Train of Thought Continued

Continued from the previous post :

The lack of freedom of speech in our country is at times so well-ingrained within us that most of the population has almost accepted it as it is. Though it won't stay that way for too long, that I'm pretty sure of, seeing as to how the younger generation comprising of intelligent and outspoken lot has been fighting increasingly harder for it. Kudos.

This reminds me of an occasion I've encountered back in high school. A couple of friends and I decided to start our own monthly school magazine, reporting on the eventful happenings around us. It was purely for fun, you know, I even contemplated having a gossip column in it, so the magazine wasn't created out of respect for journalism really.

At that time, I remember that everyone was talking about, or rather, complaining about the conduct of LDPs (prefects) in our school. With the endless spot check after spot check, sometimes for the silliest things, like if we girls were wearing our kain dalam or not. Ridiculous, right? That's what I thought. What do you care what's going on beneath our clothes? If I do not want to wear a slip underneath my skirt, that's because the fabric that my uniform's made of is already thick enough as it is, leaving me sweating like a pig most of the time, in Langkawi's unforgiving heat. You were telling me, I can't even decide that for myself? Oh, please. Bite me.

And for those, who did not want to wear a camisole, choosing to show off their bras, well that's their call, I'd say. The horny boys were going to get horny anyways even without the visual help.

There's also the regular spot checks on handphones, cassette/CD-players, cassettes and CDs... But the suspicious thing is that, the LDPs themselves have never really been caught, even though some of them didn't wear camisole, anak tudung, kain dalam whatsoever. Leaving us mortal human being having to stand directly under the sun as a punishment for being caught. Of course, that created sort of a tension between us regular people and the LDPs.

So a friend of mine wrote an article poking fun at the lack of transparency of the LDPs. It was written in a good-natured kind of way; no cursed words were used, it wasn't overtly disrespectful, it was actually funny. I really think it would make an interesting read for the students, as a lot of people can relate to the content of the article. The only problem with the article was, it was reporting the truth.

The teacher, who was our advisor, pulled me aside and told us not to run that article. End of story. Looking back, I should have stood by the article and we should have all fought for it. Whatever that might happen if we decided to fight, I think I would have been more proud of myself.