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Monday, June 27, 2011

BN's patriot games but who are the real enemies of the State

BN's patriot games but who are the real enemies of the State

14th July 1789 is the date of the storming of the Bastille, the great event that was the signal of the beginning of the French Revolution. The Bastille is a medieval fortress and prison symbolising royal authority and it was located in the centre of Paris.

At that material time, France was facing a major economic crisis exacerbated by a regressive system of taxation. The storming of the Bastille was the spark that lit the French Revolution with its famous slogan of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.

Epoch-setting date?

Now, in the month of July in Malaysia, a historic date is coming up too. July 9 - the date of the Bersih 2.0 Rally. Although the UMNO Youth and the Perkasa rallies are also going to take place on that same day, it is the Bersih that is most feared by the government of Prime Minister Najib Razak.

To Najib and his BN coalition, the Bersih Rally is a revolution that will topple their 5 decades-old political hegemony. But with or without Bersih, that course has already been set and will materialize with or without Bersih.

The purpose of the Bersih Rally is to demand electoral reforms so that Malaysia can with sincerity be described as having some semblance of a democracy with a level playing field for all political parties.

That the Federal Government, which is also the BN Government, is so against free and fair elections is perhaps an indication that they have something to hide especially where the voter rolls are concerned. To Najib's critics, this is a clear sign that his talk about Malaysia being a thriving democracy is hot air.

Daily threats and intimidation but Ibrahim Ali untouched

As it is, the police are issuing threats on a daily basis against anyone planning to participate in the Bersih Rally but keeping silent on the UMNO Youth and Perkasa Rallies. And it is the Perkasa one which has the greatest potential for being provocative as its chief, Ibrahim Ali, has already threatened the Chinese to stay home or else face a reprisal of the May 13 racial riots.

No one knows what is the real motive of UMNO Youth and Perkasa insisting on holding separate rallies on the same day as Bersih. Maybe they wish to attract attention to themselves or they could have ulterior purposes as many suspect them of having.

Be that as it may, the government has used the mainstream media to highlight that the Bersih Rally will cause chaos, disrupt business traders' activities and give a bad impression to tourists besides tarnishing Malaysia's image on the world's stage.

What the government is doing can be termed as 'polishing the media' as the media is a powerful tool in forming public perception. Even Najib himself has said that in politics, perception is all that matters.

At the end of the day, the government's motive is to show the public that it is Pakatan Rakyat that is the enemy of the State despite all these 'patriot games' that Pakatan is playing. The government wants to portray Pakatan's move in championing free and fair elections as actually a move to topple the BN.

Najib panics

Malaysia Chronicle spoke to DAP's Seremban MP John Fernandez for his view on the Bersih Rally. Fernandez, a senior lawyer said that peaceful rallies were a right enshrined in the Federal Constitution and therefore "we must assert that right".

"Even before the March 2008 General Election, Bersih has tried many times to engage with the Election Commission to discuss reform measures but they were ignored and the indelible ink purchased for that election was recalled at the 11th hour and never used," Fernandez told Malaysia Chronicle.

PAS strategist and Kuala Selangor MP Dzulkefly Ahmad opined that the time for table talk is over and it is time to take to the streets to prove a point and to let the whole world know what the Malaysian government is up to.

"There is nothing for the government to be afraid of as peaceful rallies are normal in a democratic country where dissenting voices are allowed. That is of course if Malaysia is a true democracy," Dzulkefly told Malaysia Chronicle.

In trying to quell the rising voices of dissent, a panicky Najib administration has been pressed to show the ugly side of its face - the face of the tyrant and the dictator.

It does not seem to have learnt to engage with the people that it serves. Despite Najib's lip service, his administration talks down to the people. Rather than adopt the ways of developed democracies, which even Singapore is learning to, Najib has fallen on the ill-advised ways of former premier Mahathir Mohamad, who ruled Malaysia with a fist of iron from 1981 to 2003.

But those days are long gone and if Mahathir were back in power, he would still be hit and defeated badly by this sweeping change in Malaysia society. Even now, Mahathir is ridiculed and seen as a 'nasty piece of goods' rather than someone who has left behind a valued legacy for his country.

Police should ensure the Rallies go smoothly, not create chaos

In the Bersih rally, the rakyat or populace are merely voicing their demands for electoral reforms starting first of all with the clean-up of the electoral rolls.

Is the government so afraid that a clean-up of the electoral rolls will contribute to their defeat in the polls that they are willing to beat and arrest citizens who march on July 9?

"No one is calling for a revolution to topple BN. That this is what the BN government fears and only goes to show that they have refused to read the writing on the wall. They are the ones hellbent on defending Putrajaya at all costs when in actual fact Putrajaya belongs to the people," said Dzulkefly.

The Najib administration is by all counts and purposes acting in a manner diametrically opposed to that of a democratic government. Actions do belie words and as such, there is little point for Najib to paint Malaysia as a vibrant democracy when the situation on the ground does not reflect such a picture. To do so would only open him to greater criticism of political hypocrisy.

PKR assemblyman for Seri Setia, Nik Nazmi remarked that if the government wants Malaysia to be a model democracy, then they should see to it that the Bersih Rally goes on peacefully.

According to him, in Japan and in UK, the police protect the protesters unless of course they turn rowdy.

"A case in point is the recent anti-nuclear protest held in Japan recently where the police were on hand to see that all goes well and the protesters get to march peacefully," Nik told Malaysia Chronicle.

"This is unlike the situation in Malaysia where dissenting voices are clamped down while pro-government and anti-Pakatan rallies are allowed to go on peacefully. These are blatant acts of double-standards but the Najib administration encourages it and now it has to pay the price for the loss in credibility."

Arab Spring comes to SE Asia, first destination Malaysia

Nik Nazmi also holds the view that Najib thinks the Bersih Rally will sweep him out of power as what had happened to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. One of the reasons is the increasing public unhappiness over the BN government's lavish spending, benefitting themselves and their cronies while in the same breath, they tell the ordinary folk to tighten their belts and accept the slew of price hikes.

PKR MP for Ampang Zuraida Kamaruddin believes that Najib sees the Bersih Rally as a second political Tsunami that will sweep the Opposition to federal power. Therefore the government is also playing 'patriot games' by branding the Opposition as unpatriotic and being a threat to national security, she said.

"In this day and age everyone knows that those who misappropriate the wealth of the nation are in actual fact the enemy of the State," Zuraida told Malaysia Chronicle.

"And what about those who want to continue staying in power so that they can continue to plunder the wealth of the nation at the expense of plunging the nation into the 4th world economic abyss? Are they not the enemy of the State as well?"

- Malaysia Chronicle

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