After recharging in the fasting month, the "mobilisation politics" will soon be resumed.
Mobilisation politics refers to the competition of the numbers of rally attendees, to prove that the people are with them. Organisers do not hesitate even to waste huge resources to create a bandwagon effect.
Since the Bersih 2.0 last year, political struggles have started to compete in the number of rally attendees as the transformation and policy reforms have reached the bottleneck.
The number of attendees of the Bersih 3.0 this year is a shock. The rally organiser declared 250,000 of attendees but the police estimated 25,000 people. Umno held its 66th anniversary at the Bukit Jalil Stadium in Kuala Lumpur after the Bersih 3.0 rally. It was attended by 100,000 people and later, PAS kicked off its Green Rally to Puttrajaya tour with the first rally attended by 60,000 people.
After a short break, rallies are planned on the eve of the Merdeka Day. On Aug 30, the Merdeka celebration will be held as usual at the Dataran Merdeka while dozens of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) will hold the "Janji Demokrasi" countdown event at the same place. Obviously, it is meant to counter the BN government's Merdeka theme of "Janji Ditepati".
Wearing yellow
If the number of attendees wearing yellow shirts are high, it would then be a moral victory. The Merdeka Day is a day celebrated by all and thus, the police's intervention is not necessary. They should just regard it as a carnival of the civil society!
The same evening, the Preservation of Jalan Sultan and Jalan Bukit Bintang Committee (PJSBBC) will also launch the Merdeka March for Jalan Sultan, allowing the people to personally experience and understand the history of Jalan Sultan.
On Aug 31, in addition to the Merdeka Day parade in the morning, there will be another celebration at the Bukit Jalil Stadium at night. The Information, Communications and Culture Ministry estimated that 160,000 people would attend the event.
Where are these 160,000 people from? They are from government agencies, BN component parties, government-related companies and NGOs. According to statistics, a total of 168,370 people would attend the event and it requires over 4,000 buses to carry all of them.
Other rallies
Two days after the Merdeka Day, a Green Rally will be held in Raub to protest against the use of cyanide in gold mining. The organiser estimated more than 100 buses of attendees and among them, the DAP alone would mobilise over a thousand of people.
On the same day, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is scheduled to attend the Hari Raya open house of Parliament Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia in Kota Belud, which is believed to attract more than 10,000 people. After two Sabah Members of Parliament quit the BN and supported the Pakatan Rakyat, Sabah has become a sensitive state and thus, it is also logical for Najib to celebrate Hari Raya with the people of Sabah.
A week later, the four major Chinese education groups in Penang will stage a protest on September 9 to firmly oppose to the attempt of usurping Chinese primary schools' board of directors to implement the single-stream education policy.
After the formation of partisan politics and the blockage of communication channels, views of the people are not able to be conveyed to high-ranked officials and thus, protests are staged and to strengthen its momentum, the ruling party launches counter attacks by calling on rallies.
However, mass rallies are extremely resource-intensive and they take up production time. Therefore, there should be some restraints on it, particularly when the country is committed to become a high-income economy. The people will be the one who pays the bill of misallocation of resources, the mobilisation of civil servants and the fall of productivity.
-Sin Chew Daily
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