Snubbing the King, illegal weapons and a now-you-see-now-don't stadium

The decision is now to have the Bersih rally in the Merdeka stadium. This no doubt may have disappointed some people, especially those who went around in a car dumping weapons and plastic bottled Molotov-cocktail bombs. According to the police, these mysterious ones were likely to be from Bersih because they also found Bersih T-shirts together with the weapons.

What a disingenous allegation and made so unfairly? After all, couldn't the culprits be from UMNO who according to Prime Minister Najib Razak are deadset against the July 9 rally for free and fair elections. It is not impossible at all and in fact very plausible - so much so that the police should know better than to straightaway point the finger at Bersih.

That is premature and down-right stupid. It brings shame to the police force that such biased reasoning can be used in an investigation. Would the police have spoken differently, if the t-shirts were the familiar blue tee with white “dacing” symbols?

In a bind

By now, Najib and BN have worked themselves into a bind with their reactive actions against Bersih.

The police and the Home Minister acted in concert to proclaim the march illegal. This set into motion some of the vilest acts of propaganda creation and dissemination ever in Malaysian history.

Mainstream media, both television and newspapers, were quick to turn a peaceful march by everyday Malaysians into something as evil as a fest to celebrate genocide. Yet guess who are the ones who have threatened "ethnic cleansing". Najib himself and Perkasa's Ibrahim Ali - both UMNO and UMNO-linked.

Still, the BN shouted Bersih would bring the country to ruins, the economy would suffer, evil foreign funds were involved, and even crazy ideas of revoking citizenship were raised. Anything to scare Malaysians and keep them home on July 9. The event has yet to arrive but it is treated as if the end of the world would materialize on July 9.

So much deliberately-created paranoia and all for naught because the only thing UMNO-BN has succeeded in is to divide the nation into two camps.

Turn on the TV and you will notice how the people usually captured on film in acts of violence and mayhem are from the anti-Bersih camps. They burn effigies and hold heated shouting sessions to declare their hatred for the other races. Such actions are allowed so long as you support BN. If you don’t, then the police will 'correct' your mind-set.

Two camps

Malaysia is now divided into those whose thinking has been capped by 50 years of BN propaganda and control; and those who think for themselves and realize that they can help to determine the country's future.

UMNO-BN knows that as long as the people are not free to express their opinions or to think freely for themselves, they will have full control. If a citizen deviates from this thinking, then they are considered subversive and out to do harm to the general populace.

So that’s why UMNO-BN went to great pains to paint Bersih as evil. But now, all that demonizing work has merely backfired.

When Bersih chief Ambiga Sreenevasan came out of the Palace and announced the decision to accept Najib’s offer to hold the rally in a stadium, Najib took a slap in the face.

Firstly, why did Najib even offer a stadium if it is up to the police to decide if Bersih qualified for a permit?

Did not Home Minister Hishamuddin Hussein, Najib’s cousin, declare all things Bersih as illegal? Was the logic that, if in a stadium - it will be legal but in the streets - illegal? And then slap on a new condition that it must secure a police permit first and furthermore, it is the police who had absolute discretion whether or not to grant the permit. Doesn't this make a mockery of tthe King's call to his administration to work things out with Bersih?

Secondly, doesn't Najib and the government owe Bersih an apology for now tainting its peacful march as an "illegal" meeting.The King could have easily told Ambiga to cancel and she would have complied. Instead, the Agong allowed for the rally to be held and Ambiga has taken up Najib’s offer to hold it in the stadium. And this is also interesting, the Agong consented to Bersih being held, but did not comment the other rallies by Perkasa and UMNO Youth. What a snub for these two!

Thirdly, if Bersih was “waging war against the Agong” as famously accused the police, what will they say now since the King not only asked for conciliation but also agreed to meet Bersih. If Bersih was waging war with the Agong, would the King meet them?

Act with responsibility

Najib has thrown out all the excuses and reasons for cracking down on a coalition of established NGOs who wish to make a call for free and fair elections. But he remains silent when it comes to the misdeeds of UMNO, UMNO Youth, Perkasa and the police, who collectively are to be blamed for plunging the nation into a state of confusion and chaos.

The PM has conveniently avoided responsibility for the hard-handed tactics employed by the UMNO elite and the police. He has failed to decide on the fate of the detainees, choosing instead to pass the buck to the police over the arrest of more than 200 Bersih supporters.

How can Najib simply snub the Agong and consider Bersih as still illegal and the detention of Bersih supporters as his government's right? The Election Commission and the Najib administration is now under the microscope of therakyat and the Agong.

As responsible Malaysians, they must reply to the 8 electoral reforms proposed by Bersih.

As responsible Malaysians, they owe an explanattion to the people and the King.

- Malaysia Chronicle