THE Association for Community and Dialogue (ACID) joins conscientious Americans and global citizens around the world in condemning the cruelty among certain police officers that led to the death of George Floyd. It is obvious there is an underlying systemic injustice over the years on how the black community was treated in the criminal justice system in comparison to the whites. 

The sense of injustice has been strongly ingrained in the collective consciousness of the American black community who have been struggling over the years for fair and just criminal system.

As Malaysians we are in solidarity with the family of George Floyd who are going through a similar sense of pain that resembles some of the pain that minority community in Malaysia feels when their loved ones have also been brutally handled by certain police officers leading to death without accountability. 

It is obvious there is a systemic racial superiority within the justice system that makes such accountability difficult and an uphill struggle where we could see the similarity between Malaysia and the United States.

Having said that ACID also condemns senseless violence in the United States where mobs   targeted churches and buildings which did not reflect the legitimate sense of justice for George Floyd but some other underlying motives.

If one looks at Floyd’s cry of “I can’t breathe” in the context of the world it has great symbolic meaning of what it means to live on Planet Earth. It calls for a world of equality and solidarity rather than division. It calls for being in harmony with nature.

Today’s world that is plagued by ethnic nationalism that sees other communities as threats makes breathing difficult; the gap between the super-rich and the poor as reflected in the social economic system of the United States and the world makes breathing difficult; war and terrorism make breathing difficult; and global warming and environmental pollutions have made breathing even far more difficult.

What more in the current context of Covid-19 where thousands have died in the United States and around the world because of the negligence of elites and a healthcare system that was not prepared to handle a pandemic, or wasted time of not learning from the SARS epidemic that could have contributed to the early development of vaccine. Many people have died because they are unable to breathe.

Material profits rather than a developing vaccine were the focus of the global political and economic elites.

Floyd’s cry should be rallying cry for a new world order that is built on love, solidarity and in harmony with the environment. There is need for global citizens to question and reform the underlying political, economic and social system that make breathing difficult for the majority of humanity.

* Ronald Benjamin is Association for Community and Dialogue secretary.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.