THE similarities were obvious. The venue, the way it was organised, the political parties and civil society groups that showed up, even the hawkers selling “bantah ICERD” T-shirts and bandannas.
The rally against ICERD, an international human rights treaty, is to the current Pakatan Harapan government what the Bersih movement was to the former Barisan Nasional administration.
On the surface, the main theme may be different – this rally was about ICERD while the Bersih rallies were for clean and fair elections.
But these two shared the same forces, energies and motivations – to galvanise and unify government critics into a mass movement that will threaten it at the elections.
Prior to May 5, that mass movement was Bersih, the opposition was DAP, PKR, Amanah and later Bersatu, and the government was Barisan Nasional.
Today that movement is “bantah-ICERD”, the opposition is Umno and PAS, and the government is Pakatan Harapan.
A speaker from a civil society group behind the gathering said as much yesterday when he announced the gathering was just the beginning.
“(Today’s rally) will be the start of another rally that will be even bigger in the future,” said Aminuddin Yahya of Angkatan Perpaduan Ummah.
Political analyst Dr Awang Azman Awang Pawi saw the similarities and warned that if the PH administration does not heed the undercurrents in yesterday’s protest, it will pay same price the BN paid when it ignored Bersih.
“PH needs to look at this rally as a big lesson about the policies and how they are implemented,” said Awang Azman of Universiti Malaya.
“PH must be more sensitive and not dismiss the voice of protest from the people. If a wave like this goes on every six months, it would have bad implications for the government.”
Channelling Bersih
The rally participants said they feared the ICERD, or International Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination, if signed by Malaysia, would erode the special privileges of the Malay Muslim community. It didn’t matter that the government had chosen not to sign it.
But mixed with ICERD fears were complaints about the government cutting aid in the form of subsidies to rural Malays such as farmers, and its back-pedalling on higher education PTPTN loan repayments.
The protestors held placards sarcastically thanking the prime minister for bringing down the price of rubber and palm oil and increasing the prices of goods.
“In Budget 2019, they cut aid to rural Malays, they went back on their promises,” said Nurrashidah Adnan, 32, of Setiu in between bashing the government for not firmly abandoning ICERD.
These complaints about economic issues were folded into the larger narrative that the PH administration is unable to govern and was untrustworthy.
They are reminiscent of how Bersih protestors would talk about BN’s corruption and how consumers were suffering from runaway inflation even as Bersih’s main theme was about clean elections.
Nurrashidah, who came with fellow Puteri Umno members from Setiu Terengganu resembled the scores of young women activists from PKR and DAP who packed the Bersih rallies.
She was sitting with her friends on the sidewalk along Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman, in the shadow of the Sogo shopping complex – the same spot where Bersih activists used to assemble before they marched to Dataran Merdeka.
Another protestor Norijan Ahmad, 63, a retiree from Titiwangsa, Kuala Lumpur, spoke of a sentiment common among Bersih’s older protestors.
“I came because I want to fight for the future of my children and grandchildren. So that they have a future in this country.”
Fears real and imagined
Political scientist Tunku Mohar Tunku Mohd Mokhtar said playing up race and religious politics was one of the strongest methods to mobilise support, even if these issues played on imagined fears.
As the rally’s critics have said before, the gathering was irrelevant as the government has decided not to sign ICERD. So why continue it if not to conjure up fears that can be turned into votes?
Tunku Mohar said this fear was still real for a segment of Malay Muslims.
“The two parties work best when they use right-wing politics to garner support,” said Tunku Mohar of the International Islamic University.
“Therefore, just like this ICERD rally, if there’s no real issue, they might manufacture one, such as MARA, Malay reserve lands, which are issues that have been there even before PH took over power.
“That said, it’s not something to be simply ignored by the PH.”
Momentum from the rally could unify conservative Malay Muslims who form a huge voting bloc and are the majority in the electorate, said Awang Azman of UM.
“This unity will bring more systematic opposition towards PH which in the end can regain the Malay votes (Umno and Pas) lost to PH.
“So the message to PH is don’t dismiss the voice of the people. Just like they helped PH replace BN in Putrajaya, the same power can be taken back from PH and given to someone else.”
THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT
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