Najib and co still stuck in the Emergency years

Social anthropologist Datuk Shamsul Amri Baharuddin today advised the Najib administration to modernise its internal security to deal with modern-day threats, instead of holding on to “Cold War” tactics just to be able to deploy them on political rivals.

The professor from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) reminded the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition that the “enemy” was no longer armed communists battling a jungle war but a civilian movement consisting of politically-awakened middle class that is wired to the global community.

“It’s a telling point on the ruling coalition when they are still dealing in traditional security, which is based on the Cold War concept of weapons and [physical] fighting,” he said.

“The ruling coalition needs to switch from traditional security to non-traditional,” he added, explaining that there are finer aspects to defence, which now consist of five components.

He named them as power or energy, water, food, health and education, saying the five components are integrated.

“The issues put forward by Bersih 2.0 are legitimate issues in the [Federal] Constitution and an ongoing issue, in terms of freedom of assembly and freedom of association.

“It’s a continuous thing and it’s not going to be the end,” Shamsul Amri said.

“But the state is behind the times and the incumbent group has been very slow to respond. They’re too used to respond to a Cold War situation,” he said.

“If you study their training manuals, their emergency response, the police and the army, it’s the same as during the Emergency years,” he noted, referring to the battle with communists pre-Independence.

Double standards

Shamsul Amri noted that too many contemporary analysts tend to comment without looking back at history.

“When the public demonstrated in front of the US embassy previously, over the Palestinian issue, did the police come? No. So why did they come for this?” he quizzed, referring to Saturday’s rally, which Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein had declared illegal on July 1.

Asked for his view on whether the rally had birth new social icons of dissent from the middle class against the ruling coalition, such as Bersih 2.0 chief Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan and national laureate, Datuk A. Samad Said, Shamsul Amri said: “Icons are icons… they don’t effect change unless they contest in the general elections and win,” he said.

“Karpal Singh is still more relevant than them,” he said.

“In the end, it’s all about translating into votes,” he added.

- Malaysian Insider