Police – stand down apparatus of repression, decriminalize Bersih T-shirts so that tens of thousands can be printed

The Yang di Pertuan Agong’s wise and just intervention resulting in agreement for a July 9 Bersih 2.0 rally in a stadium has saved the day for Malaysia, sparing her the infamy and ignominy inside the country and worldwide at the farce of a democratic government treating a peaceful rally for free, fair and clean elections as a grave national threat even greater than one ever posed by terrorists or enemies of the country in the nation’s history.

Equally important, Malaysia is also spared the international embarrassment of her credentials and qualifications as a member of the UN Human Rights Council questioned or even censured by other countries because of a most egregious crackdown on the most basic  and fundamental of human rights in Malaysia.

Several steps must be taken immediately to return the country to the course of sanity, good and common sense abandoned by the government in the past ten days.

As a first step, the Police should immediately stand down its apparatus of repression in the past two weeks, when the police abandoned and abdicated its first task to keep the people and country safe from criminals by going on a nation-wide mobilization against imaginary foes in the form of Bersih 2.0 rally on July 9.

All police personnel in the country should be directed immediately to go back to their most important duties of keeping the streets and homes of Malaysians safe and free from crime.

The Police should also immediately decriminalize Bersih and Bersih 2.0 T shirts so that tens of thousands of Bersih T-shirts could be printed in the next three days for those attending the Bersih 2.0 rally in a stadium on Saturday.

Finally, all persons arrested in connection with the Bersih 2.0 rally, including for wearing yellow Bersih 2.0 T-shirts whether outside or as inner garment should be released unconditionally, with all charges withdrawn and dropped – including the ridiculous Emergency Ordinance charges against the Sungai Siput MP Dr. Michael Jayakumar and all  the other PSM members.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 5 July 2011, 6:35 pm and is filed under
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Taking people for fools

By
Eric Loo

Jul 4, 11 | MalaysiaKini

Each time I log in to non-mainstream media to catch up on news in Malaysia, I see the same old stories about how bad things have become since the 1980s – from financial scandals and systemic corruption to institutional discrimination and dill heads running the country. My reactions have become passé.

Each time I come home, friends and kin tell more stories about how bleak they see their future as being. Once, these were mere stories and theories we shared over mugs of teh tarik during the pre-Internet days when the government-controlled media was our main source of political news.

Today, the mainstream media still dance to the same beat. But the personal stories I hear are angrier and more despondent. I hear stories of how their business and their children’s future are being whittled away and denied by institutions set adrift by poor governance and abuse of power by under-qualified bureaucrats.

Some hope that in their lifetime there will be an Aquino-like ‘Yellow Revolution’ as in Manila in 1986 to clean up our act and institute a regime change.

Multi-sector corruption. Cronyism. Government bailouts of failed mega-projects. Abuse of affirmative action. Sleaze politics. These are painfully killing the people’s faith in the government as evident from my conversations with taxi drivers and hawkers to the AB demographics. I’m amazed at how these plights are not often thoroughly investigated nor critically reported. What we read are pages and pages of infantile trivia and redundant juvenile ruminations about life by equally juvenile tabloid writers.

Journalists working under the current regime often rationalise their inadequate and woefully written stories in this way: “We know these are important issues. But our hands are tied. There are too many restrictive media laws. Putrajaya occasionally interferes. And, editors often censor.”

I often mull over how Malaysian journalists could be better trained and educated to write intelligently about what we’re doing wrong, how and why with each passing year the political elites and their cronies are getting wealthier, while the poor – which cuts across racial lines – are only getting the crumbs.

Unequal access to economic opportunities has led to gaping income disparities within racial groups, which in turn compels some to sell their integrity for favours. To those with political connections, more are given. We’re caught in a chronically corrupt politico-economic system that feeds upon itself.

Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index shows Malaysia is as bad as Namibia, Latvia, Samoa and Slovakia. Our media are among the least free in the world. We’re in the same kettle with Brunei, Singapore, Ethiopia, Russia, Honduras and Bahrain. Out of 178 countries, we were ranked 141 by Reporters San Frontieres last year.

On the illegal movements of money across borders, Global Financial Integrity reported in January that “financial flows from Malaysia more than tripled from US$22.2 billion in 2000 to US$68.2 billion in 2008. This growth rate, seen in few Asian countries, may be a result of significant governance issues affecting both public and private sectors”.

Malaysia follows closely behind China, Russia, Mexico and Saudi Arabia. With such a stained record, perhaps the government thinks the country’s international image can’t take another beating if the Bersih 2.0 rally goes ahead on Saturday.

Unexpected outcome

For the past two weeks, the mainstream media have framed the rally organisers as troublemakers playing with fire, and the event as an inconvenience to local business and a threat to community peace. Advertisements, nay propaganda, on government-affiliated television stations have even demonised the Bersih 2.0 rally.

I recall my conversation with veteran journalist Jakob Oetama, publisher of Kompas Daily in Jakarta in November 2006 when I was researching for my book ‘Best Practices of Journalism in Asia’.

He said a responsible media should monitor political trends, protect the poor and advocate for socio-political change. But as long as the feudalistic culture among politicians remain, he said, we would be poorly served. Such is the state of politics and the media in Malaysia.

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak proclaimed in Sipitang last week that we live in a democracy. Really? The government and its media handmaidens are taking the rakyat for fools. I’ve been reading report after report on how the July 9 rally will scare away tourists, destroy the economy, cause race riots on the streets, which would then open a window for “foreign powers … all too eager to send their troops on the pretext of helping to solve the crisis”.

That’s from the Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin telling the kampung folk in Taman Kaya, Taiping, on Saturday. Apparently, he believes the Bersih 2.0 rally will lead to mass riots as in the Middle East, thus giving foreign powers a reason to interfere, nay invade, our shores. And this makes headline news?

I’m amazed at our journalists’ lack of will or capacity to think and question the DPM’s inductive reasoning. Are mainstream journalists so ignorant that ridiculous rhetoric and moronic statements are unthinkingly reported as page lead stories?

Ironically, the uncritical reporting of the government’s alarmist fear-stoking politics has elevated Bersih 2.0 to a new level of political significance. And, that’s the consolation we can take to the march on July 9 after a fortnight of dreadful sycophantic mainstream journalism.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 5 July 2011, 12:15 pm and is filed under
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A royal rebuke for Umno, says Aussie don

By
Stephanie Sta Maria

July 6, 201 | Free Malaysia Today

PETALING JAYA: Bersih earned a spot on Australia’s airwaves today with an Australian sociologist describing the royal intervention as a “rebuke” to Umno and the government and an acknowledgement of the organisation’s legitimacy.

The Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Abidin issued a statement on Monday saying street demonstrations would do more harm than good.

This prompted Bersih to request an audience with him, which he granted with rare speed yesterday. Bersih afterwards announced its decision to move the rally off the streets and into a stadium.

Professor Clive Kessler of the University of New South Wales told ABC Radio that the King may have acted on his own initiative or at the suggestion of the government looking for a way to climb down.

“But it is a remarkable intervention,” he observed. “The last two weeks in Malaysia have been astounding and gripping and Malaysia has, at least for the moment, stepped back from the brink.”

