By Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz
July 13, 2011 | Free Malaysia Today
Comment What has Bersih 2.0 become? To me Bersih 2.0 has come to represent the people’s willingness to translate beliefs into action.
That’s what is troubling Umno president Najib Tun Razak. Bersih represents willful readiness to translate articulation into action.
The shocking thing is, he couldn’t detect the same voluntariness and missionary zeal among Umno people! In Umno it’s the ‘no money no move’ philosophy.
In response, he pressed the panic button and came out with his fiery speech to the purportedly 6,000 Umno members at PWTC, a day after Bersih’s massively successful rally on July 9.
Which silent majority was Najib talking about on Sunday? How would we categorize the more than 100,000 people asking him to resign?
Maybe they are the silent subversives, anti-Malay, and anti-Islam and so on. Perhaps even traitors.
Wasn’t it treason?
Speaking of which, here is another troubling thing for me.
The Agong to whom everyone pledges allegiance and loyalty has ruled for conciliation.
But Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein was bolder in saying despite being granted an audience with the King, Bersih remained an outlawed entity.
The King means nothing.
Hishammuddin then went on to counter-command the King’s rule by unleashing security forces on peaceful marchers.
Did the police find any weapons among Bersih supporters that day?
I am sure, the video clip showing the man who eventually died while participating in the rally, if any is available, will be played over and over again in the next coming general elections.
The opposition already has a weapon. A potent one, more worrisome than Anwar Ibrahim’s black eye!
Anwar Ibrahim? He was largely incidental in the Bersih rally because the Bersih rally actually and truly wasn’t about him.
If he participated in the rally because of some personal motives, who are we to fault him on that?
At least he wasn’t as stupid as the ex-ITM guy (Perkasa’s Ibrahim Ali) who went around telling people that Bersih is really about overthrowing a Malay government.
Let me remind him that 70% of the rally participants were Malays wanting electoral reforms too!
Pitiable pettiness
Truth is, Bersih has taken a life of its own and would have become what it became even if its chairman S Ambiga wasn’t around.
Isn’t it embarrassing for anyone to respond to Ambiga by asking her citizenship be revoked, and title stripped?
Funny thing, people should start thinking why was Ambiga (that woman who is purportedly out to cause trouble and a was a threat to Islam) was able to meet up the Yang DiPertuan Agong who is the head of the Islamic religion.
Who is (Perkasa’s) Ibrahim Ali to tell the Agong who he should or should not meet?
We can spin till kingdom come about the willingess of the King to meet up with Ambiga and you can even do the hair-splitting stuff that one buffon of a minister did when he said “Oh the King met Ambiga in her capacity of a person…The King does not meet Bersih”.
But then however you say it, the people will say the King recognises Ambiga as the leader of Bersih 2.0 – whether that organisation has been outlawed or not. She and what she represents is of some consequence.
Isn’t all this a sign of shallowness and an example of pitiable pettiness?
Seeking reforms
What was Bersih asking for? They asked the Election Commission to enforce electoral reforms.
And they forwarded their eight-point demand to the EC. That shouldn’t scare Umno in the first place.
No problem with postal voting because violation on postal voting isn’t as widespread as it was a long time ago.
Unless of course the candidates’ representatives during the voting and counting process were sleeping.
There should not be any problem even if voting is made compulsory on reaching 21 years of age.
Cleaning up the electoral roles off dead people shouldn’t be much of a problem because this is more administrative and technical.
Making voting transparent shouldn’t be a problem too.
Umno’s three evils
So what was the problem? Now comes the big issues – money politics, gerrymandering and phantom voters.
Thousands of people in Sabah are being issued Identification Cards with addresses in Kelantan.
Gerrymandering is a bigger problem.
It seems that Umno can only ensure it has more representatives in Parliament by creating more parliamentary seats with 5,000 voters per constituent.
Hence an Umno MP represents 5,000 people, while his rival (opposition) represents 30,000 people.
The Umno MP will represent the same amount if that number includes 10,000 police and 10,000 army voters.
Now this is a problem.
Excellent piece. Agree wholeheartedly. The biggest loser in all this – Najib; he’s lost – lost in space; lost the plot; lost his marbles (by his diatribe on Sunday); lost his hold on UMNO (the sharks will be out to get him soon); lost the people’s faith in him that he’s carefully cultivated during the past 3 years; – his legacy will probably be “how not to shoot yourself in the foot” or something like that. If only he had taken Kit Siang’s offer to march alongside the people on 9 July, he would probably have had the his premiership extended by another term at least and have had the people eating out of his hands…. alas…. his ego was much too great…and we all know the higher they are, the harder they fall. Adios Najib.
Najib is caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.
He has to find ways to save himself.
We need to be very alert with his hypocrisy …smiles..sweet words.. flip flopping….and all he can find to do…to fool Malaysians..
But the BERSIH 2 walk..have given him a message….loud and clear.
Did he get the message?
Sure he did…but he has to twist harder to survive…and survival game is what Najib is playing now.
You want to know what was wrong with UMNO/BN about Bersih – look at Kuang rep Abdul Shokur in Selangor assembly when rebuked over Assembly rules that prohibit mentioning Agung name. They can’t behave rationally, can’t use their brains when faced with difficulties that is basic rules AND behave badly without a clue it harms themselves.
In other words, the fail tests, tests of everyday life, of living, of dealing with problems, and simply challenges everyone faces all the time.
How much $$$ now would cause Najis or better say our tax-payers’s money to pay for his celebrity coverage(cantik-cantik pun cover up) either in news prints or public media in meeting up with David Cameron,the Prime minister of England?Do not forget to add in the bill thanks to the obviously known shopping spree super lady Rosy mah,meh?Ptui!
The King is nothing to UMNO…
UMNO never treated our king with respect started from Dr mammeh mahatir era, only used them whenever that suited UMNO.
UMNO now dishing out dirts, threats and dirty tricks on majority innocent citizens on racial and religion issues, that probably worked if it was 20 years ago, but now people are more educated and can see what UMNO’s tricks and what they are up to even with the help of perkasa ibrahim, police and running dogs like MCA chua & co.
In the parliement or state assembly UMNO are using their mahority and control of the parliements to make new rules and regulations that suit them, bullied; impposed ban, shouted abuses and barbaric antics on the opposition MPs, even though UMNO came out with racist remarks on our hardworking citizens. UMNO MPs are still living at the tree tops age!!!