Civil Disobedience: Concept and Practice

The concept of civil disobedience was introduced by David Henry Thoreau in 1849 by what he experienced in the fight against slavery system in USA. The aims of this paper is to discuss the concept of civil disobedience and analyse its practice in Malaysia. This paper base on content analysis and interview. The analysis shows that first, there have several features to justify the acts of civil disobedience that happened in society. Second, in Malaysia, the concept of civil disobedience is something new. This is because in general, opposition is the term used to indicate resistance. The opposition only involves the struggle for political purposes, while the concept of civil disobedience include broader aspects involving the opposition parties, non-governmental organizations, civil society and activists to create public awareness for the fight against injustice in government. However, in practice, civil disobedience has been present in Malaysia since before independence. Therefore, this article takes a broader approach in analysing civil disobedience in Malaysia, with discussion focusing on historical aspects and current practice.