The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion
The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion |
| Posted: 10 Jul 2011 06:09 PM PDT JULY 11 — The dust has settled from the Bersih 2.0 march and life is now back to normal. The much-anticipated rally took place and despite the heavy clampdown, shutting KL-bound roads and diverting traffic, an estimated 20,000 people walked in many parts of the city to express their wish for a cleaner and more transparent election process. With all due respect, the authorities could have handled this rally in a much more civil and humane way, since this was as an initiative by civil society ( a coalition of 62 NGOs) to ask for something which should by right should be provided without even having to ask. While the old methods of repression and suppression were used, they have not been as effective as before. This is understandable, since the world today is a much different one from that of one or even two decades ago. Perhaps the lessons from 308 that should have been learned and corrected by now were never really understood by the powers that be, and mistakes that were made prior to the run-up to the last election were again so glaringly repeated this time. Arrogance and double standards were some of the lessons that should have been learned well. The perception of our law enforcement personnel was that they are still living in the 60s and 70s. In this 21st century, communist threats are still being used to justify some of the arrests just because a Che Guevera T-shirt — which can be bought in many places — was worn. There is a big difference between socialism and communism. This is no more the era of USSR or Mao Tse Tung's China; the former has disintegrated into smaller states and the latter is now more capitalist than communist. Who would want to revive communism, when these two giants communist states have tacitly admitted that their ideology is no longer workable, by opening their economies and adopting some capitalist practices. Bersih's walk would and could have been just like the lawyers' walk some time back in Putrajaya, if the police as well as politicians adopted the same approach; let the walk proceed under watchful eyes. Alas, an extremist NGO has to give advice to a certain ethnic group to stock up food or face the possibility of another May 13. The tension immediately rose 10 fold after this politician uttered his advice, and when Umno Youth too announced that they would counter-march on that day, the collective temperature rose another few degrees. It was not helped by the announcement by the Home Minister that the civil movemnt was illegal. With the announcement came the arrest of those wearing yellow. This act was perhaps meant to put fear into the rakyat, but in reality, it had the opposite effect of angering many ordinary people who regard this as an infringement of basic human rights. And once again the same arrogance that drove many to voting the Opposition in 308 was on display. Amidst the rise in temperature, one sane voice was heard. It was from none other than the beloved King, who advised that both sides should find a solution amicably. The PM also made a sane decision by offering to allow the rally to be held in a stadium. The King's advice actually presented an opportunity for all sides to back down without losing face which is ever so important in Malaysian society. Instead, the famed arrogance and flip-flopping emerged again. Instead of finding a solution, the authorities were seen trying to create more problems. The prime minister gave the impression he was reneging on his promise, and that was not good coming from the top leader. Understandably, there might be strong objections by his associates and advisors to use force but having made the promise, the PM should have used exerted strong leadership to realise his promise, instead of passing the buck to the police to decide. As a neutral observer, I see that the government's action left the group no choice but lean towards the Opposition parties. If only BN parties too participated in the organisation of this rally, the whole exercise could have been turned round to BN's favour. But the archaic thinking and tactic of must-use-force-to-suppress did not have its intended intimidating effect. So an even "cleverer" idea of shutting down city access roads and causing inconvenience to thousands of motorists was adopted, hoping that by denying access, the rally would fail to take place. The idea of shutting down the city does have one effect. Shops around the city centre were closed, and even a day before the rally, some big firms and corporations let their staff home early. But an estimated 20,000 people turned out despite shutting down bus services and roads, and closing some LRT stations. This is an estimate from foreign observers, and this is a big figure considering that all access roads to the city centre were shut down. Contrary to what the authorities tried to portray, those who took part in the rally were multiracial; not just Christian groups as would have been the case if the allegation of Christian funding was true. In this modern era, every citizen would have noticed this fact by just following international news channels. In hindsight, Bersih would have been just another civil walk, had it been allowed to happen peacefully and under watch. It would not have grown so big that even my cleaning lady knows about it. Not many, except perhaps the younger ones and the Internet savvy, would have known of its intention. But because of the mishandling, the arrogance and the flip-flopping