Shahbudin: What will the Malays gain from the rally?

The organisers and those who spoke at the gathering will stand in line for the opportunity to kiss Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's hand.

KUALA LUMPUR: The rally by the Red Shirts in Padang Merbok to support embattled Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, said a political analyst, was not as great as made out to be. He added that even by the most generous estimates, the number of people at Padang Merbok could not have exceeded the crowd at a football match at Stadium Bukit Jalil i.e. an average 70,000 people. The police meanwhile, gave an official estimate on Wednesday night of 35,000 people, pointed out the analyst.

In the aftermath, he expects the organisers and those who spoke at the gathering to stand in line for the opportunity to kiss Najib’s hand. “This is the opportunity for them to take advantage of him being in an extremely difficult position and squeeze the maximum that they can from him.”

“What do the Malays themselves get from all this, a rally held to regain their dignity? Will all their demands be met by the government in Putrajaya?”

The Malays will not get anything from the government under Najib, predicts Shahbudin Husin. “Instead, he would have to bend over backwards and accommodate the non-Malays even more for all the racist and inflammatory remarks made against them in Padang Merbok. Otherwise, Najib would not get even a single non-Malay vote.”

“This is the kind of politics played by Najib all along to mislead the Malays.”

What was important for the organisers and those who took to the stage to give inflammatory speeches, said the analyst, was that they had an opportunity to root for Najib and convey the information to him as if his presence now was halal and therefore he could continue living in his dream world. “They are not bothered that the three million Umno members were nowhere in evidence.”

“The news that will reach Najib was about the songs sung at Padang Merbok about heaven, and reports on the inflated numbers at the gathering to convince him that he could now occupy Sri Perdana indefinitely.”

Nothing comes free, said Shahbudin. “Those who organised the rally of the Red Shirts and those who spoke at the gathering would soon be asking Najib for this and that in compensation”

“Those who are Deputy Minister would hope to be promoted to Ministers, former Ministers expected to be re-appointed or entrusted with any of the government agencies, while the MPs too would expect similar rewards.”

He thinks the list extends to the Umno divisional chiefs who hope to be appointed to the senate, given projects, permits and the like. “Heads of NGOs, being already BN-friendly, would expect financial grants or given projects to continue encouraging them to speak up on behalf of Najib,” said Shahbudin.

The analyst returns to the figures at Padang Merbok and makes a comparison with Bersih 4.

“Someone who is with City Hall said that Padang Merbok can accommodate between 40,000 to 45,000 people if tightly packed like sardines. A journalist on duty at the venue gave the same figure. The police on duty there told him 50,000 at the most. Three friends who were at the venue estimated the crowd at between 50,000 and 70,000.”

All the other figures being bandied about, said Shahbudin, from 150,000 to 500,000 are just figures plucked from thin air. “How can a small field like Padang Merbok accommodate 500,000 people?”

He was referring to various figures given by a spokesman for Umno Headquarters (150,000); Umno Selangor Chief Noh Omar (200,000); Ketereh MP Annuar Musa (250,000); Pesaka or Persatuan Silat Kebangsaan led by Ali Rustom (250,000); and President of the Armed Forces Veteran’s Association, Persatuan Veteran Tentera, Ali Baharom or Ali Tinju (500, 000).

The bottomline, said Shahbudin, was that the numbers at the rally by the Red Shirts was far less than the 500,000 Yellow Shirts at Bersih 4 in Kuala Lumpur alone on the eve of Merdeka day and there were also gatherings in Kota Kinabalu, Kuching and 70 cities worldwide.

Another difference, he said, that unlike Bersih 4 where participants gathered voluntarily, those at the Padang Merbok in red shirts had to be ferried in from all over the place. “In short, the crowd at Padang Merbok only turned up because they were ferried, given free T-shirts, given food and drinks and allowances or pocket money. During Bersih 4, there was not even one school bus or hired bus near Dataran Merdeka.”

Shahbudin charged that many from Felda were not informed by the organisers behind the Red Shirt rally why they were gathering at Padang Merbok. “The makcik from Felda were just told about a short visit to Kuala Lumpur just to jalan jalan (walk about).”