THE Guy Fawkes mask said it all.
Not that many at yesterday’s rally would know Mr Fawkes, said to be the only man honest about his principles when he entered the British Parliament to blow it to smithereens on November 5 centuries ago.
For most Malaysians, the mask is the V for Vendetta version of a vigilante trying to upend an authoritarian government in a dystopian future.
Two jokes for the price of one? Perhaps.
I’m getting ahead of the plot, so to speak.
You know the story. Malaysia under this new Mahathir government wants to sign a raft of United Nations treaties including an anti-discrimination pact.
Those in the seven-month old government are not too keen but don’t say much. Senator P. Waytha Moorthy, unelected and newly-minted unity minister pushes it, giving umbrage to PAS, Umno and Malay groups which see it as undermining Malay privilege and entitlement. Really, the federal constitution is superior, they say.
Government parties say the same, leaving the senator twisting in the wind. Malay groups threaten protests and plan to run amok – notwithstanding the phenomenon is spontaneous and can’t be planned. Oh, one more joke there.
The Mahathir government gives in. No ratification of the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) but groups insist on the December 8 rally at Merdeka Square, albeit as a thanksgiving event.
It would be the first major rally since, well, Bersih 5 under a government that was actually authoritarian back in November 2016.
The one that PAS said wasn’t kosher. The one that Umno said wasn’t Malaysian culture.
Wait, weren’t these two parties at yesterday’s rally? Time, to be fair, makes one see things differently. Also, both parties lost the chance to form a government this time round.
And so we come to to this moment. They forecasted 500,000 to attend. Perhaps 10% of that did at most. People were coming and going and never quite static.
In white shirts emblazoned with a range of designs to protest ICERD. With mass-printed placards, flags and headbands.
One has to hand it to PAS. It really knows how to throw a street rally, complete with a unit to see to security, public order and rubbish.
For all that, the speeches weren’t that great, made not to inspire but to twist and make up facts.
ICERD is Malayan Union 2.0, one speaker said. It is for the United Nations to subjugate Malaysia despite its independence.
It is a plot against the Malays and Islam, another said. The community had taken care of migrants who had nothing but now these people want more, said yet another speaker.
The government would do well to heed the rally, said a party leader, threatening more street rallies. And on and on they went.
The upshot was simple. This government was under the thumb of ungrateful people from DAP. This government needs to unite people, not create such divisions as ICERD.
Then the azan for the evening prayer rang through the square. The last speaker, Abdul Hadi Awang, stopped for the muezzin at the mosque to finish the call. Another muezzin went on stage to give a fresh call.
Hadi resumed speaking, getting the biggest crowd of the evening on their feet. He spoke about ICERD as a threat to the Muslims and recited a “sajak”.
The clouds were turning black and rumbling as he spoke. Rain fell and umbrellas popped up like mushrooms. It was just a quarter to 5pm.
He ended his speech. The organisers rushed through a pledge. And the rally prayer was that the Pakatan Harapan government would be shortlived.
And then the coup de grace
Please register to vote and support those at the rally. Or the rally would have been a waste of time.
The penny has dropped. Seven months after the loss at the polls, these parties have found out that they have to keep and grow their Malay support base to win back power.
The hot-button issues of race and religion will be their political capital notwithstanding the criminal charges for some on and around the makeshift stage of two flatbed lorries parked at the same spot where Dr Mahathir Mohamad and others had rallied for Bersih 2.0 chief Maria Chin Abdullah’s freedom two years ago.
Guy Fawkes would be rolling over in purgatory. His face a mask for protest against authority, now used by supporters of authoritarians.
The fact is, the government parties are paralysed as they, too, want the support and vote of those at the rally.
Will they also have to pander to them and pick up the race and religion narrative, leaving Malaysia still caught in a twilight zone of entitlements and privileges?
The next few years will tell whether the Guy Fawkes mask will stand for its true meaning or just another mask to hide our identities and agendas while protesting whatever we don’t even understand.
But let’s agree with the organisers on two things.
To hold on to our rights to express ourselves and to register as voters. If for nothing else but to keep all these politicians accountable.
THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT
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