Despite many Malaysians lamenting that a stadium rally would reduce Bersih’s impact, Kessler said the coalition had made its point.

“The government stigmatised Bersih and said they were unreasonable and violent, but the King himself appealed to the reason of his reasonable citizens,” he said.

“This was in a sense a rebuke to Umno, a repudiation of the government’s position and that in itself gave face and legitimacy to Bersih as an organisation.

“The arguments that they have made that the Malaysian electoral system is irrevocably broken and lacking in credibility have now more than ever been made and that argument has now greater legitimacy that before.”

Great losers

Kessler also said that the spate of arrests over the past two weeks actually boosted Bersih’s credibility and legitimacy.

By launching an assault on Bersih, the government had effectively buried itself and now appeared to be backing down, he added.

“The great winners in this have been Bersih, its head Ambiga Sreeneevasan and the King, who has come out as healer and a broker of the nation’s best interests,” he declared.

“The great losers have been the government, particularly the Prime Minister, the Home Minister, and also the Malay ethno-sectarian pressure groups that have been driving the government to take a very strong anti-Bersih line.”

Kessler also said that although the march had officially been called off, a large number of people could be expected to turn up this Saturday since their presence was no longer forbidden.

He also speculated that the rally would be held in Stadium Melawati in Shah Alam. Bersih wanted to hold the rally in Stadium Merdeka, but its request was turned down by the stadium management today.

“Holding the rally in Shah Alam would mean that it not will come under the KL police, but the Selangor police,” Kessler said. “This gets all the police who have acted very stridently in the last week or so out of the action.

“And people will have to walk there, because they’re not going to be able to drive or get there by public transport. So, in some sense the march will go ahead, but not in Kuala Lumpur.”

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 6 July 2011, 6:14 pm and is filed under
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Bersih 2.0: A long march to freedom

By
Keruah Usit

Jul 6, 11 | MalaysiaKini

ANTIDOTE
The new sanitised Bersih 2.0 rally is now purer and whiter. Thanks to the Agong’s intervention, the rally for free and fair elections will be confined to a stadium.

This change of scene will make the rally easier to control, from premier Najib Abdul Razak’s point of view. It will also dampen some of the supporters’ enthusiasm.

Being hemmed in, demonstrators will inevitably curb some of their long suppressed drive to show their defiance of the ruling coalition and its faithful enforcers in the police force.

The impact of the rally will diminish somewhat. Such a gathering in a stadium will reinforce images of spectator sports. We are, however, accustomed to watching displays of titanic struggles, such as football matches and general elections, even if we understand that the results are likely to be fixed by some cartel of tycoons.

Najib has succeeded in taking some of the sting out of the rally. He has manoeuvered Bersih 2.0 into a stadium, even if he has not forced the dissidents completely into a corner.

Najib may think, reasonably enough, that confining the rally to an enclosed space will play more to Umno’s advantage than having Bersih 2.0 call off the rally altogether. If the rally does not proceed, suppressed resentment might then spill over into anti-establishment votes in the upcoming general election.

After all, Umno supporters might argue, if Najib does not like what he hears at the rally, he could arrange for all the gates to be sealed, and the protestors would be trapped inside. (The Emergency Ordinance could always be applied en masse.

Since a fair number of Bar Council human rights lawyers would be trapped inside, the police would be unable to deny legal advice as it has done to the PSM6.) Perhaps Umno could even issue a licence to some well-connected company to sell tickets to the rally.

It is harder now to understand why Bersih 2.0 organisers have been vilified, and portrayed in the state-owned media as illegal and violent. Yet they are encouraged to hold a rally in a public place.

The Bersih 2.0 committee has even been accused of taking foreign funding, embracing communism, and paving the way for an American invasion, all at once. Why will Umno now allow them to do all this in a stadium?

Playing the King of Hearts

The royal advice to confine the rally to a stadium is clearly binding.

The present feeling among the Malay majority – Umno, PAS and PKR members alike – seems to be that the institution of the monarchy commands a special place in our hearts.

The royalty serves as an anchor of culture and identity, and provides a link to a more secure, if perhaps poorly understood, past. This serves to give comfort in an increasingly confusing and heterogeneous world.

Several of my highly educated and well travelled Malay friends are angry at endemic corruption, suppression of basic liberties, and the widening gap between the rich and the poor in Malaysia.

Yet they still feel the Agong remains ‘above politics’, and beyond reproach, and they support the Agong’s call for the Bersih 2.0 climbdown.

Therefore, now that the Agong has spoken, Bersih 2.0 clearly cannot risk uncertainty and divisions in the ranks of marchers, most of whom are expected to be Malay.

Disagreement would inevitably spread among the many individual members of the Bersih 2.0 coalition, if it were to press ahead with its plans to march to the national palace against the Agong’s advice.

Over the past two years, we have clearly seen an increasing number of public expressions of royal feeling over issues like the Perak putsch, or the Selangor water wars, and now the Bersih 2.0 rally.

Perhaps these interventions are a sign of the times, and we can seek to understand them as reactions to our unprecedented political firestorm in 2008.

Indeed, all over the world, constitutional monarchies are conservative in nature, and most remain engaged in a troubling search for a new identity. Malaysia needs many more years to work out our own equilibrium.

The long march of history

Umno has pulled out all the stops to try to prevent a huge outpouring of public opinion, as we witnessed in 2007. The first Bersih rally galvanised the opposition and swept Pakatan to power in five states in 2008.

The first Bersih protest came as a surprise to Malaysians, including those taking part in a public demonstration for the first time. The rally encouraged many younger Malaysians to contribute to a groundswell of anti-BN voting.

But today, all of us are aware of the tidal wave of feeling against corruption, racial and religious extremism and institutional brutality. Three months ago, the surge in the anti-BN vote in the Sarawak election, rising to 45 percent, demonstrated this clearly.

Now, thanks to the outcry against the police clampdown and abuse of Bersih 2.0 activists including elected representatives, even more voters will already have got the message, with or without a second mammoth street rally.

It is entirely possible that enormous numbers of protestors will still turn up. Najib’s gambit, throwing in all his resources, may not pay off.

The combined weight of all the institutions, including the monarchy, the judiciary, the police, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, the state-run media, the universities, the religious authorities, the civil service, and even the armed forces, cannot hold back history.

We have learnt that the will of the people eventually prevails. We can see this from recent events Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Bahrain, Yemen, and now Thailand.

Malaysians with hopes and ideals need not despair, for we have seen throughout history that brute force cannot extinguish the people’s spirit.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 6 July 2011, 11:09 am and is filed under
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Bersih and the fall of reason

By
Art Harun

July 06, 2011

JULY 6 — “I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.” ~ Thomas Paine

The events unfolding before our eyes in the past few weeks say a lot about us as a collection of individuals; as a society and as a people. What is clear, however, is the sad fact that when we are faced with adversity, we tend to lose our head and retreat into the same old dark and cold cave of emotions, of irrationality and of convenient rhetoric.

Above all, we abandon the very faculty that differentiate us from all other primates, namely, our ability to reason. That is the saddest reflection of us, as a nation.

With all due respect, the government could have handled Bersih’s requests and demands in better ways than imaginable. As a people living in 2011, we expect better. We expect the government to respond and not react. And react rashly and even stupidly at that.

