District 9 - A Revelation on the Meaning of Freedom & Individual Rights

District 9 - A Revelation on the Meaning of Freedom & Individual Rights

One of the aliens

District 9 - A Revelation on the Meaning of Freedom & Individual Rights

Military personnel guard the eviction team and use intimidation to coerce the aliens to move out of District 9

District 9 - A Revelation on the Meaning of Freedom & Individual Rights

Eviction process


By Belinda Chee

It all started out by being all excited to view the computer-generated imageries (CGI) in the new G.I. Joe movie. However, considering the long queue at the cinema and my unwillingness to wait 2 hours for the next show, my choices dwindled down to just one, the movie District 9.

Not having read any reviews on the movie, I thought it was just another alien-versus-mankind science fiction genre, but I couldn’t be more wrong.

As the introduction to the movie began with Peter Jackson’s (of Lord of the Rings fame) name flashed on-screen, I felt a lot better about the movie choice, but little did I know how much the dialogue and scenes would jolt my conscience about what freedom and sovereignty really meant and when one is an `alien’ in another land, country or world, what rights does the `alien’ have and what rights citizens of the original country or world have over these `aliens’?

Yes, it was an alien-versus-mankind movie, but this time the `aliens’ were the oppressed. The illegal `aliens’ were herded into an area named District 9, located in a country which not to give away the story too much, I will name Country X. After many years, District 9 becomes a slum, and slowly as the story unfolds, we see how citizens of Country X where District 9 is located, were protesting that these illegals should leave as they were notoriously dirty, could not assimilate to local culture and were just too different. They even used derogatory names for the `aliens’ calling them “prawns” because of how they looked.

To curb these protests, the President of Country X asked the organisation which kept tabs on these `aliens’ to “evict” the “aliens” and move them to a military-style facility.

One scene which actually made my hair stand on end was when the head of the operations to relocate the `aliens discovered a nest of `alien’ eggs, and to demonstrate how the nest supported the `baby aliens’, he pulled out the umbilical cord to the egg. Next, he said that the existence of the nest violated the rules and regulations of residency in District 9 and asked the military personnel who were escorting them, to burn the hut which contained the eggs. “Can you hear that sound, it sounds like popcorn popping in there,” he said smiling into the camera that was videotaping the whole eviction operation, while the `alien babies’ slowly burnt to death.

There were many more scenes which showed life in a shanty town, how `immigrants’ or `aliens’ in a new country are treated, how they are ridiculed because they are different, how they face negative perceptions and how they are victimised and exploited with no means of escape or recourse.

As I sat down watching the scenes, it dawned on me that these are true reflections of what happen to immigrants or those fleeing from war-torn countries throughout the ages.

When slavery was still in practice in the United State of America and the Africans were brought in to work the cotton fields, they did not have rights. When there was ethnic-cleansing as those that happened in World War II or even more recently in Bosnia, people were murdered, slaughtered and mutilated thoughtlessly like animals, just because they were different or considered inferior!

As I walked out the cinema that day, my perception about what being Malaysian means changed and I deeply appreciate the efforts made by the leaders of this country in their quest for independence and sovereignty, and for dismantling the “yoke” of colonisation.

There is so much talk about what race we are, what our identity is but the fact is staring at us in the face — that in the not too distant future, given the high speed of technological development and globalization, and the ability of any one person to be anytime, anywhere electronically, the real global citizen will no longer be a literary terminology but become a reality.

One day, a Malaysian will truly be Pan-Sino-Afro-Asian because as the economy grows and develops, migration happens, inter-marriage happens, and one day, a child may have ancestors who are Malay, Chinese, Indian, Myanmarese, British, Vietnamese, African, Bidayuh, Filipino, Polynesian, Arab and maybe even an Icelander.

Don’t believe me? Go watch the movie and be jolted into awareness — that we are not all that different as time passes. The only difference is how the assimilation and integration will happen, whether painfully with District 9 kind of evolution or easily with minimal collateral damage and with dignity, hope and one’s basic rights intact!

Happy Merdeka everyone!
     
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