The government has two laws for Malaysians – one for itself and those it favours, and one for the rest of the people.
By Kee Thuan Chye
The Bersih 2.0 episode has taught us a few important things. About the officials who are supposed to serve us, the rakyat.
First, it has taught us that our prime minister, Najib Tun Razak, is a
coward, a passer-of-the-buck, and a man with a slippery tongue.
Although he has now offered the Coalition for Clean and Fair
Elections (Bersih 2.0) a stadium to hold its rally on July 9, he refuses
to say if the government no longer considers it an illegal
organisation.
“This is a point whereby we consider them illegal, they don’t
consider themselves as illegal but what’s important is public interest,
I’m concerned with public interest,” he says. What kind of waffle is
that?
Because he is wishy-washy about this matter, he appears utterly
contradictory in allowing an illegal organisation to hold a public rally
in a stadium that his government will provide.
Related to this, when asked by the media whether the police would
continue to clamp down on Bersih 2.0 supporters nationwide, he said,
“You have to ask the police.”
Asked if supporters would be arrested for wearing Bersih T-shirts at
the rally at the stadium, he again said, “That is up to the police to
decide.”
He doesn’t know? He doesn’t have a say? Who is the boss? The prime
minister, who is the chief executive of the country, or the police?
He dared not even answer the media’s question about whether he was
called to see the King on the morning of July 5 before the latter was to
meet with Bersih 2.0. His lame and characteristically evasive reply
was: “When I meet the King is my right, and as the prime minister, I am
the chief adviser to the King.” He wasn’t man enough to be honest and
transparent.
Same old trick
Now let’s look at Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin. A few days
ago, on the Bersih 2.0 rally, he warned that it could lead to chaos and
invite “interference from major powers”. Where did he pull this out
from?
“Based on the experience in the Middle East, we know that foreign
powers are all too eager to send their troops on the pretext of helping
to solve the crisis,” he said. What a hoot!
How ridiculous it is to draw from the Middle East experience (is the
United Nations about to authorise the bombing of Malaysia?), and how
convenient to blame it on some phantom foreign powers. It’s the same old
trick the government used on Hindraf in 2007, linking it to the Tamil
Tigers of Sri Lanka. In the end, not a shred of evidence was ever
produced. Once bitten, twice shy.
Sure enough, what Muhyiddin said was to provide justification for six
Parti Sosialis Rakyat (PSM) members who were pro-Bersih 2.0 to be
detained under the Emergency Ordinance (EO), on suspicion of being
involved with “foreign elements” and having “subversive tendencies”.
One of them is Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj. If you knew him for the
soft-spoken, humble and dedicated helper of the poor that he is, you
would laugh in Muhyiddin’s face. Jeyakumar would not be so stupid as to
align himself with foreign elements to subvert the state.
Let’s turn now to Information, Communication and Culture Minister
Rais Yatim, who disparaged “desperate parties” for making use of
Communism to drum up support for the Bersih 2.0 rally.
“They see this as an opportunity to stir up dissent and seize power,”
he said. “Spreading Communism is against the law. It is evil and
illegal.”
What wild words would these ministers not use against a rally that
was aimed at nothing more sinister than asking for electoral reform, for
the good of democracy? Do they not realise we can gauge from their
words the level of their intellect?
How did Rais get his PhD?
PM’s undignified talk
Malacca Chief Minister Ali Rustam called on the government to strip
Bersih 2.0 chairperson S Ambiga of her citizenship. “If she thinks that
we should have democracy by going on demonstrations like the way other
countries do, then let her be the citizen of another country,” he said.
He also said she was against the tenets of Islam for previously defending Lina Joy in her apostasy case.
Alamak! What has the Lina Joy case got to do with the Bersih 2.0
rally? But then, that’s the Umno-BN dirty tactic, isn’t it? Turn a
non-religious issue into a religious one. Never mind if it’s irrelevant.
Never mind if it’s divisive.
Najib was worse in making a similar personal attack: “We know who
this Ambiga is. She is the one who threatened the position of Islam.”
He must have known it was totally uncalled-for and outrageously
irresponsible, but his audience was in Kelantan, comprising mostly
Muslims, reportedly about 20,000 of them there.
When Ali Rustam said that sort of thing, it was inexcusable. But when
Najib, the advocate of so-called 1Malaysia, said it, it was
unforgivable.
