Silencing dissent doesn't stop dissent

Your viral video criticizing the Anwar Ibrahim government in Malaysia was recently removed by TikTok. Do you want to comment on that?

Yeah. Okay. I can talk about that for a minute. TikTok removed my video in which I stated my perception that the Anwar Ibrahim government is proceeding for the last seven months with what appears to be no plan in terms of how to manage the economy. I thought it was a fairly mild video.

I didn't think it was bullying or harassing. TikTok decided that it was bullying and harassment. Of who exactly, I don't know. It's hard to believe that it would be that Anwar Ibrahim himself actually said you're bullying, being it's a little absurd. It's likely he never even saw the video.

Now it's possible that the government asked TikTok to take it down, but I kind of doubt that. It more likely, it was, you know, mass reported by supporters of Anwar Ibrahim who were offended by the video. But what I would say is when a government silences its critics or attempts to silence its critics, this signals that it will be a short lived government unless you accompany the censorship with a suspension of democracy. Because you can silence the dissent, but the dissent is still there. You just don't hear it.

But you will hear about it come election day. You'll hear about it in Malaysia. I believe it will be in August that they're gonna have some elections. So the dissent that you don't wanna hear and respond to and address is going to respond to you and is gonna address you when election day comes. You may not hear them on TikTok.

You may not hear them on Twitter. You may not hear them on Facebook, but you'll hear them in the ballot box. You'll hear them in the election results, in the outcome of the election. So it's much better if you just let people express themselves, let people express their dissent, let people express their criticism, and try to address it. That's much better.

Silencing dissent doesn't make it stop existing. The dissent is still gonna be there, and it will express itself one way or another unless, again, you suspend democracy, which is obviously not going to happen in Malaysia. And I don't think the government would be interested in doing something like that anyway. I mean, you can remove my video, but a quarter of million people already saw it just on my channel alone. And that's to say nothing of all of the shares on other channels, which is to also say nothing of all of the shares on other platforms.

I mean, and it's irrelevant at the end of the day whether people see my video or not because the only reason that my video went viral was because I was expressing something that many, many people feel. And they felt that before my video came out, and they feel it now. And they're gonna keep on feeling it whether you take my video down or not, whether or not you silence dissent or not. The people are still gonna feel the way they feel. And it's you know, the only way that you can protect your administration, the only way that you can protect your government is to actually address the concerns of the people.

That's the only way in a democratic system like Malaysia has. You can't just turn off their microphone. A a video doesn't go viral because people disagree with it. It goes viral because it resonates with them. It's what they believe.

It's what they think. It's what they feel. So you really should address that. You really should be more concerned with the fact that many people apparently in Malaysia agree with my perception. Now I'm completely open to the possibility that my perception is wrong.

I'm a foreigner. I'm not an expert in Malaysia. I'm talking from a very specific perspective with a focus on the economic sovereignty of Muslim countries and the political independence of Muslim countries and broader countries in the global south. And I'm interested in them taking advantage of this pivotal moment in history as I've said many, many times. So I'm coming from a very particular perspective.

I'm not an expert on Malaysia. I don't speak Malay properly. So I might be misinformed. I might be wrong. So correct me.

But that's not what they did. The Anwar supporters didn't correct me. They didn't come into the comment section and say, oh, you don't know he did this and he did this and he did this and he has this policy and he's pursuing these initiatives and he has this program. And this is the the vision for for the economy in Malaysia. This is what you didn't know.

You're not telling the truth or your your perspective is wrong. Your opinion is wrong because of thus and so, because of this, that, the other. They didn't do that. They came in the comment section and insulted me. They came in the comment section and acted and and talked about my background.

They went in the comment section and posted links to slanderous and libelous articles that defamed me. They tried to assassinate my character. That's their response. Their response wasn't to argue the points. Their response wasn't to provide evidence that I'm mistaken.

So again, I completely am open to the possibility that I'm wrong. But the onus is upon you to show me where I'm wrong and correct me. I don't belong to or support any party in Malaysia. You know? And I'm not opposed to any party in Malaysia or any politician.

Why would I be? I operate on an evaluation of policies. So if has a good policy, I'll say it's a good policy. If has a good policy, I'll say it's a good policy. If If has a good policy, I'll say it's a good policy.

And if any of them have what I regard to be bad policies, I'll say that too because I don't operate according to personalities or parties or politicians or individuals, but according to policies. So I might be wrong. Just educate me. That's all. Just educate me.

And I'd be more than happy to produce a video applauding what I regard as a successful policy. You know. I'm not a supporter of Jakavi in Indonesia. I'm not against him either. But I'm I'm happy to make videos about what I see he's doing that's positive or that I believe is positive for for Indonesia, like decoupling from the West, the moves that he's making to decouple from Western economies, de dollarization, banning exports of raw minerals.

I I support all of these things, and I would support it no matter who it was, no matter who the president of Indonesia was. I would support those kinds of policies. So if Ibrahim has good policies that I don't know about, let me know, and I'll be happy to do a video applauding those policies. I've I've mentioned a couple of things in the past, in fact, that were, I think, good policies, I think it was good. It's good, for example, in the Penang South reclamation project that he's saying he will pay for the public transit.

He'll pay for the train. He'll pay for that. The government will pay for that. So you don't need the reclamation project anymore to pay for that. There's no justification anymore for that project.

That's a good thing that he did. I did a video about that. I'm not just critical, and I'm not supportive or against any party or politician or individual or personality. That's not how I do my evaluations. It's on it's based on policies and what I see as the predictable outcomes of those policies, whether whether they serve what I regard as the priority for Muslim countries, is your economic sovereignty and your political independence.

So if you have a policy regardless of what party you are with, regardless of who you are, regardless of what your background is, I don't care. If you're supporting what I regard to be a good policy and a productive policy towards those kinds of goals, of course, I will I will support that. And I'll do a video about it, I'll applaud it, and I'll congratulate you for that. But if you're doing the opposite, I'm gonna say that too. And it has nothing to do with personalities.

But whatever. You know? They removed the video. Everybody's seen it already. And whoever hasn't seen it is still gonna see it because it's not only on TikTok.

And again, it doesn't matter if they see it or not. If that's the way they feel, that's the way they feel. Whether I say that or not, that's how they feel. So it's better for you if you address how they feel. That's all I would say.