Now that Bersih is over (part 5)

 

What is so wrong with stepping onto the green grass of Dataran Merdeka? What is the harm in doing that? If the Bersih 3.0 demonstrators can assemble on the streets surrounding Dataran Merdeka, if that is not an issue, why is stepping foot on Dataran Merdeka such a serious crime that warrants the use of force, even to the extent of getting a court order to make the use of force even more legitimate and legal?

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Don’t get mad, get even, said Lee Iacocca’s wife. This was in response to Lee Iacocca brooding around the house and getting his blood pressure up after he got sacked from the leading US motor company, Ford. Sure, Lee Iacocca was mad. He was the number two in Ford and was the man who made Ford the number one motor company in the US, or at least the man who made sure that Ford retained the number one slot. 

Taking his wife’s advice, he went out and got a job with Chrysler, a company on the brink of bankruptcy. Armed with a loan from Congress, he turned around the company and dislodged Ford from the number one position. Congress never thought it was going to see its money back. He not only paid back the loan, he paid it back ahead of time on top of that. And he made sure that Chrysler gave Ford a licking it would never forget.

Many of you are mad about what you consider police highhandedness and excessive use of force last Saturday during the Bersih 3.0 rally. I, on the other hand, am not mad. Well, I used to be mad. I used to be mad 14 years ago back in 1998 when we first experienced such brutality. But I am now beyond mad. I am already at the level of getting even. My mad streak has been spent and I now just want to get even.

I am beyond mad because I have accepted that this is how we are treated if we oppose the government. If we go against Umno and/or Barisan Nasional, this is what they will do to us. Hence I take it as an occupational hazard. This comes with the territory. If we oppose the government they will brutalise us. That is what happens in Malaysia.

But sometimes we do need to get mad. We need to get downright angry. We need to get pissed big time. If we do not then we will never act. And inaction will just make things worse. So we need to act if we want to see changes. The question is: what or whom do we get mad at and what action must we take to get even?

That is where we need to focus our energy or else it will be energy wasted.

Do we get mad with the tools? The tools are merely the instruments of someone. Why get mad with the tools? It is the one abusing those tools that we need to get mad with. And in this situation, the police force is merely the tool of that higher power, the powers-that-be, those who walk in the corridors of power.

We must remember that two very senior police officers have now joined the ranks of the opposition -- Ramli Yusuff and Mat Zain Ibrahim. Then there are those six police officers still in service that signed Statutory Declarations exposing the previous IGP, Musa Hassan, and revealed his links with the underworld crime syndicate. And for this these people have paid a heavy price that very few other Malaysians like you and me are prepared to pay.

Some have been charged for all sorts of imaginary crimes as retaliation for exposing the wrongdoing in the police force. Some have been transferred and their careers gone bust. Some are in cold storage and have no future in the police force any longer.

Furthermore, I personally have Deep Throats in the police force that are feeding me information about transgressions and wrongdoings of those in power. Without these people we would never know what is going on and would not be able to run all these untold stories.

Yes, we are mad. We are mad about what they did last Saturday. But do we want to curse all police officers and call them ‘pigs’ and ‘dogs’ when some of these police officers oppose the very same thing that we too oppose?

As I said, the police force is merely a tool of oppression. Even Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad spoke out against this matter when he called Malaysia a police state. Dr Mahathir was referring to Umno rather than the police force when he said that Malaysia is a police state -- although it was the police force that was irritating Dr Mahathir.

Of course, this was all because, this time around, Dr Mahathir was on the receiving end of such oppression when for 22 years as Prime Minister he was the oppressor. Receiving is not as much fun as giving, as Dr Mahathir discovered, unless it is money you are receiving, of course.

So who are the real oppressors if the police force is merely a tool of oppression? The police force has no power. Even the top police officer, the IGP, cannot detain you without trial. The Detention Order needs to be signed by the Minister of Home Affairs, the man whom the police take orders from.

So, if you are detained without trial and locked away for eight years, whom should we get mad with? The police force? The prisons department? Or the Minister who signed our Detention Order, the only man with the power to do so?

Let’s go back to last Saturday. If the Minister or the Prime Minister had called up the IGP and told him that there must be absolutely no brutality on that day, would the police have dared defy that order? If the Minister or the Prime Minister had called up the IGP and instructed him that all the barricades are to be removed and that the Bersih 3.0 rally were not to be obstructed in any way, would we have seen what we saw happen last Saturday? 

But this was not the case. Instead, what happened last Saturday was that the Minister and/or the Prime Minister told the IGP that Dataran Merdeka is to be cordoned off and barricades are to be set up and if anyone were to cross the ‘police line’ then the police are to respond with the use of force.

Taking this into consideration, the police personnel were told to just observe. However, the instant someone crosses the barricade, then the police are to respond with the use of force. At all costs no one is supposed to set foot on the green grass of the padang on Dataran Merdeka. There are no two ways about it. 

What is so wrong with stepping onto the green grass of Dataran Merdeka? What is the harm in doing that? If the Bersih 3.0 demonstrators can assemble on the streets surrounding Dataran Merdeka, if that is not an issue, why is stepping foot on Dataran Merdeka such a serious crime that warrants the use of force, even to the extent of getting a court order to make the use of force even more legitimate and legal?

Well, only the Minister and the Prime Minister can reply to that question. The lower ranking police personnel would not know the answer to that question. They were just told to stand by and wait for the order to shoot. And once the order was given, they are to shoot without any further delay and break heads if necessary to stop anyone who tries to cross the line and step foot on the green grass of Dataran Merdeka.

The answer to that question is actually very simple. Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak was scared shit. He was scared shit that Saturday, 28th April 2012, was the day he would be forced to step down. And with so much baggage that he is carrying, he just cannot afford to be ousted from office. Being ousted from office may also mean he might be sent to jail.

But why was Najib so scared shit of 28th April 2012? On 28th April 2012 it was supposed to be a Bersih rally, just like the two Bersih rallies before this. Bersih 1.0 and 2.0 came and went without him having to step down. Why should he worry that Bersih 3.0 is not like Bersih 1.0 and 2.0 and that this time around he is going to be ousted from office?

Well, you see, the reports that he had received were that Bersih 3.0 is not going to be like Bersih 1.0 and Bersih 2.0. This time around they are going to launch a Malaysian Spring. And the Malaysian Spring is going to be triggered by the move to occupy Dataran Merdeka. Dataran Merdeka is going to be ‘captured’ and the demonstrators are going to use that as the base for the Malaysian Spring that is going to see Najib kicked out of office.

Hence Najib was scared shit that some people were planning to jump over the barricades and launch the ‘Occupy Dataran’, which in turn will trigger the ‘Malaysian Spring’. If that happens then Najib will have to run away or else end up in jail. And Najib was not prepared to run away or go to jail. Hence no one must step foot on the green grass of Dataran Merdeka padang at any cost.

Was there a plan to occupy Dataran Merdeka? Was there a plan to launch the Malaysian Spring? Was there a plan to make sure that Saturday, 28th April 2012, would be the day that Najib is ousted from office? Or was this just Najib’s imagination or the result of bad intelligence and wrong feedback from Bukit Aman and the Military Intelligence?

So, yes, Saturday, 28th April 1012, was a brutal event. But I do not want to talk about that because demonstrations have always met with a brutal response from the government. What I want to know is why did the police suddenly turn brutal, after agreeing to look and see, just because some bright spark decided to jump over the barricades? 

And, most important of all, who gave the order to be brutal and at all costs prevent those thousands of Malaysians from setting foot on the green grass of Dataran Merdeka? 

That is whom we must be mad with.