More than that, he warned, “Ambiga should not think herself so
strong. We will not bow down to her at all, we will fight for the truth.
We will simpan kuku kita.” This is menacing; the threat is in “simpan
kuku kita”, implying Najib and his supporters will hide their claws for
now and use them when the time comes.
This is undignified talk unbecoming of a prime minister. He sounds like a street brawler.
Let’s save the best for last. And who else might that be but the Home
Minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, already famous for the numerous
bloopers he has made in the past?
When the police started arresting people for wearing the Bersih
T-shirts, without any apparent law to back them up, Hishammuddin
justified it thus: “If the Bersih T-shirt is related to an illegal
activity, then whatever they are wearing is illegal.”
But the rally had not happened yet, so how could it have been an
illegal activity? By the same logic, how then could the Bersih T-shirts
be related to an illegal activity?
Caught in a corner, Hishammuddin then resorted to declaring Bersih
2.0 illegal. One of the reasons cited was that Bersih 2.0 had been
spreading propaganda with the aim of toppling the government.
What propaganda? Its eight demands for electoral reform constitute
government-toppling material? Which school did this minister go to?
And now that the King has met with Bersih 2.0 and the coalition has
agreed to hold its rally in a stadium provided by the government,
Hishammuddin is still clamouring: “They are banned. They are still
banned… just because Tuanku met them doesn’t mean they are no longer
illegal.”
One would have thought that the King, in showing respect to Bersih
2.0 in granting it an audience, would have legitimised the coalition,
but Hishammuddin seems to have a different view. He must have felt the
egg all over his face when the King granted the audience.
His reaction is therefore understandably defensive. He has screwed up
big-time, but he won’t admit his mistakes. If he has been doing his job
like he should have, he would not be vilifying Bersih 2.0; he would be
going after Perkasa instead.
The real troublemaker
No matter how you look at it, there’s no denying that the real
trouble-maker is Perkasa. It never had a real cause to rally for on July
9 except to disrupt Bersih 2.0’s serious purpose.
And now it wants to create further trouble by applying for the same
stadium that Bersih 2.0 is applying for and hold its own rally there.
And the reason for it? Merely to show that “there are others who feel
differently”.
Perkasa is obviously envious that the King acknowledged Bersih 2.0 by
granting it an audience, so it too is applying for an audience with His
Majesty. Perkasa is nothing but an envious bulldog that won’t let go
until it gets to spite Bersih 2.0. And all for what? Do its members even
know?
If there were one organisation Hishammuddin should act on, it would
have to be Perkasa. And yet for all its antics and for all the veiled
threats of violence its president, Ibrahim Ali, has been issuing since
the whole episode started, the minister has said or done nothing.
Hishammuddin is plainly inept in his handling of the entire mess. And
for that, he should resign or be kicked out of the Cabinet by his
cousin, Najib.
In fact, both of them have clearly shown in the past two weeks that
the government has two laws for Malaysians – one for itself and those it
favours, and one for the rest of the people. You can guess for yourself
which side is the worse off for it.
But not to worry. What we the rakyat have learned, we can use to good
effect. Taking the wisdom from Najib, we can simpan our kuku for now
and reveal them when the time is right.
Dramatist and journalist Kee Thuan Chye is the author of ‘March 8: Time for Real Change‘. He is a contributor to FMT.
PETALING
JAYA, July 7 — PKR accused Datuk Seri Najib Razak today of being unable
to control his Cabinet after allowing Home Minister Datuk Seri
Hishammuddin Hussein to ignore the…
Wanita PKR chief Zuraida Kamaruddin (picture) added
that despite Bersih already accepting Najib’s offer to move the street
protest to a stadium, the prime minister “has washed his hands and seems
powerless to control his own ministers.”
on the slightly different procedures and treatment accorded those detained reached the party.
the
family members were notified upon the arrest that they will be kept in
lock-ups (federal police headquarters in) Bukit Aman but now it appears
that they are being kept at a secret location. Most probably they are
being kept in the Police Remand Centre (PRC) in Batu 5, Jalan Ipoh, KL,"
said Arutchelvan.
In
an apparent attempt to dispel doubts about the integrity of the
electoral process generated by Bersih's much publicised qualms, Aziz
Yusof, the EC chair, began yesterday's briefing by holding forth on the
authenticity of measures instituted by the EC.