Now that Bersih is over (part 6)

 

If you have been warned and if you come prepared for combat, well and good. But if you thought this was going to be a Saturday afternoon stroll with your babies, children and grandparents and you were caught totally unprepared, then this is not well and good. You would be what I would call cannon fodder. And that is very irresponsible of those who planned this and did not inform everyone that Saturday, 28th April 2012, was going to be the Malaysian Spring and to achieve that you first need to occupy Dataran Merdeka.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

No, I have not finished with my series Now that Bersih is over.  I am already on page 14 and am probably only halfway to what I want to say. I really don’t know whether this would be regarded as a thesis rather than an essay. Anyway….

This was what was reported in the Internet today.

Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad says the escalated violence of the most recent Bersih rally was an indication that the opposition is anticipating a major loss in the upcoming General Election, and more demonstrations and more violence can be expected.

Saying the opposition would resort to anything so that it can to seize power, Dr Mahathir said, “Malaysian elections have been more clean than those in the authoritarian countries where results have always been obviously fixed.”

(READ MORE HERE)

In short, what Dr Mahathir is saying, the opposition is choosing pilihan jalan raya as opposed to pilihan raya. (This has been Bersih Committee Member Hishamuddin Rais’ favourite battle cry). Translated into English, that would be: the choice of the streets rather than elections. However, a more apt equivalent would probably be: the bullet rather than the ballot.

Now, before I talk about the main issue, I would first like to touch on the part where Dr Mahathir compares Malaysian elections to some other countries. Dr Mahathir said, “Malaysian elections have been more clean than those in the authoritarian countries where results have always been obviously fixed.” 

Dr Mahathir is speaking just like many Pakatan Rakyat supporters. Malaysia’s elections may not be the cleanest in the world, but it is still cleaner in comparison to, say, countries like Iraq during the time of Saddam Hussein or Nazi Germany during the time of Adolf Hitler.

Pakatan Rakyat supporters also use this same argument. The opposition may not be the best and there may still be some corruption amongst the opposition politicians, but the opposition is still better than Umno and Barisan Nasional by comparison.

I suppose if we can accept this argument by the Pakatan Rakyat supporters then Dr Mahathir’s argument makes sense as well. Remember me telling you to be careful how you argue your case because your argument can be used against you? 

Dr Mahathir is using the same argument that Pakatan Rakyat supporters use. And if this argument works in the defence of Pakatan Rakyat and to justify the weaknesses in the opposition then we have to grudgingly agree that Dr Mahathir has a point and that his argument is valid.

No, we cannot use the ‘I may not be the best but others are worse’ argument. What if I were to argue this way?

I may not pray or go to the mosque but at least I don’t take bribes like some so-called pious Muslims who pray and go to the mosque and yet take bribes.

Does that make me a good Muslim or a better Muslim than those who pray, go to the mosque and take bribes?

What about the following arguments?

I may drink but I do not eat pork. I may drink and eat pork but I do so with my own hard-earned money and not using money earned from bribery. I may take bribes but I pay zakat (tithe) on the bribes that I take. I may take bribes but I take only a small amount and not in the hundreds of millions like some people. I may not be a faithful husband but I only occasionally have sex with my maid and not every day like some people. I may have sex with my maid but I pay her each time I have sex with her so it is not like I am taking advantage of her.

I suppose translated into those situations the arguments do not sound that kosher after all.

Anyway, back to the issue I really want to talk about. Dr Mahathir is lamenting that the opposition is trying to topple the government. And, according to Dr Mahathir, they are using Bersih to do that.

Actually, this is not a revelation at all. This statement of Dr Mahathir can’t be regarded as an expose. I think most people already knew that. Many who came out for the Bersih 3.0 rally last Saturday were aware that the rally was not just about clean, fair and free elections but about bringing down the government.

The fight for clean, fair and free elections has been going on for a long time, long before Bersih 1.0 in November 2007. Yet, in spite of all that effort, Malaysia is going backward rather than forward. Things have been deteriorating rather than improving. Hence I wrote in an article last month: can Bersih actually achieve what it wants to achieve if all they do is march on the streets and chant slogans? (That article met with some very violent responses).

