Let’s Talk About… is a bilingual e-forum created by the Centre for Independent Journalism Malaysia (CIJ) to encourage discussion on national socio-political issues among Malaysians. CIJ hopes that this forum, in English and Malay, will serve as both a source of information and a platform for expression on contentious issues affecting Malaysians. CIJ takes to heart the words of the first United Nations General Assembly in 1946, that “freedom of information is an essential factor in any serious effort to promote the peace and progress”.

This forum starts off with 12 important issues of our time – citizenship, federalism, indigenous rights, culture, civil law and shari’ah law, religious freedom, gender/sexuality rights, death penalty, rape, workers’ rights, student rights and freedom of expression – with articles written by Sonia Randhawa, a journalist-activist and CIJ director.

The e-forum was launched off-line at an event called Ops Bilang* in Annexe Gallery, Annexe Central Market, Kuala Lumpur on 26 October 2010. The name Ops Bilang was inspired from the Malay word meaning “to count” and “to tell”, as well as a play on “Ops Lalang”, an official crackdown launched on October 27, 1987, under the draconian Internal Security Act. In that ‘national security’ operation, a total of 106 people were arrested and four news publications closed down within days, creating a long-lasting climate of fear when it comes to the exercise of our civil liberties, especially freedom of expression.

So, Ops Bilang was in part a response to that dark episode, a reclamation of our civil liberty spaces. Ops Bilang saw artists, the hearts and souls of society, continuing the brave tradition of reclaiming our right to speak up on issues of public interest. The artists and activists were Amir Muhammad, Anne James, Fahmi Fadzil, Fahmi Reza, Jerome Kugan, Jo Kukathas, Mei Chern, Norhayati Kaprawi, Pang Khee Teik, See Tshiung Han, Vernon Adrian Emuang and Zedeck Siew. Click on each artist’s name for a video recording of their performances. A video recording of the performance will be made available here soon. (And here’s Malaysiakini.TV’s coverage of the event.)

Fahmi Reza explains his participation in Ops Bilang: “We should be able to talk about these issues without fear, rather than leave it to politicians. They should listen to us instead of we, them. We should have more such spaces to discuss important issues in public. These are our issues. We cannot always hope for others to solve the problem when they’re our problems. Only through debate can we find a solution that suits us all.”

As Sonia wrote in the article on freedom of religion: “Unless we take the time to learn more about each other, ignorance and contempt will be the norm.”

And learning can only come with freedom of information and expression that is exercised responsibly. Again, in the words of the UN General Assembly:

“Freedom of information requires as an indispensable element the willingness and capacity to employ its privileges without abuse. It requires as a basic discipline the moral obligation to seek the facts without prejudice and to spread knowledge without malicious intent.”

We hope that Malaysian netizens will aspire toward the standards when discussing these important topics in this space.