A scapegoat called Bersih

Do not make the rakyat feel indebted to the government merely because they received paltry handouts.

COMMENT

It was not too long ago that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak talked about winning the rakyat’s nambikei or trust. However, going by recent developments, it can be concluded that unless his government “behaves”, trust will remain elusive.

For trust to come Najib’s way, the federal government under the Barisan Nasional patronage must drop all pretences and reflect its sincerity in reaching out to the people.

Do not make the rakyat feel indebted to the government merely because they received paltry handouts.

Listen to what the people want and deliver. When repeated calls for clean and fair elections were made, how did BN react? It was least interested in a clean-up and instead turned the tables on electoral watchdog Bersih, claiming it has sinister motives, using its April 28 protest-turned-chaos as BN’s trump card.

A month later, the federal government is still crying foul over Bersih 3.0, saying the April 28 incident had just one aim – to overthrow the BN government and doing an ala-Tahrir Square of Egypt.

Then began the mental and physical harassment of Bersih co-chairperson S Ambiga, perpetrated by none other than the Umno-linked goons.

While a member of the rakyat who chose to speak out against government hanky-pankies was given sleepless nights, Najib could not care less.

All Bersih wanted was for the electoral system to be rid of the corruption and cronyism; instead, Najib and gang have labelled Ambiga as a traitor, refusing to listen to Bersih.

Never big on human rights

Now, United Nations human rights experts are denouncing what they termed as “disturbing” harassment of Malaysian activists who are pushing for election reform and urged the government to protect them.

“I am seriously concerned by these disturbing acts of harassment against a prominent woman human rights defender who is being targeted because of her legitimate human rights activities in Malaysia,” UN special rapporteur on human rights defenders Margaret Sekaggya said via a statement on June 7.

Maina Kiai, special rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of opinion, is urging Malaysia to withdraw a civil suit filed against group leaders over damage caused during the April rally.

“Holding assembly organisers liable for the alleged unlawful conduct of others is not compatible with standards governing the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and has a detrimental effect on the exercise of this right,” Kiai said in the statement.

But then Malaysia has never been big on human rights, or else it would not hesitate to be party to the 1947 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

When Najib finally opened his mouth, out came lies after lies. The climax, which confirmed BN’s desperation in not wanting to reform electoral polls, came when the Home Ministry on May 9 appointed former Inspector-General of Police Hanif Omar as head of the independent advisory panel investigating the April 28 protest.

Prior to his appointment, Hanif was quoted in a Bernama report linking communist elements to the gathering which demanded free and fair elections.

He reportedly said: “The tactics of using provocateurs to cause the demonstrators to clash with police and to bring children along in the hope they would get injured were tactics learnt from past pro-communist demonstrations.”

Hanif alleged that based on images and photographs taken during the rally, he recognised pro-communist individuals who were involved in the 1970s demonstrations.

That was enough for Bersih to decide they want nothing to do with Hanif. When he asked to meet Bersih to get its point of view of what transpired during the rally, Ambiga definitively said, “No”!

Ambiga’s reasoning rests on the fact that justice needs to be seen to be implemented. And the panel falls short of this basic principle following Hanif’s statements against Bersih during its April 28 rally’s aftermath.

Will Najib now manipulate Bersih’s refusal to meet Hanif to his advantage, portraying the electoral reform activist as stubborn and irresponsible?

Truth scares BN

Like its July 9 Bersih 2.0 predecessor, the April 28 rally highlighted the same truth – that BN is not willing to jeopardise its chances at the polls; reforming the electoral system would be fatal to its “survival” at the ballot boxes.

But then BN has no way out, as the rakyat has spoken, once on July 8, 2011 and then on April 28, 2012 of their dismay over the manipulation taking place at the polls.

Dare BN dimiss the people’s voice and continue to indulge in the usual antics to grab as many seats as possible come the general election?

The international condemnation against Najib’s handing of the Bersih 3.0, including dragging the electoral watchdog to court via a civil suit, has ended up revealing who the real villain is.

Besides the civil suit and other actions, various current or former officials have publicly attacked the coalition – known in Malaysia as “Bersih”, for the Malay word for “clean” – labelling it as radicals planning a coup d’etat.

With the truth scaring BN, why then does it keep finding scapegoats to dump blame over the chaos that rocked Kuala Lumpur on April 28?

Jeswan Kaur is a freelance writer and a FMT columnist.