Abdar Rahman Koya, Latifah Koya’s brother (Latifah is a PKR leader and one of Anwar Ibrahim’s lawyers and a member of his inner circle), said in his article published in Harakah entitled ‘In defence of storming the barricades at Dataran’:

The truth is that we all went there to break the law. A law devoid of fair play and justice, a law which is enforced to the detriment of ordinary citizens. The barricades blocking our march into Dataran Merdeka are the clearest and most tangible symbol of the government’s animosity to the ordinary public. It would be foolish to be there and not dismantle them. 

We did not go there to merely shout and punch the air. We probably did so last year, singing in rain at the gates of Stadium Merdeka. This time, it is serious business. There is no time to waste. We are talking about tens of thousands of dubious names in the electoral roll, new voters whose citizenship are suspicious, the continued Big Brother mentality of our tax-funded television channels, and many more.

The people of Egypt would not have celebrated the downfalls of their tyrants had they followed the law and stayed outside the perimeters of the heavily fortified Tahrir Square. History shows that for change to happen, removing police barricades is a norm, indeed the act has become a main ingredient of peaceful protests to claim back public places and venues denied to them. It does not justify any high handedness by the security forces. 

The April 28 rally is not a tea party or simply a ‘walk’ as some who participated in it would like to think. Those who feel we should not have stormed the barricades at Dataran might as well stay home clicking at the ‘like’ button of anti-government Facebook pages, or disappear into some obscure stadium as suggested by the Kuala Lumpur mayor, in keeping with the stand that DAP leader Tunku Aziz has taken. 

(READ MORE HERE)

Anwar Ibrahim himself admitted the same thing during the press conference in the PKR headquarters on Monday morning. This is revealed in the 55th second of the following video.

SEE VIDEO ON YOUTUBE HERE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD1ebhoCxD4

Personally, I have no problems with toppling governments. Since time immemorial governments have been toppled all over the world. Sometimes it is through the ballot box. Sometimes it is through revolutions. Sometimes it is through armed rebellions. Sometimes it is through foreign intervention. Sometimes it is through assassinations.

Toppling governments is what people do. Even Prophets have propagated the toppling of governments. Even the US topples governments and Malaysia is still very good friends with the US. China tried to topple the Malaysian government through the CPM, but failed, and we are good friends with China.

Hence, I do not believe that Dr Mahathir or Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak or whoever it may be is sore that the real agenda of Bersih 3.0 was to topple the government. What they are really sore about is that it is the Umno-Barisan Nasional government that they are trying to topple. That is the real issue.

These people are not opposed to those who tried to topple the Brunei government or are trying to topple the Philippines or Thai governments (at least in the Muslim-majority ‘autonomous’ regions). In fact, Malaysia aids them and gives them support. Toppling governments is not something that Malaysia is concerned about. It is toppling Umno and Barisan Nasional that is the real concern.

My only concern is not whether it is right or wrong to topple governments. I am an anarchist so toppling governments is what I do. That is my ‘hobby’. My concern is that some or many of those who participated in the Bersih rally were not aware of the real agenda. And that was why they brought along their babies, children, grandparents, etc.

If the objective last Saturday was to go into physical combat then people should have been warned. People should know what they are getting themselves into and given a choice whether to join the fight or stay away if they can’t stomach the bloodshed.

The police had been warned. As what the Prime Minister said (READ HERE) and as what Dr Mahathir said (READ ABOVE), the government knew that Bersih 3.0 was an attempt to topple the government. Hence we can expect the police to have been given instructions to break heads.

If you have been warned and if you come prepared for combat, well and good. But if you thought this was going to be a Saturday afternoon stroll with your babies, children and grandparents and you were caught totally unprepared, then this is not well and good. You would be what I would call cannon fodder. And that is very irresponsible of those who planned this and did not inform everyone that Saturday, 28th April 2012, was going to be the Malaysian Spring and to achieve that you first need to occupy Dataran Merdeka.

That is my only beef. No one should be tricked into participating in something under false pretences. If they do participate it must be based on the full understanding of what is going to happen. And don’t use Tahrir Square as the parallel. Those who came out on Tahrir Square knew what was going to happen. They knew the agenda and it was no hidden agenda. The agenda was to fight and to bring down the government. It was not a weekend stroll with your family.