Despite some popular belief, I am not a “Malaysian Greta”. My rebirth in women’s struggle was initiated when I first attended a sharing session by Anja Flach in Düsseldorf on her years spent in the Kurdish women’s guerrilla army. Her anti-war ideology and rejection of capitalism strike a chord in me, and with that, her philosophy that organised women will not only liberate their mind and body but also construct societal transformation.
“What do you want?”
“Climate Justice !!!”
In 2018, I saw the news about a schoolgirl in Sweden, dragging her placard “SKOLSTREJK FÖR KLIMATET” and inspire young people of her generation all over Europe, to put pressure and shame powerful corporations and the UN bodies for climate inaction. She is not afraid to point her fingers and state the obvious.
A people’s led climate movement is a pipedream, a skeptical me have often joked around. But this time, I am not laughing anymore, it can be done despite the poor climate literacy plaguing this nation and lack of empathy between human and the environment. However, my optimism was premature and misplaced. As I started working with the Indigenous communities that are marginalised, I was exposed to a different side of the world; the indigenous story of creation– detached from the white and urban matrix I was brought up in. It was rich and hopeful, as it was of destitution and loss.
I knew then, that to start solving the climate crisis, we must address systemic racism, corruption, and gender inequality in our society, and make space for democratic governance. Without meaningful participation from the civil society and groups most vulnerable to climate impacts, we risk policy failures.
DEMOCRACY, not policies, is most critical to steer the political will for climate action and liberate our people from corporate oppression that puts profit before the people and the planet.
In times of peril such as now, we need to safeguard ours.
Ili Nadiah Dzulfakar is the co-founder of Klima Action Malaysia.