When the rakyat are treated like fools

By SSK

The new Secretary-General of PKR has issued a directive asking Anwar Ibrahim’s supporters to assemble in front of the Federal Court in Putrajaya on 28th and 29th October 2014.

PKR’s Youth Movement said in the event that Anwar is jailed they will be organising peaceful protests. But how can they assure us that the protests will be peaceful when in the first place it is going to be an illegal assembly?

All protests all over the world start as peaceful protests but they do not always end peacefully. And if the Malaysian government clamps down on what would be regarded as an illegal assembly the protestors will accuse the government of not respecting democracy and freedom of assembly and so on.

This is nothing short of an attempt to provoke the government and an attempt to trigger unrest. And the government will certainly not allow this to go unchallenged.

However, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak should not fall into this trap because this is precisely what they want the government to do. Najib, therefore, has to carefully consider how to respond to this challenge while maintaining law and order and yet not allowing them to exploit this as an example of a draconian course of action.

The issue of the Bahasa Malaysia Bibles in Selangor is another volatile issue that the opposition is exploiting. Christians in Sabah and Sarawak should not fall into the opposition’s trap and become emotional about the matter.

Even PAS, the Islamic party, has not opposed the use of Bahasa Malaysia Bibles in Sabah and Sarawak. They just oppose its use in Selangor and even then because there are certain laws in Selangor that forbids its use.

Instead of putting the blame on the federal government, the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat government should pass a bill next month in the Selangor State Assembly to amend or abrogate this law.

If Selangor refuses to repeal this law how can the federal government be blamed for this? After all, religion is a state matter so Selangor has to take action to rectify this.

Let us see whether next month Selangor makes a move to remove this law. Nevertheless, whatever happens next month in Selangor does not affect Sabah and Sarawak so the Christians here need not be worried or react to what is happening in Selangor.