Treason? No! T’reason why she has stepped forward to lead BERSIH is to selflessly serve the people

By Haris Ibrahim,

I had a chat over coffee with Ambiga last week.

In the course of our conversation, I asked her if, during the Walk for Justice in September 2007 where about 3,000 others and I joined her in Putrajaya to walk from the Palace of Justice to the PM’s department to demand a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the VK Lingam video scandal, she had for even a moment thought she would, 5 years on, lead a quarter of a million citizens on the streets of Kuala Lumpur to demand for free and fair elections?

She looked at me, her eyebrows arched, and then she broke into a big smile, burst out laughing and exclaimed, “You must be mad, Haris! I never saw this coming”.

We both laughed, and then a short moment of silence followed.

Holding back tears, I told her that I had served in the Bersih steering committee under her stewardship in the run up to the BERSIH 2.0 rally and was in constant contact with her in the run up to BERSIH 3.0. On both occasions, despite pressure from loved ones and from the authorities, she never wavered from the responsibility thrust upon her to lead in the pursuit of justice. She had answered, and answered with such grace, a divine call to selflessly serve the people.

I told Ambiga I had bad news for her. Her task was not at an end. Her leadership was still very much needed and, as she had done thus far, she would rise to the occasion again.

I write this now as a response to Sri Gading’s infamous Abdul Aziz’s categorisation of Ambiga’s lead in the BERSIH 3.0 rally on 28th April as ‘treasonous’. Malaysianinsider has the story HERE.

Najib and so many others in BN, too, have taken to making these vile and scurrilous allegations.

I am not at all surprised.

Freedom fighters throughout time have been called the same, or worse, when they stood up to bullies, tyrants and false democrats.

Malaysiakini reports that the government is upset that Najib has been categorised as a false democrat.

False democrats, according to the author of the article that appeared in the The Globe and Mail, Mark Mackinnon, “hold elections but have no intention of giving up power” and their “serious political rivals are jailed and their parties are outlawed on legal technicalities”.

Najib, UMNO, BN, take a bow! You are being spotlighted!

All that we are witnessing of late are the birth pangs of a new era about to be ushered into this nation.

Mahathir’s veiled threats of violence and incessant efforts to resurrect the ghost of 13th May.

PERKASA’s constant efforts to contrive and conjure a perception of a Malay community under siege, so that UMNO may continue its race-based divide and rule unabated.

What we are witnessing is an old and badly wounded tiger, reacting in horror as it sees before it, a young and vibrant cub reaching the end of its gestation period and waiting to be delivered and to then inflict the fatal blow to end the days of the old one.

See the attacks against the person of Ambiga as just one more act of desperation by that old, wounded tiger.

But Ambiga is not alone in this.

Many Malaysians have answered the divine call to rise and to selflessly serve the people.

Hang Ambiga?

Hang us all then.

And for each of us hanged, another 100 will arise.

Come that day, the young cub would have been delivered.