When the momentum of Bersih’s call for a rally gained traction and weight, the usual suspects jumped into action. Apparently, Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, the Bersih chairman, was an enemy of Islam.

The obligatory demonstration (which was granted a police permit in two days after an application was made for one) coupled with the inevitable ultra-nationalistic speeches climaxing into the predictable burning of Ambiga’s pictures took place.

It is ironic that Ibrahim Ali named his movement “Gerak Aman” (“Peace Movement”, in English) while at the same time making a not-so-veiled, but vile, threat that the “Chinese should really stock up food in their house”. He then appointed himself the “war general”. And, so, a Peace Movement has a war general. Certainly a first for Malaysia.

The police force was not to be left behind. Its intelligent unit jumped into action and within minutes it found evidence that the Communists had infiltrated Bersih and were planning the overthrow the government through Bersih. A number of people from Parti Sosialis Malaysia were promptly arrested and red T-shirts were seized.

Not enough with that, it was also found out that Bersih was being funded by some Christian groups. That seemed to gel with the earlier assertion that Ambiga was anti-Islam.

And so Bersih has managed to achieve what no other organisation in the whole world had managed to even dream of: the unison of Christianity with Communism in a post World War era. How’s that for international notoriety?

If we had thought that Malaysia and her authorities have gone ape, we were in for a big surprise in later days.

The members of some silat organisation that announced that they would “wage war” against Bersih. 50,000 of its members were ready to kill off any challenge by Bersih or by the rally participants. As to what the challenge was, nobody gave any clue. Later, the silat organisation seemed to grow in numbers and this time it declared it was ready to “defend the country from Bersih’s action”.

Then the usual intellectual and some “persatuan peniaga runcit” or the other joined in the fray. The planned rally would create traffic congestion and would cause traders to lose a lot of money. Why don’t they do it in Putrajaya? Pity the taxi drivers.

Of course it was lost on them that the bounden duty of the police is the ensure safety and order during the exercise by the people of their Constitutional right. Why don’t the police meet up with Bersih and hatch out a security plan rather than act to prevent the people from doing so?

There was, and still is, a complete lack of understanding as to the rights of the people and the function of the State when such rights are about to be exercised. Thinking that it is the year 2011 and that Malaysia has gained independence for about 54 years, it is distressful to note such complete belligerent attitude against the people by the government.

Worse was to come, however.

Ambiga and the Bersih committee were hauled to the police station. The fact that these people voluntarily went to the police station speak volume of their non-confrontational approach towards the whole thing. They had not committed any crime. Nor were they planning any crime. But went to the police station they did.

The thing that struck me as the most uncouth move of all was the dragging of Pak Samad Said, our national laureate, to the police station for a 90 minute “interview” over a poem he allegedly read at a Bersih launch.

From then on, Bersih, to me, had travelled into a different dimension. It was not about electoral reform anymore. It had become a movement about the people moving against some sort of tyranny.

Soon after came the outlawing of yellow T-shirts bearing the Bersih word. The IGP joined in to say that even shoes, umbrellas and buses depicting the word Bersih are seditious and will be seized. The home minister capped the whole insanity with the declaration that Bersih is illegal.

Arrest and more arrests took place. Malaysia was surely descending into the pits of absolutism.

The home minister never failed to baffle many. That trend continued when he said that books on communism and communist leaders may be given the green light for sale or publication on the condition that they do not promote Bersih.

And so Bersih has now become Malaysia’s post-emergency (oh, sorry, what post-emergency, we are still under states of emergency!), post-war-confrontation-May 13 biggest bogey man. And to think that Bersih is headed by a recipient of the United State’s women courage award!

The most baffling statements in all these Bersih related rhetoric came from none other than the Honourable Prime Minister.

While addressing a crowd of about 20,000 people in Kelantan, the prime minister declared Ambiga as an enemy of Islam. The basis for that declaration was that Ambiga had acted in the Lina Joy’s case, a case involving a Muslim woman who had converted to Christianity and was fighting to get her religion changed on her identity card by the national registration department.

Welcome to 1 Malaysia. In just one single sentence, Mr Prime Minister, I am afraid to say that the concept of 1 Malaysia, which is so enthusiastically promoted by your administration, will remain a concept for quite a while.

In the first place, Ambiga wasn’t even in Lina Joy’s case! Even if she was, that declaration is a display of a complete misunderstanding or non-understanding of the role and functions of lawyers who appear for their clients in the Courts.

Using the prime minister’s arguments, would we call all the Syariah lawyers who defend people who are accused for khalwat or not fasting in the Syariah Courts anti-Islam or even the enemies of Islam?

What do we call lawyers who defend people who are accused of rape in our Courts? Pro-rape? Lawyers who defend people accused of murder are anti-life? How about the Attorney-General who appears in Court to argue that certain people should be detained without trial? Do we call him anti-liberty?

The Honourable Prime Minister gave a speech on moderation in Oxford University on May 17, 2011. Among others, this was what he said:

“Our choice is clear. Come together in action for a future of justice, freedom, hope, compassion and goodwill for our children or it will be replaced by a future of injustice, tyranny, hopelessness, cruelty and hate.

“We must address the underlying causes of global violence. Merely going after specific individuals, dismantling their organisations, disrupting their finances and discrediting their ideologies is far from enough. We must be able to differentiate between the symptoms and the root causes. Only then, can we achieve a lasting solution.”

Why didn’t the government look at the root cause of the grievances in Bersih’s case? Why must the prime minister merely choose to go against his very own words by “going after specific individuals, dismantling their organisations and discrediting their ideologies”?

Why has there been no attempt at all to differentiate between the symptoms and the root causes?

And where is the “action for a future of justice, freedom, hope, compassion and goodwill for our children or it will be replaced by a future of injustice, tyranny, hopelessness, cruelty and hate?”

His Royal Highness the King had granted an audience to Ambiga and His Majesty had asked that Bersih do meet with the government to work out a compromise as of yesterday. That put paid to all the vile accusation and declaration of illegality by the government against Bersih.

The question is why haven’t the government paid some respect to the King’s exhortation? Why hasn’t the Bersih activist been released, some even from detention without trial under the Emergency laws? Why are people wearing the Bersih yellow t-shirts still being arrested (today alone, there are several arrests).

Why did the police surround a talk organised by the lawyers last night in Kota Damansara to educate the public on their rights upon arrests?

Why did the police mount countless roadblocks today which caused traffic congestions resulting in much difficulties to the public? The police and government kept on saying that street rallies cause traffic congestion and untold misery. What about the roadblocks?

The answer given is that the road blocks were aimed to prevent unwanted elements in the capital city.

I just have one tiny question. If Bersih’s aim is to overthrow the government, then they must be quite sophisticated. After all they are aided by Christians who are working hand in hand with the communists.

Now, how do several policemen carrying guns, standing on the road, manning roadblocks and waving the traffic to move along help to trace all these sophisticated elements?

Frankly I think the police would do much and way better if all those policemen were asked to capture the acid splasher who is still on the loose till this very moment. Or why don’t they go and investigate some sex video?

