statements. However, there was not a word of condemnation or otherwise from any leader, government or opposition. A very elegant silence is being maintained, but is that what is required at this point? What’s your stand on this, Mr Prime Minister Badawi? What’s your stand on this, de facto opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim?

The most recent news in theSun today is of a 10 year old boy being tortured Nazi style by our boys in blue. What the fuck? Aren’t our cops who are supposed to be protecting and upholding the law, aware of the law? Don’t they know what to do when investigating juveniles? Well, that’s beside the point of this post. Will there be a golden silence on this issue as well by those in charge? Or will heads roll?

Looking and judging by past and present happenings, I won’t be really looking forward to any noise about this. I would just settle for someone telling me which category of silence this silence will fall into.