JOHOR PRINCE IS RIGHT: IF NAJIB IS INNOCENT, WHY RUN AWAY FROM NEXT WEEK'S ANTI-GRAFT FORUM

The way the police and the Home Minister are behaving gives the false impression that the country is under threat and that chaos is about to rain on the nation.

Where does this imagined threat come from? And who is going to cause chaos?

All this is being engineered to prevent Bersih’s peaceful gathering over the weekend from taking place. Bersih has pledged that their assembly will be peaceful and that it is necessary to highlight the grave concerns of the rakyat whose interest and welfare have been ignored completely.

Things need not have come to this end if only the government had paid heed to the just demands of the rakyat to preserve their democratic way of life. This dissatisfaction did not come about suddenly. It has been festering for years. Enough grace period has been given to the government to mend its way.

Unfortunately the government has not been in a listening mood. It did not indicate that the required reforms would be implemented. It turned a blind eye to the ills plaguing our nation.

When the people are staggering from the devastating effects of GST and stagnant wages and rising cost of living, our legislators are blissfully approving for themselves hefty increases in their allowance. When people are finding it near impossible to own a house, millions are spent on acquiring a brand new jet as if it was such an urgent need that could not be deferred.

How did we get bogged down into the mess of this RM42bn in debt without this colossal sum benefiting the deserving poor who eke out a hand-to-mouth living? Why do we have no qualms in investing on inflated assets to benefit the greedy without a thought for the needy?

Who is responsible for this wastage? Who is plundering our coffers? Who has ignored the pleas of the rakyat and trampled on the rule of law? Who is using state resources to cripple and frustrate all attempts to expose corruption?

Who has aborted the PAC and prevented it from carrying out its function? Why was the task force set up to investigate 1MDB disbanded? Why were the personnel involved in investigating corruption transferred, their offices and homes raided and their equipment confiscated?

It is this blatant disregard for ethics and parliamentary democracy that has sparked unrest among the citizens. All these people implicated in these actions and activities are solely responsible for the disgruntled citizens coming together to demand for justice.

We have gone through the entire process. They ignored our demands; they made our demands look frivolous; now they are going to fight us using state apparatus to stay in power.

We should not be cowed or intimidated. Our cause is right. We should come in great numbers to make known that it is not the few disgruntled people who are unhappy. Let it be known that the unhappiness is widespread across the nation and it is real.

Let’s be encouraged by Gandhi’s wise words, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

P Ramakrishnan
Aliran Exco member