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Wednesday, January 29, 2025

Youth must keep thunder rolling in fight against graft

The Jan 25 rally against corruption is unlikely to make much of an impact on the government because the turnout was dismally poor.

The so-called “Himpunan Rakyat Benci Rasuah” has an impressive ring to it, coming at a time when the fight against corruption is gaining momentum.

Even Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has given the rally the thumbs-up and a big boost with his clarion call to the new generation of youths to combat corruption.

However, what started off with a big bang ended in a whimper - only about 200 showed up on the battleground of Dataran Merdeka. There was no war cry or a rush to dismantle the citadel of corruption.

All the young people who marched to the frontline and breached the barricades enjoyed one-day of fame, and that was all about it.

The next day their exploits have been forgotten and life is back to normal, with the “cancer” still an ever-present scourge.

Need better ‘marketing’

The gathering (illegal seen through the police lens) could have attracted a much bigger crowd if the organisers had launched a viral campaign via social media to urge students from all universities in the country to converge at the Kuala Lumpur city centre for the assembly.

These youths, wherever they are located, could have travelled to the city by rail, buses, cars, and motorcycles and, whatever transport they could get to meet on the appointed day.

Thousands could have poured into Dataran Merdeka and raised the placards of freedom from corruption amid the ceaseless chants and banging of the drums.

They could have turned the public square into a vast speaker's corner where they could have vociferously spoken their minds against corruption in high places.

The public at large could have also participated in a spontaneous outburst of support.

Show must go on

When the powers that be witnessed this surge of humanity on the streets of Kuala Lumpur, they would have sat up and taken serious notice of this human thunder on the roll.

But with only a paltry 200 to show to the world, the protest would be dismissed as just a roadshow for youths to vent their spleen. Nothing substantial. Nothing to worry about.

However, the show must go on. If there is another rally in the pipeline, planning must be done meticulously to get youths out on a scale massive enough for the fight against graft to gather greater momentum.

The youths from all the campuses must lead the charge with the older generation playing an active supporting role.

All the roads need not necessarily lead to Kuala Lumpur - rallies could be held simultaneously nationwide, giving more spark and energy to the battle against this “cancer” on our body politic.

More importantly, the young organisers must ensure that no politicians are allowed to join in the march because their participation would spoil the show.

Opportunistic politicians

Politicians invariably would use such occasions to project themselves as defenders of the people when, in reality, they are merely enhancing their status to promote their political careers.

When all these political heroes take to the open field to combat corruption, they are actually portraying the government as weak and unreliable in its commitment to weed out dishonest public practices.

Besides, if politicians were to fight shoulder to shoulder with youths, they would steal the thunder and the rallies would be condemned as politically motivated.

So, youths must seize the high moral ground to plan all their actions on their own steam. When the tide of youth power merges with the waves of public support, the combined force would be powerful enough to galvanise Putrajaya into cracking down on corruption with renewed fire in its belly. - Mkini


Phlip Rodrigues is a retired journalist.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.

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