The need to stand up and be counted

By Mariam Mokhtar
Monday, 04 October 2010 15:26

Last Saturday, a group of Malaysians, studying, living and working in the United Kingdom, spent the afternoon in the Cruciform Lecture Theatre in University College London listening to Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, Raja Petra Kamarudin, PKR information chief Tian Chua and DAP Senator Tunku Abdul Aziz discuss the current political climate in Malaysia.

Many Malaysians are already aware that the country is heading towards further instability. Corruption has compromised our institutions and when the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission is seen to be part of the problem, public confidence is shattered.

Tunku Abdul Aziz confirmed what many suspected – the infiltration of the Malaysian police at every level, from the lower ranks, the inspectorate and up to the top. But he added that not all policemen were bad or corrupt.

In addition, Anwar talked about the thousands of deaths in police custody and mentioned the efforts of Pakatan Rakyat (PR) in helping to defend the families of Kugan and Teoh Beng Hock. He described the time when when he paid his respects to Teoh’s family, where his presence at the funeral was condemned and his motives were misconstrued, by his enemies.

What these leaders told the audience was nothing new. But they were not there to present the usual rhetoric. They were there to urge the overseas Malaysians to act, to make small sacrifices and to take a stand against the forces which are destroying our country.

Back home, the Malaysian people have asked the BN government to do something and correct the injustices and restore our faith in the system. But Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has opted to do nothing and that is not an option we can live with.

Only last week, Najib reminded us that ‘there would be a bad impact on people if BN loses power’ and said, “There is no other government in the world which has done what the Malaysian government had, is doing or will be doing”.

What is this bad impact that the PM is referring to? Who will be affected by this ‘bad impact’? The ordinary Malaysians or the Umno elite?

Thus when Tian Chua described how Malaysia had become the joke of the international community, he condemned the government’s use of economy as an exchange for human rights, civil liberties and racism, to stay in power. He described how BN used racial and religious sentiment to cling onto power. Both race and religion were used as the final line of defence.

Is Umno short of ideas that it has to stoop low and use ethnicity and religion as their final line of defence? For several years, there was always an excuse to avoid discussing controversial issues. Is Umno unable to rationlise? Our inability to confront these issues head-on will ultimately mean that we store these problems up for later.

RPK insisted that the next election was going to be won through the media but stressed that we needed a credible opposition or a good alternative to the existing government. He insisted that without the Civil Society Movement, the opposition could not improve and he lamented how PR lacked quality candidates.

Anwar revealed that there was a strong clamour for change by the rakyat, especially the young – the students and youth who he claimed made up PR’s support base. He condemned how the government constantly played the race card.

But didn’t the Deputy Prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin recently announce that the rights and privileges of Malaysians were preserved in the New Economic Model?

Anwar was careful to heap praise on the more assertive and confident Malays who recognise the abuses perpetrated by the government. He believed that the majority of Malays did not believe in the Umno agenda and said that his sodomy trial was all about a judiciary that is at the beck and call of Umno and a media controlled by Umno.

Responding to a question about whether Malaysia would be pushed by PAS towards an Islamic state if PR were to come to power, the participants were told that PAS needed 2/3 of the 222 seats in parliament to amend the constitution. With PAS only having 1/3 of the seats, then the formation of an Islamic state, is mathematically impossible. Kelantan, which has been under PAS rule for thirty years still had not reverted to a Muslim state.

With the Sarawak state election and the nation’s General Election looming, the words of Senator Tunku Abdul Aziz had a poignant message for Malaysians so that public confidence could be restored: “There is no institution in Malaysia that has not been compromised. Corruption makes victims of us all.”

He described the Malay psyche and how the BN government depended on the Malay votes in the rural areas to prop them up.

He warned that when one takes a stand against the government, the marginalisation of that person will take place and he then becomes the ‘enemy of the state’ and is wiped off the government radar screen.

The Senator’s challenge was for us to stand up and be counted. He is right. Doing nothing emboldens the Umno elite and weakens Malaysia as a whole. It is an option that could cost us our future and possible our lives.