Fleeing the trail of destruction he has been accused of wreaking on the country's image, Prime Minister Najib Razak has gone on another overseas trip - this time to the UK and Vatican - while his UMNO collagues try and repair the damage.
It is a telling sign that several top UMNO leaders felt it necessary to come out and try to undo the huge nagative publicty dealt not just to the nation but also to their party's image. UMNO is increasingly as seen as a racist party, out of touch not just with the people - but with reality itself.
But neither former UMNO president Abdullah Badawi or party secretary-general Tengku Adnan are likely achieve anything with their latest moves. Instead, they are likely to confirm the views people here and overseas have that UMNO is really as bad as it has been painted.
No one will know what reasons the two men are giving in private for the series of misteps taken by Najib and the unprecedented police crackdown that left one dead and thousands injured during a Saturday rally. Or not yet, anyway. But the public line that both Badawi and Adnan are spouting now is no different from Najib's.
"It would be better if they did not say anything that is not true. Malaysians whether here or abroad know what's going on and so do international human rights organsiations," PKR vice president Chua Jui Meng told Malaysia Chronicle.
Najib reneged on his word
Chua was among those who walked in the citizens' march for free and fair elections. The Bersih organisers had planned to deliver a memorandum of 8 reforms to the King, urging him to make the Najib administration implement these before the next general election.
But Najib shocked the nation and the world by outlawing the march, triggering riducule and sinde comments as to why he feared clean polls. He also scored a personal low when he publicly reneged on his word to give the Bersih organisers access to any stadium of its choice after promising to do so.
If the PM had kept his word, Bersih marchers would have gathered in the Stadium and not in groups on the streets, making themselves sitting ducks for the police brutality that was unleashed without mercy. Bersih has estimated a crowd size of 100,000.
Badawi defends police, attacks Ambiga
But according to Badawi, if the police had not acted it would have been worse. Why and how, the former prime minister did not divulge.
“Under the circumstances and fears among people that something bad might have happened, the police were doing their best. It is not easy for them, to make sure that the rally did not become something which was disastrous the police were very careful,” Abdullah told reporters on Tuesday.
He again blamed the Bersih organisers for going to the streets and insisted that the issue of electoral reforms have never been raised before.
“These groups, they have never brought up any kind of issue in Parliament. They have to take it to the streets. Malaysian society is matured. Don’t create things to disturb the peace,” Badawi.
But sad to say, his comments showed him to be the latest 'liar' born out of the Bersih fiasco. As Chua pointed, it was silly for UMNO to try and defend the indefensible. A day ago, Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai was caught lying by insisting the police had not shot tear gas into the Tung Shin Hospital, yet that there are thousands of visuals, images and video clips on You Tube that contradict him.
It is not unfair to say most Malaysians know the polls here are "dirty", that there is enormous vote-buying, 'phantom' voters exist, citizenships are given to foreigners on the condition they voted BN and the use of 'borrowed' identity cards by BN-friendly people such as the police or soliders to vote at various centres throughout the nation. Such co-ordinated action obviously require the collusion of the police and Election Commission, and both institutions have been frequently condemned for becoming stooges of the BN.
The 8 electoral reforms sought by Bersih are: 1. Clean the electoral roll 2. Reform postal ballot 3. Use of indelible ink 4. Minimum 21 days campaign period 5. Free and fair access to media 6. Strengthen public institutions 7. Stop corruption 8. Stop dirty politics.
As Bersih chief Ambiga Sreenevasan has said, these problems have existed for decades and were raised at many General Elections in the past, but the EC has never done more than pay lip service to the requests. Even Najib himself on Sunday insisted there was nothing wrong with the exsting system.
More damage by Adnan in Jakarta
In Jakarta, Tengu Adnan was even more gung-ho. He blamed Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim for the rally. Anwar is a popular Muslim leader in Indonesia, and well-respected for his reformist stance.
“Indonesia is an important country for Malaysia, first in tourism, two in terms of investment. We also hope that Indonesian investors invest more in Malaysia. Traders are furious with the demonstrators. Tourists are also angry, because the monorail and LRT were closed. If we did not block, the traders would have clashed with the demonstrator,” Adnan told a press conference there.
But it looks like even the Indonesians there know Adnan is not telling the real story.
“The arrests should not have happened. Every single citizen should have the right to express their opinions and assemble. If violence takes place like this here, at the end of the day, civilians who are unarmed will be the victims,” Rafendi Djamin, Indonesia’s representative to the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights was reported as saying in the Jakarta Post.
- Malaysia Chronicle
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