The truth is the government has surely lost the proverbial plot over the Bersih issue. This is, I am afraid to say, and I am saying this with the greatest of respect, a government which surely not at ease even with itself, let alone the people it thinks it is governing!

The prime minister, in his aforesaid Oxford speech quoted Nelson Mandela, who said:

“Let there be justice for all. Let there be peace for all. Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all. Let each know that for each body, the mind and the soul have been freed to fulfil themselves.”

Yes. The mind and the soul. The government may seize all yellow T-shirts, outlaw Bersih, arrest the body of its supporters, but their mind and soul remain free. The mind cannot be arrested.

To cap it up, the prime minister said:

“But while one man standing in the road is a nuisance, a mere distraction, 10 men standing together are far harder to ignore. And if those 10 become 100, a thousand, a million, a billion even, they become a force so big, so strong and so united in their common cause that those who espouse hatred will face a very simple choice.”

I rest my case. — art-harun.blogspot.com

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 6 July 2011, 4:09 pm and is filed under
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Bersih and the inane responses

By
Sakmongkol AK47

July 06, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

JULY 6 — This present government has developed one distinguishing characteristic not unlike the previous administration. If the previous administration was maligned as being uninspiring and sleeping through its job, this present government isn’t that far from being similarly aspersed. How so?

It has shown it has a knack of being inept at handling small shocks to the system. Many of us for example are not supporters of Anwar Ibrahim, but the manner the government handles the Anwar affairs — whether it’s the sodomy 2 charge or the recent video clip showing a person resembling Anwar in a sexual tryst, the administration has shown its ineptness and incompetence.

In the video clip affair for example, people see the court as being a manipulated instrument to serve the interest of the sitting government. The court has allowed itself to be the pulpit for making political statements; lawyers representing the three people accused of possession and distribution or broadcasting pornographic material, used that occasion to declare the authenticity of the video and its main actor. How was it relevant and moreover we heard it through a secondary source- i.e. regurgitation from the defence lawyers. That become hearsay evidence and can be contested.

Its Anwar again this time having his hands tied behind and walloped defencelessly. Last time it was the physical black eye. This time it is the legal black eye. The last time, it nearly cost the loss of Najib in Pekan, this time it could probably cost more to Umno as a whole.

The current shock to the system — a system made merry by numerous announcements of projects by the PM and his chief major domo in this field of auta-mania, Idris Jala, is how the government handles the Bersih NGO.

This is an NGO led by a Malaysian Indian lady by the name of S Ambiga. This lady has managed to rattle almost all the top guns in Umno and those wishing they were part of Umno.

Ibrahim Ali is responding mindlessly justifying his conduct as an answer to his interpretation of Bersih as being a movement to (1) unseat the government and (2) attacking the position of Malays. So he steps in as the self-appointed warrior defending the position of Malays. He says he is willing to be murderous and warned the Chinese to stay away. But he hasn’t asked his Chinese business backers to do the same.

Bersih was a godsend re-invigorating Ibrahim Ali from an otherwise political stupor. He now has an issue and Ibrahim Ali lives.

But why is Ibrahim Ali defending the Umno led government? Ibrahim Ali is not even an Umno member. Two, has Umno not got enough warrior politicians to defend it in its hour of need? Umno does not need Ibrahim Ali to speak for the party. If it does, then the warrior politicians in Umno have since become eunuchs.

The other reason for attacking Bersih as a movement to endanger Malays and Malay interests is too far-fetched to be dignified by answering it.

Who is the right mind will entertain the idea of unseating the government through undemocratic means? The only one that did, were the Umno politicians who engineered the downfall of the Perak PR government. Already there are signs that the Perak government will be retaken by the PR forces.

Ambiga and the Bersih people must be absent minded or must have suffered a bout of spontaneous amnesia to not be aware that Governments can be unseated only though democratic means, that is by way of free and fair elections. Therefore to seriously suggest that Bersih is a copycat version of the mass movements in Tunisa and Egypt is not acceptable.

Our response becomes more bizarre when the discovery of the portrait of Shamsiah Fakeh among Bersih rally paraphernalia is taken as proof that Bersih is communist inspired! The whole handling becomes even more macabre with the ‘discovery’ of weapons said to belong to Bersih would be participants. Oh yes. Oh yes — more of the incompetence. The discovery is a miracle to happen just before the planned rally. I hope the people masterminding the discovery will also be ready with some creative answers to tell the PM, how the weapons were ‘planted’ there. How convenient! The gods must be smiling at the politicians and police.

And now the investigation into the finances of Bersih shall be used as proof that Bersih is a Trojan horse for foreign subversion. That would probably provide an aphrodisiac for the recuperating Dr Mahathir who is a well-known opponent of any form of colonialism.

People may get inspired by those movements but were probably so without seriously entertaining the idea of unseating a government by undemocratic or violent means. Public opinion will certainly go against Bersih if that is the case. Ambiga will be lynched for that.

But the aims of Bersih are not that. By asking the elections commission to conduct itself properly shows that Bersih accepts that the means to unseat a government is through the voting system. But the voting system is in need of better supervision and that’s where the demands on the election commission come to the fore.

This aim should be supported. Some people will show their support by participating in the rally. Some will not do so. It’s a matter of choice.

The right to express their wishes must be upheld by the government. If Perkasa and other groups supportive of the sitting government are allowed to gather and demonstrate, that right must also be given to others. If the Bersih planned rally is wrong in law, then the same judgment applies to the rallies carried out by supporters of the sitting government.

Our laws are clear. If people break the law, irrespective of who they are, they must be brought to before the forces of the law. We have the institutions to deal with that and we certainly don’t need a third line of defence. Can any secret society and gangster organisations apply to be a bona-fide 3rd line of defence?

The problem here is that the elections commission is seen as a pliant tool for one side of the contestants. It doesn’t answer questions with solutions but gives all sorts of excuses. People accept the principle of elections as a means to establish governments. But they also want that means to be above board. They accept they are powerless unless they act collectively and speak as a voice. The powerless are striking back demanding that competition to get power to form governments be carried out fairly and in even handed manners.

The body that oversees elections is conducted fairly and transparently is the elections commission. We mustn’t lose sight of the object of the current disputes now. Bersih’s objective is to call upon the election commissions to conduct itself as it’s chartered to do. This isn’t a rally threatening the sovereignty of the Agong or to strike fear at Malays.

The election commission is an independent commission. It’s not just another government department answerable to the Chief Secretary or even to the PM. It’s the custodian of fair and transparent conduct of elections and it must guard this role jealously. It does so jealously from the meddling and intervention of interested parties. It must also rid itself of any perceptions of being a submissive tool for those holding power at the moment.

Its responses to criticisms therefore mustn’t be evasive. It has to avail itself to the latest methods and technology that upgrade the participation of people in an electoral process. If the use of indelible ink is good for participatory democracy it must adopt the method as a natural development without having to be at pains defending its non-usage. If making voting compulsory and its cost effective doing so, then it must do so.

People are now diverting their attention to debating whether the planned assembly of people in the Bersih Rally should be allowed or otherwise. The real issue has and is always the conduct of the elections commission.

