BERSIH - A Dirty Dream

A Dream Of The Sea
Yesterday, I had a dirty dream. (No, you dirty bugger not THAT sort!) I dreamed of a sea of yellow clad figures. There was a huge clamour, voices rising above the din of the lightning storms, calling for a better future for the nation. They invoked a calm in me, like a sea of bright, smiling sunflowers, radiant and hopeful .... Until an ocean of blue dots came swiftly, and clashed with the yellow. From my bird's eye view, it was like blue drops of paint plunging into a vat of yellow, smearing and mixing into dirty swirls. The blue, the yellow, mixed and matched, back and forth.... Till oddly enough... the world was red, a dirty red that sullied my vision.

And then, I awoke.

Sweating from my "premonition", I hurriedly clutched my mobile phone, profusely apologizing to the SIM card within for switching from DIGI to Maxis.Yellow to red. From clean.... To the stained.

Anyway, on an entirely unrelated note, there has been a whole hue and cry concerning the yellow BERSIH rally coming up. With so many articles and learned professors condemning the act, I feel compelled to point out the flaws in their arguments and insert my two cents worth on the way.


Politically motivated?

Firstly, the BERSIH Rally is a peaceful rally organised by over 80 NGOs, with the support of Pakatan Rakyat component parties, DAP, PAS and PKR. The allegations of many are that the rally is politically motivated. But they have all ignored that if Pakatan Rakyat feels it should support efforts to promote free and fair elections, there is nothing wrong with that! They have made it sound as if whenever a political party throws its support behind an event, it automatically ceases to be beneficial, and becomes political propoganda. That said, following this flawed sense of logic, the Tak Nak campaign, OneMalaysia campaign and many others have automatically become a political weapon by virtue of their affliation with BN.

Illegitimate organisation?


Secondly, the BERSIH Rally has 8 demands, demands that are perfectly reasonable.
1. Clean the electoral roll- Ensure dead people are deregistered, introducing automated voter registration upon reaching eligibility.
2. Reform postal ballots- Letting all Malaysians who cannot be there physically vote.
3. Use indelible ink-To prevent electoral fraud. Even Afghanistan uses this!
4. Minimum 21 days for campaigning- Allows Malaysians to properly evaluate policies. Our first election in 1955 had 42 days!
5. Free and fair access to media- Media access for opposition parties too. After all, you need to know them before you can decide on them.
6. Strengthen public insitutions- Reform the police, judiciary, and Election Commission. All the "suicides" in MACC, the court decision of "unknown" on the Teoh Beng Hock case should more than demonstrate the need for reform.
7. Stop corruption- No vote buying, and beyond.
8. Stop dirty politics- I don't think I can make Malaysian politics sound any dirtier than it is.

Instead of evaluating and acknowledging these demands, our government has gone all out to condemn BERSIH as illegal and illegitimate. The Election Commission on the other hand, has stood beside Government officials to speak out against the rally, whereas the EC is supposed to remain and appear neutral at all times.

Destroying our image?


Thirdly, many have spoken out saying the Rally will destroy the country's image, causing us to lose revenue in terms of tourism and so on. Now, these tourists are mainly from Europe. To these tourists, demonstrations, strikes, protests are a way of life, a part of their functioning democracies, it is part of their freedom of assembly. To say that one protest will scare away these veterans who have seen, and probably participated in many, is foolish and capitalizes on ignorance. If the Government were to ban such a rally, what with its reasonable demands, then it would depict the country as draconian, undemocratic and unreasonable. Should the Federal Reserve Unit retaliate, the Government would have proven itself to belong to the likes of Gaddaffi. Instead, the Government should allow the BERSIH Rally, to prove itself a cut above the rest of its Muslim peers in the Middle East. In any case, I can't imagine our nation's image being destroyed any further after that whole ridiculous Obedient Wives Club debacle.

Danger to Lives


Regarding the "massive danger to public property, and lives", this is clearly an argument that presents only one side of the case. The protesters are normal citizens like you and me, this country is theirs as well, and their friends and family are all watching. They have nothing to gain by throwing Molotov cocktails around, as some commentators would have us believe, and everything to lose by violence. Besides, most of these confrontations results from FRU actions as reported by SUHAKAM regarding the 2006 Bersih Rally, where police struck the first blow, and resorted to I quote, "excessive force". Has the Government made any provisions at all to protect the citizens, any directives to the police not to strike at protesters? I'm afraid not. It seems to me that the danger imposed is not from the protestors, but rather by the Federal Reserve itself. Irony in its highest form.

Economic Losses

As for the so called economic losses, money is like water stored in a bottle. Tilt it one way, the water will follow it. But the amount of water remains the same. If people cannot buy goods, go to cinemas etc on Saturday in Jalan Maharajalela, they will buy goods a day or so earlier or later, go to watch Transformer a week or so later. Or at worst, they will turn to an alternative location to purchase the goods. Furthermore, logically whenever thousands of people congregate at one spot, business booms and not drops. The protestors, being Malaysians, standing in the heat, will have need of food and drink. This will cause an influx of customers to the hawkers there! The same applied during the Hindraf rallies a few years back, hawkers set up stalls along the route to the King's Palace. In any case, this rally is only one day long. The point is, the "massive economic losses and depriving people of their livelihoods" argument is completely flawed.

