Rallies alone not enough

Public demonstrations aside, the rakyat must be made aware as to why wrongdoings by the BN government can no longer be ignored.

COMMENT

PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli got it right when he said that the ruling coalition of Barisan Nasional is only capable of responding to “people power’ and not ‘intellectual arguments’.

Had ‘intelligence’ been BN’s forte, the coalition would never have been desperate to win the once-in-five-years general elections.

And had BN been ‘intelligent’ enough to argue or debate, the fate of the nation would have been so much the better.

As such Rafizi is of the firm belief that public rallies are needed because it is the “only language” that the BN government  understands.

“BN does not respond to intellectual arguments. The same applies to the Elections Commission (EC).

Pakatan Rakyat had recently embarked on a series of ‘Black 505′ rallies, claiming that BN had cheated its way into winning the recent general election.

Among their contentions were the indelible ink fiasco and the fact that they won 51% of the majority support but failed in their bid to wrest Putrajaya.

Rafizi also  said past incidents of public gatherings on issues pertaining to human rights abuse and the Internal Security Act (ISA) had shown that BN only responded to public rallies.

“BN knows that they can’t pull off something like that. We don’t give people money or  any publicity, yet hundreds of thousands of people participate in our rallies,” Rafizi had said in an interview.

While the PKR leader feels public rallies are a good way for Malaysians to express their outrage over the fraudulent general election, Rafizi must bear in mind that rallies alone will not bring about the desired results.

Public demonstrations aside, the rakyat must be made aware as to why wrongdoings by the BN government can no longer be ignored.

Changing the people’s mindset via a paradigm shift will do the trick and for that, besides organising big-time rallies, PKR and its partners DAP and PAS must continue to reach out to the rakyat at the grassroot level and educate them about the difference between ‘manipulation’ and ‘fighting for their fundamental rights’.

Anger is good if used ‘positively’

Rafizi wants to give disillusioned Malaysians a chance to vent their unhappiness by turning to public rallies. The perennial question is – what next after the rallies?

Will the people be prepared to do jail time or are they willing to go all out and defend a cause?

While being angry over an injustice is understandable, the ability to use such anger ‘positively’ is what is more important – it is this that PKR has to work hard at, instead of merely shouting and chanting slogans.

Street demonstrations or rallies are not an avenue for the rakyat to come out and have fun, with some going so far as to vandalise public amenities.

The challenging task that lies ahead of PKR is not insurmountable, provided it is well equipped to deal with the repercussions that come it way post-rallies.

Rafizi stands right in his conclusion that the BN government lacks the ability to argue intelligently but rallies after rallies are not going to bring about the desired change, not in the way PKR hopes to effect.

One example of this is BN’s consistent refusal to entertain the idea of implementing the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) despite the fact that custodial deaths have today become a norm in the country.

Will PKR in its rallies also pressure the government to stop dismissing cases of  deaths in detention or is the party’s only concern the fight to get electoral reforms done?

Holding BN accountable for cheating to win the 13th general election is certainly a good move by PKR but the effort must not stop there.

PKR must never cease ‘reminding’ the BN government of the latter’s inability to administer the country, as seen from the ill-qualified politicians ‘hired’  by Najib as ministers, with almost all notorious for corruption and cronyism.

While public rallies are not the be all and end all, they however play a crucial role in reforming the system, sooner or later.

In this regard, if PKR has the patience to go all the way with its rallies, the rakyat too will reciprocate by putting up a fight against a government that refuses to say ‘tak nak’ or ‘no’ to corruption and all other forms of malpractices.