Police in grip of Bersih hysteria

It's now quite clear that the Bersih 2.0 march planned for July 9 is not such a threat to public order and security as the fret and fever the government has generated over the whole affair.

It has driven elements of our security establishment nuts.

How else to explain the arrests of 30 Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) activists in Penang late Saturday, apparently under section 122 of the Penal Code which arraigns rebellion against the king?

That the likes of the professorial Dr Mohd Nasir Hashim, the PSM chair, the affably rotund S Arutchelvam, party secretary-general, and the mild-mannered Dr D Jeyakumar, their sole MP in Sungai Siput, are capable of plotting something as bizarre as rebellion against the king - as well believe that Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali has all along been an agent of PAS.

The band of diehard socialists that drive the PSM, small in number and serene in conviction, is very much like the above named trio of its leaders: the most lethal weapon they could plausibly wield to assault anybody is a poster of Che Guevara.

The news that a posse of PSM activists were intercepted by police while they were on a campaign swing up north and were hauled to police stations in Butterworth and Kepala Batas to be arraigned for plots as earthshaking as rebellion against the king is about as credible as the recent prediction of the end of the world by a religious sect.

PSM a menace to national security?

Sure, Penang deputy chief police officer Abdul Rahim Jaafar changed tack somewhat when he claimed that the arrested PSM bunch were in possession of printed materials which showed they were intent on reviving communist ideology.

Strictly speaking, the espousal of communist ideology is not an offence in itself. However, militancy in its expression would qualify as a detainable offence under the terms of the Internal Security Act 1960.

Nowadays, holdouts for communist ideology are regarded as on a level with proponents of flat earth theory: otherworldly rubes who are a little quaint, but not terribly dangerous.

If sympathy for communist ideology can be considered an offence, especially in these times, some people of stellar standing in this country would be indictable.

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad once pronounced the fall of the communist bloc a “catastrophe” for emerging countries because the pre-1989 bipolar world enabled nations like Malaysia some space for independent strutting on the world's stage.

Both Mahathir and former finance minister Daim Zainuddin have been known to have met up with former Communist Party of Malaya stalwarts, like the late Rashid Maidin, to chat with them, not, presumably, out of sympathy for their ideology; more likely, it was curiosity about their ability to endure adversity.

For BN, power is a permanent possession

The problem with the rhetorical inflation that has led the cops in Penang to attempting to turn a small band of socialist diehards into a menace to national security is that the reaction is the result of a mind-set that regards the state in a proprietary manner.

Overheated talk like 'Putrajaya must be defended at all costs' and 'The opposition is using the Bersih march to topple the government' reflects this attitude that power is not a trust but a permanent possession.

Opposing aspirants for the same power are regarded as interlopers that must be repelled at all costs. It is a view peculiar to hegemons and dictators.

Ironically, the slogan the PSM activists were touting in their campaign - 'Enough is enough! Retire BN!' - goes to the heart of the problem: Umno-BN's prolonged incumbency has a reached a point where their retirement is imperative for salvaging the country.

If Umno-BN were to opt for levity in their response rather than humourless gravity and rhetorical flatulence, their reaction would be: “What retire! So you can introduce your antiquated ideology. You must be kidding.”

But the clumsy apparatchiks of state power would much prefer a reflexive response to an original idea most times. For them, it's easier to use a sledgehammer than a scalpel.

In the meantime, Bersih 2.0 waxes on the waves of clumsy reaction.

TERENCE NETTO has been a journalist for close on four decades. He likes the occupation because it puts him in contact with the eminent without being under the necessity to admire them. It is the ideal occupation for a temperament that finds power fascinating and its exercise abhorrent. Courtesy of Malaysiakini