The apotheosis of the controlling mind is monstrous and terrifying.
– Stewart Stafford, American author
Control freaks traditionally tend to have a psychological need to be in charge of things and people — even circumstances that cannot be controlled.
The need for control, in extreme cases, stems from deeper psychological issues such as obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), anxiety disorders or personality disorders. This aptly and amply describes the type of leaders we vote into power.
Serious study of the mechanics of the willing citizenry entrapped in this OCD system of control yields frightening facts and circumstances.
We must be controllable freaks because we accept control by unnecessary laws, regulations, rules and policies. We are certainly afflicted with the Stockholm Syndrome.
Something is very wrong with this picture.
It is said that the main priorities of any government are the protection of citizens, regulation of actions, and the preservation of good relations between itself and other states (governments).
The first two purposes are aggravatingly vague, and the third sounds like an image consultant’s motto.
The pivotal question is whether citizens can take care of themselves without any form of government in conformity with self-determination and self-government as expounded and endorsed in international law.
Aren’t we mature enough to establish an alternative to government for our well-being, safety and security? What’s stopping us from finding and appointing qualified and seasoned professionals to manage and govern the affairs of the people without control freakish mindsets that feed the frenzy of power that corrupts?
A well-managed national referendum for citizens to select leaders is all that is required minus the fanfare and paraphernalia of campaigning bereft of parliament and executive.
A professional judiciary, police force and armed forces personnel selected by the people should be able to do the necessary and needful.
The will of the people is the entire fabric of the constitution. The contour, content, pith and substance of the written constitution must contain all of their just and reasonable expectations.
Bad hats and fat cats pay for their crimes since they are all self-inflicted by choice.
People directly in charge of their affairs deny power-brokers, power-seekers, influence peddlers, wealth facilitators and fixers into government. Royalty remains as a reverent system of consultation with the people.
A perfect symbiotic relationship between reigning, ruling and the ruled. Dystopian governments need to be interred with the bones of forlorn, failed and fallen past governments.
Citizenship, nationalism and patriotism are not meant to be political weapons. Good order automatically yields good law.
There are those religiously dedicated to causing suffering and hardship based on the lunatic tenet that life is meaningless without pain and agony.
There are people who listen to this madness. Like the fool who said you need continuous war to secure lasting peace.
The minerals, metals and other commodities that the land and soil yield belong to a ruling elected government?
That’s extreme control freak bad law. Plain high-level theft legitimized by loose legislation. The ad coelum doctrine must be enforced that everything above, around and beneath, belong to the first peoples who inhabited and occupied a geographical locality.
Sections 6 and 7 of Malaysia’s Aboriginal Peoples Act 1954 (Act 134) say this in unequivocal, concrete and categorical terms read together with Article 8(5)(c) Federal Constitution. Nobody cares.
The taking of occupied land under the terra nullius (no man’s land) doctrine holds no water whether legislation openly and brazenly endorses theft and appropriation.
The control freaks will not let go unless they are publicly humiliated by a court of justice. North American and Australasian courts have drawn a weak line to affirm and confirm customary aboriginal land rights, but the use of the word ‘land titles’ is dubious, crafty and tricky when courts yield to legislative pressure.
Judicial review of dubious legislation is not the same as judicial review of the law-making process.
All said and done, control freaks must be given their exit tickets and walking permits so that they can suffer their “post-power syndrome” in peace.
Electing leaders known to be control freaks is a self-inflicted pandemic. Voters do not have to follow the Pied Piper every four years or so.
As George Carlin quipped, “I don’t vote, so I don’t complain.” Henry Thoreau advocated that voters stay home during the elections.
We must wake up to a new norm to take charge of our national affairs. That is what democracy insists.
The people must persist in their efforts to find solutions and remedies without control freaks at the wheel.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