The watching majority must be dismayed at the response of our police. The police with all the sophisticated instruments of crowd control and other suppressive means appear to have admitted that they are powerless to control the crowds. What have we spent public money for then? The idea of a police is to keep the peace. In keeping the peace, it must conduct its business in a professional manner and be fair minded. If Bersih is not allowed to hold rallies, then other parties must also be disallowed.

In Penang, the police have given permit for some people to hold a rally? In Rembau, some people consisting of ex policemen were given permit? Ibrahim Ali was even given a permit to denounce a rally that has not taken place. He is a clairvoyant extraordinaire who can see the future. In ancient times, people like Ibrahim Ali got burnt at the stakes. Shall we roast Ibrahim Ali then?

Let’s not forget the object of the issue. It’s the election commission. It answers to the Agong and therefore should not be seen as working for an interested party. What’s the problem with clearing the electoral registers off dead people? How can it apply its resources and time to restructure how postal votes can be seen to be fair and transparent? How can it monitor and apply strict rules to election spending and election funding etc.?

These are important issues to those looking at elections as a means to exercise their democratic rights to elect a government of their choice. This isn’t an issue whether public demonstrations or going on a march as practices that are good only elsewhere but not suitable in Malaysia. The need to express publicly the collective wants and demands is part and parcel a democracy. — sakmongkol.blogspot.com

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 6 July 2011, 4:04 pm and is filed under
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Despite royal audience, Hisham says Bersih still illegal

By
Shannon Teoh
 | July 06, 2011

The Malaysian Insider

PUTRAJAYA, July 6 — Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein insisted today that Bersih is still outlawed, saying that neither an audience with the King nor relocating  the July 9 rally to a stadium could turn the electoral reforms movement legal.

However, the home minister said that Bersih could still apply for a permit for the July 9 gathering using “other methods.”

“No, they are still banned, still illegal. Nobody can be above the law. Just because Tuanku met them, doesn’t mean they are no longer illegal,” he said, referring to the audience granted by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to Bersih yesterday, after which it accepted the stadium offer.

“They don’t have to apply on the platform of Bersih itself,” he said of the coalition of 62 NGOs which has accepted Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s offer to hold the rally in a stadium.

He explained that the organisation was still deemed illegal by the Registrar of Societies (RoS) under advice from the Attorney-General and would remain so unless the Registrar said otherwise. The Registrar had said last week that Hishammuddin ordered Bersih to be outlawed.

Hishammuddin (picture) added that this meant that Bersih t-shirts were still unlawful and the law would still apply to over a hundred already arrested in relation to the planned march on Saturday.

However, he said that should Bersih be successful in its application to meet in a stadium on Saturday, the government would facilitate the gathering.

“Of course, we will allow. The whole point is to allow them to air their grievance. This should be looked at as a positive way forward,” he said.

Hishammuddin added that this meant that yellow Bersih t-shirts were still unlawful and the law would still apply to over a hundred already arrested in relation to the planned march on Saturday.

“This is still related to an illegal activity. We are consistent with applying the law,” he said.

The police have continued making arrests in connection with the rally, most of them for wearing yellow T-shirts with the word Bersih emblazoned on them in a clampdown that has also seen Bersih being declared illegal.

But Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin stepped in on Sunday to defuse tension by advising the Najib administration and Bersih 2.0 to hold consultations over the issue of free and fair elections.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 6 July 2011, 4:17 pm and is filed under
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Gov’t briefing on Bersih threat comes unstuck

By
Terence Netto

Jul 6, 11 | MalaysiaKini

A briefing yesterday by the police and the Election Commission meant to give credence to government claims that the planned Bersih march was fraught with the threat of violence came unstuck when it ran into a thicket of sceptical questions from those being briefed.

Present at the briefing which was held in a leading hotel in Kuala Lumpur even as Bersih’s top leaders were being granted an audience by the king at Istana Negara, were some 30 members comprising leaders of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST), Suhakam, and a couple of NGOs.

Arranged by the Prime Minister’s Department, the briefing was supposed to have been headed by the inspector-general of police, but he was not able to make it.

In the event, senior officials from the Special Branch deputised for him. But neither they nor the Election Commission chief, who led off the briefing, succeeded in parrying the sceptical thrust of the questions they drew from the briefed.

Sources who attended say by the time the wobbly affair ended four-and-a-half hours after its start at 2.30pm, the government side was left wondering if they had severely overestimated the credulity of the attendees.

The briefing, moderated by Minister in the PM’s Department Koh Tsu Koon, was prompted by a statement from the MCCBCHST issued days earlier that affirmed Bersih’s right to engage in a peaceful demonstration of their concerns, which were for more integrity and transparency to the electoral process.

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.

But when he suddenly and over a lengthy span engaged moderator Koh in a private tete-a-tete, seemingly oblivious of his audience, an irate attendee chided him and said the episode was emblematic of the EC’s lack of independence and undue deference to the powers-that-be.

“You are more interested in pleasing the government than in clearing our doubts,” the EC chair was chastised.

Stung and chagrined, Aziz’s brief careened to a halt.

Why Jeyakumar, not Ibrahim Ali?

But top-notch personnel from the Special Branch who followed in Aziz’s wake did not fare better.

Senior Assistant Commissioner Soffian Mohd Makinuddin, chief assistant director, Department of Extremist Threats, painted a picture of explosive peril lurking in the Bersih march if it were permitted to be held.

He told the audience investigations and arrests thus far had led police to believe that it was hazardous to national security to allow the Bersih march to take place.

His spiel unravelled the minute he was queried as to why – if all he had depicted of the Bersih threat were true – a rabble-rousing Ibrahim Ali of Perkasa was allowed to be free to vent his inflammatory spleen in a supposedly fraught public arena.

Soffian clamped up at the query and became more taciturn when the same questioner followed up by arguing that the detention of Parti Sosialis Malaysia MP for Sungai Siput, Dr Jeyakumar Deveraj, under the Emergency Ordinance 1969 was an abomination given Ibrahim’s freedom to disport in incendiary fashion.

With both the EC chair and the Special Branch luminary down for the count, the leaders from MCCBCHST and the other NGOs stepped up to the plate and drove home the point that the problem with the country was the lack of institutional independence and integrity.

Sans public confidence in institutions like the police force and the EC, they held, questions would always recur about the integrity of an exercise to establish justice and assure the credibility of the elected.

At this point what began as a briefing to bolster the government’s credibility turned out to be an affair where the reasons for its lack thereof were aired.

The supposedly transformed, from the famed Government Transformation Programme, ironically became aware of the need for self-transformation.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 6 July 2011, 8:44 pm and is filed under
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Hishammuddin and Police should respect and uphold the YDPA intervention by full co-operation with Bersih

The Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and the police should respect and uphold the Yang di Pertuan Agong’s wise and just intervention in the Bersih 2.0 impasse by full co-operation with Bersih to make the July 9 Bersih 2.0 stadium rally a peaceful and orderly one as well as  end all harassment against persons for wearing  Bersih T-shirt and other paraphernalia and release all such items seized in past 10 days.

Hishammuddin and the police should pay special heed to advice by the Yang di Pertuan Agong in his special statement on Sunday where he said:

“I also urge the government to carry out everything that is entrusted to it by the people in a just and wise manner, and it is important that I, as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, do not want to see this country with a plural society in a situation where there is animosity among them or a section of the people being enemies with the government, on whatever grounds.”