displayed by the authorities, it has grown into a household name. Datuk Ambiga, the courageous chairman of Bersih 2.0, is now a champion in the minds of many. This debacle of mishandling, using the ideas and tactics of the last generation — mind you, this is no more the era of Mahathirism — will likely push many fence-sitters into the arms of the Opposition, and BN has only itself to blame. Whatever advantage they have gained in the last few hard fought by-elections is now lost. * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| Posted: 10 Jul 2011 05:54 PM PDT JULY 11 — The Bersih 2.0 rally on Saturday where tens of thousands of Malaysians demonstrated appeared to be more spontaneous than precision planned. Although we all knew that July 9th was the day for the rally, there was hope that it would be held in a stadium and that any disruptions would be minimised. It appears that even the intercession of the King was not enough for the police to provide a proper venue for Bersih to air their grouses. The police warned us that they were in effect "locking down" Kuala Lumpur and that anyone suspected of being involved with Bersih would be arrested. As it happened, they arrested a total of more than 1,600 Malaysians. Tear gas and water cannons were used on the crowd and there are claims that one man lost his life because the police delayed medical attention during the rally. Because of the "lock down", millions of Malaysians were not able to carry out their usual routine on Saturday. Many were anxiously seeking news from the media, both alternative and mainstream, as to actually what was going on in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. The world's media too did not disappoint and news of the demonstration was carried by CNN, the BBC and Al-Jazeera. The alternative media too were giving updates every few minutes and their coverage made you feel that you were actually there minus the tear gas, water cannons and arrests, of course. The Malaysian mainstream media also did their propaganda job by interviewing those whose business were adversely affected by the rally. The slant, of course, was to blame Bersih 2.0 for this. It is strange that the mainstream Malaysian media didn't blame the police instead. After all, it was the police roadblocks, shutting down and diverting of public transport, random stops and searches that basically "locked down" Kuala Lumpur. Bersih's leader Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan claimed the rally was a success as it had focussed many Malaysian minds on the issues that were brought up by the group. She may be right, to some extent, that many support Bersih's eight demands for reforms but to my mind the issues are far more fundamental. It is a question of freedom of expression and our rights as enshrined in our Constitution as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1946 to which our nation is a party to. The government claims that Bersih 2.0 has been hijacked by the Opposition. I agree. But so what? Does that entitle the police to "lock down" our city? Does that allow the police to arrest fellow Malaysians for having a yellow T-shirt or for carrying salt? Does that allow the police to fire tear gas and water cannons at a peaceful crowd walking through the streets of Kuala Lumpur? The police claim that the demonstration would have been much larger had they not instituted such a draconian shut down. Don't they realise that all that they did was subvert the fundamental rights of all Malaysians to express their views? All those people who would have come to the rally did not do so because of what the police did. Is that a victory for the police or a defeat for a more free and democratic Malaysia, or perhaps both? The police have a hierarchical structure where the officers are supposed to follow orders. They are trained like that and to be fair, that applies to all the security forces throughout the world. Nevertheless as with most police forces throughout the world, they see themselves as the "good guys" and a force of good in society. The problem that arises is that when you have peaceful protestors who are also "good people" on the other side. To some extent even the police recognised this and that is why they prepared food, drink and other facilities for those they arrested during the rally. In some places. they even shook hands with the protestors after the rally. While the police had their orders, they bore no ill-will towards the protestors and to some extent the protestors also knew they were under orders. If there is blame to be laid on this protest, then it most likely resides with the people who gave the "orders." While many of us were in a city under "lock down", we had pause to consider more deeply the events happening around us. Though it has tested our patience, some good did come out of it. The King had acted with great equanimity to try to calm things down. The Bersih 2.0 protestors were not afraid to express their feelings and did so peacefully. The police while they did act high-handedly tried to redeem themselves by treating most of those arrested reasonably and releasing them quickly. The likes of Perkasa were nowhere to be seen. While the game continues, I can't help but think that through all the troubles that we faced on July 9th, we are more united as Malaysians today than whatever was envisaged under Prime Minister Najib Razak's 1 Malaysia. It would indeed be ironic if the slogan succeeds but the man does not. * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
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