Another day, another rally

So, the rally against the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Icerd) appears to have passed, predictably, without major incident.

It feels like the entire episode generated a fair amount of anxiety among certain quarters.

I think it is fair to take last Saturday as yet another indication that Malaysians at large simply do not have an appetite for violence.

While many of us disagree strongly with the various political positions and views espoused by those at the rally, I believe they had every right to gather peacefully, and that appears to be exactly what they did.

In thinking about the rally, and the various anxieties surrounding it, it may be wise to remember the kinds of things activists and Pakatan Harapan supporters would tell the BN government in days of yore: we only want to exercise our constitutional right to free speech, peaceful assemblies should always be allowed, and so on.

In those days, the BN government would peddle their fearmongering line, casting the spectre of May 13 and so on, warning of how protests would lead to riots.

It’d be nice to think that Malaysian democracy was past all that.

A relatively harmless conduit

It would be unreasonable to expect all the politics of race and religion to go away overnight.

Lingering political sentiment that has race and religion as its core will surely need a vehicle for expression, and this last Saturday’s gathering was a good a conduit as any.

In the end, a few tens of thousands of people came to KL, had their gathering, and went home, without any major incident – just like the many previous Bersih rallies before them.

Ironically, every time there was a Bersih rally, all the Umno owned and Umno influenced media would go on and on about how businesses and traffic were disrupted, citizens inconvenienced and so on – saying “ini bukan budaya kita (this isn’t our culture)" and all that. That seems to have been forgotten in a hurry.

In my personal view, of course it’s a little sad that there are still those who want to use race and religion in pursuit of political power.

That said, I don’t think the answer to these efforts is suppression. The answer is to present an alternative – to lead by example, and to demonstrate convincingly that there is another way.

For the first time in Malaysian history, a different government has the opportunity to do just that; and this should be their focus, rather than being excessively distracted by sideshows like this.

Has the political landscape changed?

I doubt the rally changes the political landscape significantly.

No doubt, it was a display of strength – a way to demonstrate that parties like Umno and (probably more so) PAS still have some organisational strength in them, and blood in their veins.

Fair enough. Will this significantly boost their chances for the 15th general election though?

Needless to say, it’s almost impossible to say four years in advance. Still, I don’t think rallies like these will propel Umno and PAS to revolutionary heights.

As things stand, they still do not have any kind of ideology that will appeal to non-Malays and/or non-Malay parties.

Lacking this makes it extremely hard for Umno or PAS to cross the 50 percent threshold needed to re-emerge as the federal government.

I don’t think it’s overly naive to say that as long as Harapan keeps everything above board, and can really deliver some genuine economic improvements, they are not under dire threat from existing opposition parties.

Yes, the bullies did get their way a little

It was, of course, a bit unfortunate that the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) event planned for the same Saturday was asked to postpone itself.

There is undoubtedly some truth that this sends a bit of the wrong message in creating the impression that one party was being bullied by another.

This was not ideal, and in hindsight, it seems quite clear that the police could have likely handled both events just as well.

It seems also rather less than ideal that Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamed decided to cancel his appearance at the Suhakam event.

It strikes me as a bit of an overreaction to not attend simply because Suhakam has expressed support for Icerd.

After all, should we not encourage the fact that we need not agree with each other over everything in order to spend time together and engage in constructive discourse?

All in all though, I think from a third-party perspective, there were no death blows or upheavals dealt by any side to another.

In the grand scheme of things, it is possible that no major change or groundbreaking precedent was set here today, and we did not pay such a big price.

Keeping calm, carrying on

Rallies wise, this isn’t PAS' first rodeo of course. Few parties have had as much experience organising rallies, and their ability to bring out the party faithful in droves is legendary.

Based on preliminary news reports, their Unit Amal has retained their exemplary discipline and civic-mindedness, so certainly credit there where it’s due.

It’s almost a virgin experience for Umno though – or at least any party member below the age of 70.

Good on them, perhaps they may learn a useful thing or two being on the other side.

Ultimately, of course, we hope that parties like Umno and PAS will abandon the rather narrow-minded worldviews they use to sell their political brands.

In the meantime, as long as you can cope with the sentiments of those actually inconvenienced by the rallies, please feel free to gather peacefully as often as you’d like.

Perhaps Harapan supporters can in turn concentrate on emphasising the inclusive nature of the new government, and highlighting their more genuine, impactful achievements.

As for the rest of us, perhaps we can take this as a reason not to be overly anxious about whatever Umno and PAS get up to in the future, and be reminded that in general, Malaysians really are a peaceful people.

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NATHANIEL TAN has some fond memories of going down to the streets, but is also getting older and older.  - Mkini