If the Yang di Pertuan Agong’s advice is not heeded, both Hishammuddin and the police run the risk of being regarded by large sections of Malaysians as being defiant and even disloyal to the commands of the Yang di Pertuan Agong.

This will be unprecedented and the last thing that Malaysia needs under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia concept!

The advice by the Yang di Pertuan Agong that “When any problem arises, we as a civilised society must resolve it through consultations and not follow our emotions” must always be uppermost in the minds of the authorities, particularly  the Home Minister and the Police.

For this reason, Malaysians are concerned that Hishammuddin and the Police have yet to respond to the Yang di Pertuan Agong’s intervention by standing down its apparatus of repression,  stop all harassment against Bersih supporters including persons wearing Bersih 2.0 T-shirts and other related paraphernalia and take positive steps to facilitate the peaceful and orderly holding of the July 9 Bersih 2.0 stadium rally.

The statement by the Prime Minister, passing the buck to the police to decide whether to proceed with its nation-wide pre-Bersih rally clampdown on supporters, is most irresponsible.

It is just not right and not in keeping with the office and responsibilities of a Prime Minister for Najib to say: “That is the police’s action. You have to ask the police” when asked if he would order the release of all those detained in connection with the rally.

Najib should know that as Prime Minister, he must always be reminded of the injunction: “The buck stops here!”

Let Hishammuddin and the police demonstrate that they are in the national forefront in respecting and upholding the Yang di Pertuan Agong’s wise and just intervention by:

(i)            Release all persons detained in past 10 days in connection with the Bersih 2.0 rally for free, fair and clean elections and dropping all charges against them;

(ii)           Release Sungai Siput MP Dr. Michael Jayakumar and PSM members detained under Emergency Ordinance;

(iii)         Return all seized Bersih T-shirts and other related paraphernalia; and

(iv)         Appointment of a senior Police Officer to liaise with Bersih to facilitate and ensure the holding of a peaceful and orderly Bersih 2.0 stadium rally on July 9.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 6 July 2011, 10:07 am and is filed under
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Is Putrajaya joking about Bersih?

By
The Malaysian Insider

July 06, 201

JULY 6 — The circumstances surrounding the July 9 Bersih rally have been changing since the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin issued a rare edict and met both the prime minister and Bersih leaders.

Somethings haven’t changed. Bersih is still outlawed. Wearing their yellow T-shirt with the word Bersih will land you in the lock-up.

Government agencies like Stadium Merdeka are waiting for the Cabinet to direct them whether to accept Bersih’s application. The police are waiting for Bersih’s application which must state the venue.

And now Datuk Seri Najib Razak is saying he didn’t promise to see Bersih over the rally and that it’s up to the police to decide whether the rally can proceed.

Is this a joke?

Can the government of the day stop stonewalling Bersih or waffling about where the electoral reform movement can have their rally? All this drama has made a mountain out of a molehill and makes the royal audience yesterday just a scene from a farce.

Last anyone checked, Najib is the prime minister and Malaysia is not a police state. That means he can order the police to issue a permit for a rally and tell the stadium authorities to host the event.

Take a large deposit. Impose conditions but don’t keep throwing up roadblocks to frustrate the rally. Enough has been done to snuff it out but it keeps getting bigger to the extent that it can actually realise Barisan Nasional’s nightmare of being booted out of Putrajaya in a free and fair election or actually, even in the next elections.

The government’s action today reveals that it might be having second thoughts or is getting cold feet about the Bersih rally. It also shows how insecure the Najib administration is over a coalition that just wants free and fair elections.

This insecurity and waffling have made them the butt of jokes and a source of anguish over the kind of leadership that exists in the country.

The King interceded and Bersih has acted in good faith to accept conditions put forward by Najib. It’s his turn to reciprocate and do the right thing.

Or confirm that this is a police state and let the citizens decide whether it should remain so in the next general elections.

The Najib administration can influence that decision by not treating Bersih as a joke. For the joke might be on the government later.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 6 July 2011, 8:14 pm and is filed under
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Malaysia: A police state

By
Tommy Thomas

July 06, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

JULY 6 — Death Threats. Bomb Threats. Warning on Revocation of Citizenship. Preventive detention.  Arrest of hundreds for wearing Yellow T-Shirts. Banning of Organisations. Prohibition of Peaceful Marches.

Is one describing Burma? Or Zimbabwe? No: this is Malaysia in July 2011, in its 54th year of independence.

Has paranoia gripped the decision-making elite in Kuala Lumpur? But for its grave repercussions, one would have to laugh at the disproportionate overreaction and incompetence of government agencies in recent weeks.

Has Malaysia become a police state, with no place for the Rule of Law? So what is the problem that has attracted the ugly, heavy hand of the Executive.

It is only a call by ordinary voices for electoral reform so that future elections are conducted freely and fairly, that is, on a level playing field, with no political party or candidate having an in-built advantage over its rival parties and candidates, very much, like all runners in a 100 metres race starting at the same point with the same distance to run.

Is that not a laudable objective that should receive the support of everyone who truly believes in the democratic process?

When Malaya achieved Merdeka in 1957, it chose the parliamentary democracy style of government under a constitutional monarchy, with the Federal Constitution as the supreme law. In order to elect a government, general elections are to be held at least one in every 5 years under the supervision of what was intended to be an independent, impartial Elections Commission to act as a neutral referee or umpire in electoral contests.

In the actual conduct of general and bye-elections since 1957, the Election Commission has failed miserably, with the result that no right thinking person would describe it as being fair or neutral in the discharge of its duties. The actions of governmental agencies such as widespread gerrymandering of constituencies, the total domination by one political party of television, radio and print media, a brief campaign period of between seven to 10 days, the blatant granting of gifts, money and other benefits to voters, other corrupt electoral practices and the abuse of postal ballots have resulted in the ruling coalition having a tremendously unfair advantage whenever elections are held.

Accordingly, by any yardstick, elections have never been conducted in Malaysia in a fair and free manner, consistent with the spirit of true parliamentary democracy.

It is against this background that Bersih, a coalition of organisations interested in electoral reform, announced its decision to organise a peaceful march in the streets of Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, 9th July 2011 to call public attention to the ills of the electoral system, and to present a memorandum to His Majesty, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

Is the Government seriously contending that as a sovereign nation which has enjoyed over 5 decades of independence, Malaysia cannot tolerate or survive the exercise by thousands of its citizens of their entrenched fundamental liberties of free speech, assembly and association on a Saturday morning!

It must be recalled that in the 12-year sunset period of British imperialism over Malaya from 1945 to 1957, the British colonial rulers permitted the holding of public rallies which were brilliantly exploited, first by Umno in 1946 in leading the opposition to the Malayan Union proposal, and subsequently by the Alliance coalition from 1954 to 1957 in its campaign for Merdeka.

Bearing in mind that those rallies, marches, demonstrations and assemblies were held during the Emergency declared to fight the Communist insurrection, and would result in the ending of colonial rule, the British Government did not ban such rallies, even if it was in its self-interest to do so. For Merdeka to be meaningful, surely every Malaysian must enjoy greater and better rights in independent Malaysia in 2011 than his or her forefather enjoyed under colonial rule in 1946!

