Wee: Protest at Ambiga’s house will give our youths & the world a wrong image of Malaysia

The anti-Dato’ Ambiga protest at her house yesterday has only succeeded in aggravating the current political situation of our country and contrasts entirely with Malaysia’s political culture and is not reflective of the transformation plans under the leadership of our Prime Minister, Dato’ Sri Najib Tun Razak.

While MCA and Barisan Nasional respect the right to freedom of expression, and we hold that true for Ambiga and the Bersih protestors as well, however, we believe that any form of protest or disagreement must conform to the rule of law, and that street protests will not resolve anything, more particularly when it takes the form of mob rule designed to intimidate and hurt.

Thus, for the Bersih 4.0 Peace Lovers group, bikers and the Halau 1.0 group to go ahead with the protest at the vicinity of former Bar Council president Ambiga’s house is tantamount to harassment and intimidation against Ambiga and her neighbours.

Bad example for youths

Seeing that youths are among the many who took part in the protest yesterday, I fear that these NGOs are teaching them the wrong thing – that street protest are the only way and that the authorities and the law may be disregarded and disrespected.

Thus, for the two anti-Ambiga groups to gather in a residential area to protest against the Bersih 3.0 rally is teaching the younger generation that a tit-for-tat situation is the best solution. This is unhealthy. Lacking maturity, staging a protest to protest a protest will send Malaysia down the slippery slope towards the “an eye-for-an-eye” mentality, which will be detrimental to our country’s peace and will make us the laughing stock of the world.

As the future of our country, we must teach the youths that there are other ways to convey disappointment, anger, or any other emotion and that the proper channels must be adhered to lest the country takes a turn for the worse with street protests becoming the norm which will see the streets of Malaysia becoming a violent place similar to Egypt and Libya, where the majority of protestors are youths.

Such a situation will not augur well for the interest of our country, especially in our multi-racial and multi-cultural context. Thus, I would also like to acknowledge the police and DBKL personnel for doing their job effectively in trying to minimize the hardship of the residents near Ambiga’s home.

Wee Ka Siong is the MCA Youth National Chairman

Member of Parliament for Ayer Itam

Deputy Minister of Education