"Shhh, don't talk to strangers, they could be Special Branch." Many say that's wise. You never know who you're talking to. Or, is it irrational fear that tells us, "Don't get involved"?

We did live in muted fear of 'getting involved' after May 1969. Until today, my 78-year-old mother is fearful of 'the government', 'the Malays' and 'the police'. She's also a product of WW2 when she saw Japanese soldiers hauled off my grandpa for questioning. He didn't return for weeks. Like most of her generation, her internalized fear is understandable.

Anecdotes I hear and observations of Malaysian civic life tells me the fear of 'getting involved' is as real today among baby boomers as it was with my mother's generation. There's hope though. Ever since we strolled the multimedia corridor, an empowered younger generation of socially-conscious netizens are learning more about our race-tainted history. And, they're not happy. Lately, vigilant bloggers have been trawling the contents of Malaysiakini and other alternative media sites.

Early this week, I received a compilation of political thuggery, social injustices and racist statements spewed in public with impunity by our politicians. Common knowledge they are. But, when compiled as a package, the imageries are quite unsettling. My mother would shudder at those imageries, her deep-seated fears replayed. To the younger generation sheltered from the history of 1969, I suspect, the imageries and rhetoric would evoke mixed reactions of ridicule and rage against the political degenerates.

Strongest terror tactic

The chain email has been in circulation for some time now. Do I, in the security of Australian academia, forward it to friends and relatives back home? If I do, will they be exposed to the imaginary Malaysian cyber-trooper given the pending case against cyber-rapper Namewee if he ever returns from Taiwan? I too have become a victim of fear.

Stoking fear is the strongest terror tactic used by governments to silent the voice of conscience and dissent. Nothing new in that. (See Amnesty International 2007 Report). What's worrying is when we become part of fear itself, not knowing exactly what and why we fear. Anxious moments of uncertainties. Which often leads to irrational reactions followed by resigned acceptance of the status quo - each time we're confronted with an over-the-top rhetoric of re-constructed realities. Politicians have long used this tactic to manipulate their constituents, garner support, and discredit their opponents.

Anwar Ibrahim, as reported in Malaysiakini (Aug 15), in a likewise over-the-top pitch, likened Malaysians to Iraqis living under Saddam Hussein's regime. Commenting on the popularity of the prime minister in a recent survey, he attributed the predictable results to Malaysians' fear of voicing dissent, especially government servants.

Malaysiakini quoted Anwar: "If you are a government servant, what do you say? You say you support...if you have Special Branch coming around and you are not sure that the answers will be strictly confidential."

Thus, the results of a 'compulsory' survey of Universiti Malaya's students for their choice of a 'Political Idol' will likewise be predictable too. But, an opinion survey that requires respondents to provide their personal details, course of study and their parents' names? You must be kidding.

Stoking fear is a powerful campaign tool in Australian politics too. Pauline Hanson from the now defunct One Nation Party won a seat in the 1996 federal election by playing on the Asian immigration card. However, Asians account for less than 5% of the population. Hanson is contesting in this year's federal election anticipated in November. This time she's playing the Aussie imaginary fear of Islam and Muslims. However, in last year's census, only 1.5% of the population identified themselves as Muslims. You see, fear has little statistical or empirical context. It plays on our uninformed anxieties.

Thanks to crusading progressive bloggers - writing in 'Manglish', Chinese and Bahasa - civil society groups and the many local voices of conscience, the Malaysian public space is so much 'richer' today than just 10 years ago including the dross and drivel.

Roots not forgotten

Many among the Malaysian diaspora too have not forgotten their roots, although their distant voices are sometimes considered to be arrogant intrusions into local affairs. "Action-lah you in Australia, can say what you want. We don't have that luxury here."

An email from an ex-Malaysian journalist, living in Australia, notes in part: " (The government and media) don't see us as having any feelings for the country since we migrated elsewhere. They see us as traitors, that people who leave the country have no right to comment about the country. What a bunch of insular-looking and small-minded ... too pretentious about themselves and their own importance. And mind you, many of these people are well-educated. Hope they don't make the country even messier through their contributions."

What now? To combat fear in a plural society, one must first recognise the basic principles of freedom, equity and transparent governance. "No one wins unless everyone wins." Indeed, an appropriate Springsteen creed. Our homegrown civil society groups have advocated these principles at length since the 1998 reformasi days. What we need now is less pointless fiery diatribe but more robust reasoned dialogue in the public space.

Pockets of apathy among Malaysians, I'd like to think, do not reflect our internal weaknesses nor lack of intellectual resources or character flaws - but rather it mirrors a waning faith in the viability of speaking up for what's right.

The mainstream media, the editors, in publishing their sycophantic editorials and generating politically correct contents, are, in this sense, accomplices in the perpetuation of a political system that thrives on fomenting fear. Editors continue to fail in their leadership in representing the people's interests.