Demonising Bersih and its outstanding leader of courage and conviction, Ambiga Sreenevasan brings great discredit to the Government. It smacks of a witchunt, McCarthy style. For the Prime Minister to describe Ambiga Sreenevasan as being anti-Islam shows his true commitment to his own 1Malaysia philosophy — it is just window-dressing!!

I know of no law in Malaysia which prohibits a person from wearing yellow clothes.  Thus, there is no Colours Act or Clothes Act under our law which empowers the police from arresting persons because of the choice of garment colour.  Even totalitarian North Korea does not act in such a high-handed, mean and petty way.

When the streets of Kuala Lumpur are no longer safe with the massive increase of crime, and an apparent breakdown of law and order, the police are allocating their resources to preventing ordinary law-abiding Malaysians from exercising their constitutional rights of free speech, assembly and association.

Compounding its mishandling of the entire situation was the abdication by the elected Government of resolving the problem, apart from a crude outright ban against Bersih.

For His Majesty, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, as constitutional monarch, to enter the political fray — probably unprecedented in 54 years — is an indictment of poor governance by the Najib administration.  The Prime Minister is elected to lead: what has been displayed hitherto has been dithering leadership reminiscent of the Badawi administration.

The fascist elements of the state, whose main aim in life seems to be to protect and serve the interests of the ruling party, must be reminded that Malaysia does not belong to the Prime Minister. Neither does the nation belong to the political party that happened to win the most seats in the last Parliamentary election in March 2008 thereby forming the government of the day.

Just as the electorate gave it a mandate to rule temporarily, it can withdraw that mandate at the next general elections which must, by law, be called by mid-2013. No political party has a divine right to rule continuously.  Malaysia, on the contrary, belongs to the people, whose interests may often not coincide with that of the ruling party.

Not allowing the people of Malaysia to express their opinion on a matter of vital public interest, viz, the electoral system, by assembling peacefully in Kuala Lumpur is wholly unacceptable. It is neither right nor proper.

The behaviour of our leaders indicate that they are desperate to hold on to power by all means, and every measure must be taken by the state to prevent what they perceive as a threat to their own position. It is an iron law of history that besieged, desperate leaders who believe they are indispensible or identify themselves with their countries ultimately lose power: it is always only a matter of time.

I urge my fellow Malaysians to attend the rally on Saturday in droves, and to behave in a peaceful, civilized manner with a single-minded focus on calling for a reform of the badly marred electoral system so structured in favour of one party.

Malaysians must, with pride and dignity, exercise their fundamental rights of free speech, association and assembly on 9th July 2011 so that the executive branch of government can be shown to have totally underestimated the good sense of the people. The shameful conduct of Malaysian politicians and bureaucrats in the past weeks must be wiped clean by the actions of the citizenry on Saturday.

See you there.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 6 July 2011, 4:07 pm and is filed under
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PR backs Bersih’s Merdeka Stadium plan, expects 300,000

By
Melissa Chi and Lisa J. Ariffin

July 06, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, July 6 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) announced today that they supported Bersih 2.0’s proposal to have the rally in Merdeka Stadium on July 9, although the request to use the stadium has yet to be approved.

“So Pakatan Rakyat supports Bersih to hold their rally in Stadium Merdeka although in the latest report, the prime minister, especially the home minister, took a turn and had purposely given all kinds of excuses not to allow the use of the stadium,” Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim told reporters here after a PR Leadership Council meeting.

While authorities are still vilifying Bersih as an outlawed organisation, Stadium Merdeka officials are also snubbing their request to use the stadium this Saturday, despite being booked for a rock concert earlier.

Anwar said today that the authorities should respect the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin, who met Bersih leaders yesterday, and ensure that it can hold its rally in a stadium as suggested by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

A Stadium Merdeka official told state news agency Bernama that there was no official decision to allow Bersih to book the stadium, which it said came with conditions to prevent vandalism. He also said that they are still waiting for a Cabinet decision.

The Bersih movement said earlier today it chose Stadium Merdeka to reflect the “scale and centrality” of their issue calling for free and fair elections.

Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein insisted earlier today that Bersih is still outlawed, saying that neither an audience with the King nor the relocation of the July 9 rally to a stadium could make the electoral reform movement legal.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 6 July 2011, 6:17 pm and is filed under
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Protestors in pro-Bersih clothes will be arrested, warns Deputy IGP

By
Clara Chooi

July 06, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, July 6 — Despite being allowed to hold a stadium rally this Saturday, protestors found with pro-Bersih 2.0 materials will still be arrested, Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar said today.

This, he said, was because the coalition was still deemed an unlawful organisation and any item, whether “songkoks or T-shirts” are still disallowed.

“On clothing or items with Bersih motifs on them, as far as we are concerned, Bersih 2.0 has been gazetted as illegal so anything to do with Bersih 2.0 will be wrong, will be disallowed and we will take action,” he told a press conference at the Bukit Aman police headquarters this afternoon.

As such, Khalid warned protestors against the use of any pro-Bersih paraphernalia at the planned gathering this Saturday or in the days leading up to it.

He agreed that even if the coalition were to be granted a permit for the rally, anyone found with materials in support of the outlawed group would be hauled in.

“Yes. It is an offence. Bersih is an illegal society so we advise them not to use materials supporting it. Anything showing support of Bersih is illegal,” he said.

Police have continued with its pre-rally clampdown on Bersih 2.0 supporters despite the apparent truce between the government and the coalition.

Bersih 2.0 is made up of over 62 non-governmental organisations and is holding a rally this Saturday to push for electoral reform.

Khalid also moved to defend the police’s hard-line stance in handling Bersih 2.0 protestors, explaining that they were merely carrying out their lawful duties.

When pointed out that Umno Youth’s “Patriot” group was also an unregistered organisation and questioned why their red-shirted supporters were not similarly detained, Khalid said the question should not be posed to him.

“What we do is in accordance with the law. Like I said — Bersih has been gazetted as an illegal organisation. So we have to take action.

“Why Patriot has not been declared illegal, do not ask me. We only carry out our orders and we are enforcers of the law,” he said.

Umno Youth had initially planned to hold its own rally this Saturday but called it off following the King’s request for a truce last Sunday.

Its members have also been accused of holding a demonstration outside PKR’s headquarters in Tropicana last Monday, allege

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 6 July 2011, 6:51 pm and is filed under
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Ten conditions for Umno

by
Bahaman Abdullah

The Malaysian Insider

Jul 05, 2011

JULY 5 — Since Ibrahim Ali is so fond of giving everyone ultimatums (the latest being to MCA, Gerakan and Ambiga Sreenivasan), I suggest we give Umno and Najib Razak a list of 10 conditions to be met if he wants the support of urban Malaysia.

1) Distance yourself publicly from Ibrahim Ali and Perkasa. Failure to do so will be taken as a sign that all the garbage from Ibrahim is endorsed by the Umno president and his kuncu-kuncu.

2) Stop using divide and rule tactics to keep Malaysians apart. The only reason why BN worried about Bersih is that this election reform movement appears to have brought Malaysians of different races and religious groups together.

3) Tackle corruption and start by investigating cabinet ministers, senior politicians for living way, way beyond their means.