Dirty Tactics

After the audience with the King, the BERSIH organising committee agreed to hold the rally in a stadium instead. Prime Minister Dato Najib agreed, having offered the option prior to this. And now, the BERSIH rally has been rejected of its request to hold the rally in Merdeka stadium. In addition to that, the National stadium and Bukit Jalil stadium have also been declared off limits, because Bersih 2.0 is an illegal entity. Illegal, despite the fact that S. Ambiga is a respected former member of the Bar Council that was given an award by Hilary Clinton in recognition for her human rights efforts; despite the fact that over 80 legitimate NGOs are backing the rally.

Depriving Bersih of stadiums, after having made an offer to supply them with one, is treachery of the highest handed order. It also shows how desperate, and afraid BN is of the power of the people. Ironically, all this demonizing of BERSIH has only brought greater publicity to it, and proven the integirty of S. Ambiga, who has remained calm despite name calling from even the Prime Minister himself.

Bersih this, bersih that.... BN best be concentrating on its efforts to clean up... Or be cleaned out!

The 1Malaysia Ban

You know, Malaysians ( politicians in particular) seem to have a string of bad habits. Besides our previously discussed preoccupation with leaks, we also seem to ban everything not to our liking. A few years back yoga was banned by the syura council ( apparently because the 'om' sound yoga practitioners recite in the beginning means 'God' in Sanskrit or what not); soon afterwards tomboys were banned, and now.... even the 1Malaysia slogan is going to be banned?!

The Selangor government under the helm of Pakatan Rakyat has been embroiled in controversy over the issue of OneMalaysia. They say that it is a political slogan, and are moving to ban the slogan on all billboards within the state of Selangor.

Now let me get this straight. Banning yoga ... okay, perhaps because of the Hindu elements in some forms of it... Banning tomboys... fine, we're a pretty conservative country... but banning 1Malaysia?! It's an act that far surpasses my lowly level of understanding. I would much rather they ban smoking, chow tau fu ( that vile smelling evil mess), or those horrendously ugly and ridiculously expensive roadside ornaments ( like a giant corn cob, or a giant pitcher plant in the middle of a roundabout. Hurts my eyes every single time.) than ban 1Malaysia.

Let us think of why would anyone ban the logo or the slogan. Hmm. Can't really think of anything reasonable. Give me ONE, just ONE good reason why the Selangor government should ban the slogan on all billboards. Let me think ... alright it's a political slogan. Really now? Didn't see anyone banning Bersih, Cekap dan Amanah or Cemerlang, Gemilang & Terbilang. Even if it was politically motivated, and is indeed aimed at "cheating the rakyat", Selangor is only proving that the slogan is effective and something to fear by moving against it. Alright then, so there goes one reason crashing down. How about the allegations that 1Malaysia was an expensive waste of the rakyat's money, hiring a foreign company to design the concept? And that it is connected to 1Israel? Alright, assuming these allegations are true, banning the billboards is still no way to confront the issue. Investigate the matter! If the Parliament will not approve a committee to investigate the matter, do it privately, and publish the findings. Banning the slogan from being displayed is like covering a mole hill. You will only cover the surface, and the mole will eventually dig its way out. Its a pointless exercise that brings only frustration and a damaged reputation to the PR led Selangor government.

On the other hand, there are plenty of reasons NOT to ban the 1Malaysia slogan. Firstly, whatever the slogan's hidden political machinations are, what I see, what the rakyat sees is an effort towards national integration. Of being recognised as Malaysian instead of Chinese, Malay, or Indian. By banning it, and not giving any further explanation other than it being 'political', PR is seen to be going against all that it has worked for. Less discrimination towards race and religion. More equal rights. A Malaysia that finds unity and diversity. And by doing this, they are betraying their very own principles in the eyes of the rakyat.

At the same time, how many anti-ISA rallies have PR parties taken part in? How many times have they called the government a draconian, authoritarian regime that takes away freedom of speech? And now, they are imposing those very same restrictive measures on BN. Seeing their actions, I cannot help but wonder if they would be as against the ISA as they are now if roles were reversed. Would they still abolish the ISA if they were the ones who stood to gain from wielding its power? From the events that have thus far occurred, the implications are at best gloomy.

There's an verse in the Bible that goes, " If a man slaps you on the right cheek, offer him the left." Foolish perhaps. But if we slap back, we are proving ourselves no better than the offender. By offering them the left, we are showing our kindness and greatness.The Pakatan Rakyat should withdraw the ban on the 1Malaysia slogan, and truly practice what they preach. Rather than banning 1Malaysia, PR should be clever enough to twist the slogan to their advantage, lending its advertising power to their cause. By conducting themselves in a manner beyond reproach, and embodying the principles that they stand for, then, and only then will a good and incorruptible government prevail.