4)Revamp the education system and place less emphasis on rote learning and churning thousands of university graduates who are unemployable.

5) Introduce meritocracy in the public sector and slash the bloated bureaucracy.

6) Promote the likes of Hishammuddin Hussein at your peril. The party which has led Malaysia since independence has swung to the right and this is exemplified by people like Hishammuddin and Rais Yatim.

7) Throw out the alphabet soup of committees and government programmes like ETP or GTP and make structural changes so that Malaysia can become a high income economy, and not some wish list of projects for politically-connected businessmen. By the way, you may want to reconsider if Idris Jala is the right man to steer the Malaysian reform programme. I mean he supposedly saved Malaysia Airlines and we know where the national airline is now: in the toilet.

8) This condition is directed at Najib. Stop all this public relations crap and slogans and focus on real change. Your performance in handling Bersih was at best a C- and that was because you seem unsure if you are a reformer or a politician cut from the same cloth as Mahathir Mohamad.

9) Stop allowing your cronies from raping and looting Malaysia. Everyone knows that 1MDB is nothing but a smokescreen for election funding and shady deals. We have already had to bail out the scandalous PKFZ. According to Anwar Ibrahim, 1MDB could become an even bigger mess.

10) Pull off more stunts like the Datuk T porn video trick at your peril. Malaysians expect fair play and justice, not a loaded judiciary or injustice perpretrated by a government just because it controls the institutions.

So how about it, Najib and Umno? Can you satisfy these conditions.

P/s: I am already assuming that you will allow Utusan Malaysia and other ragsheets to become real newspapers.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 6 July 2011, 8:20 am and is filed under
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The economics of compassion

by
Erna Mahyuni

The Malaysian Insider

Jul 06, 2011

JULY 6 — The ETP is meaningless. Or at least it is to the man on the street. “Where do they get the numbers from?” a fellow I know asks me. The only numbers that mean anything to him right now are the prices of his food.

His shi cha (iced Chinese tea) and his chap fan (mixed rice) cost more these days while he isn’t earning more. And that is the reality for most Malaysians as we find prices rising while our incomes remain flat.

If the middle-class are feeling the pinch, what more those in the lower-income bracket? While the government spends millions on labs that are supposed to fix whatever problems we have, the poor remain poor.

I get angry when those who know nothing of poverty claim that with hard work, anyone can buy what they want or be who they want to be. Poverty is called a trap for a reason. It is easier to fall out of wealth than to come into it. And for those already poor or born into poverty, the odds are against them from the start.

I hear the same refrains from the same people about the so-called “poor and lazy.”

“Their own fault for having so many kids.”

“Lazy drunkards-lah they all.”

“We work hard, they should too. My tax money shouldn’t be used to help them. They should help themselves.”

It is unfair to expect children brought up with poor nutrition, in squalid conditions and challenging home environments to do as well as the middle-class and wealthy. The rich have no right to expect the poor to save themselves when the wealth of a few hinges on the desperation of the many.

Without sweatshops and cheap labour, we wouldn’t be paying the low prices we do for all things from food to clothing. Malaysian employers are guilty of paying employees as little as they can get away with all in the name of profit.

Henry Ford, when chided over the comparatively high wages he paid his workers, answered that if he didn’t pay his workers enough, how could they afford to buy his cars?

Poverty is a problem that breeds plenty of other problems. Crime, disease, social unrest — all these are exacerbated by poverty. Poverty is everyone’s problem — not just the poor’s.

The economics of compassion works this way — lowering poverty levels isn’t an act of generosity. It is not about feeling good or getting brownie points. It is sheer pragmatism. Fewer poor people equals more people spending money. Consumption, spending and spreading the ringgit around — that is the heart of capitalism.

Eradicating poverty benefits the many but wealth is mainly concentrated in a collective of the few. I am not advocating a communist ideal where equality is artificially induced, with brute force if necessary. What I am saying is that addressing economic imbalance makes sense as well as sen.

The first steps would be imposing fair wage policies and making quality education accessible to all income levels. Level the playing fields by making sure everyone will be empowered to support themselves and help poor and rich children alike get access to good public education at all levels.

This world we were born into is a patently unfair one. We are all dealt hands which we have to play the best we can. But the world isn’t a casino. It is not about cashing in, emptying the pot and taking everyone else for all they have. If life is a game, then it is one where we are all on the same side. Maybe those few star players may be paid a bit more while those players born without legs, do we leave them out of the game?

Life is a better game when we make sure that everyone can play.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 6 July 2011, 8:40 am and is filed under
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Vague principles, contradictory policies

by
Hafiz Noor Shams

The Malaysian Insider

Jul 06, 2011

JULY 6 — Some ideas are vague for a reason. In Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, the majority is afraid of commitment and responsibilities. It is simply impractical to have clear opinions or positions. Consistency arising from those opinions and positions is a barrier to success. One has to be pragmatic to be successful. Vagueness allows such pragmatism. To put it bluntly, it creates contradictions.

That is not too far off from the truth in our world. That is not too far off from the political culture in Malaysia. There are vague positions and from those ambiguities, contradictions.

1 Malaysia is an example. Despite all efforts to explain it by far too many sides, 1 Malaysia is still an ambiguous concept. It appeals to the idea of inclusiveness and equality, yet those with distaste for these very liberal ideas are the ones promoting it. There are of course true blue egalitarians within Barisan Nasional who are also promoting 1 Malaysia but when both racialists and egalitarians are able to appeal to 1 Malaysia in contradictory terms, the concept itself cannot escape the accusation of being ambiguous.

In the early stage of 1 Malaysia, one particular idea was floated around to justify its vagueness. It was “strategic ambiguity.” It stated 1 Malaysia was made ambiguous on purpose so that it could be used to appease all sides. All sides can take ownership of 1 Malaysia by applying to it their own definition.

That and its vagueness means 1 Malaysia is both everything and nothing, neither here nor there. Its ambiguity means it is not opposable. Given the feudalistic culture that prevails in Malaysia, in BN and in Umno in particular, there is an imperative to support it just because it came from the top.

With nothing to oppose and everything to accept, it was good for BN and Umno in a time when both are just emerging from a relatively disastrous infighting. They needed a rallying call. A vague call seemed fine.

Perhaps in its pretension that BN is a perfect replica of Malaysian society, they might have thought that what works for BN might work for Malaysia. The Malaysian society is more diverse than BN however. And because many Malaysians are outsiders to BN and are less enamored with feudalistic culture, they are more demanding in knowing why they should be on board with 1 Malaysia. At least, for those who care, anyway.

After persistent ambiguity, many have become disinterested in defining 1 Malaysia. They have moved on. At the same time, 1 Malaysia sees relegation from a grand ambition contributing to national identity to a mere economic programme troubled by inconsistency.

Today, in fact, 1 Malaysia is all about the government and Economic Transformation Programmes and nothing else. It is about projects. It is about buildings and infrastructure. It is about cold hard cash.

But because the programmes are ultimately derived from the vague 1 Malaysia, it suffers from contradiction. The GTP and the ETP are market-driven but both embrace government intervention; price controls are everywhere. The ETP is privately sector-driven but these drivers are government-linked companies: Menara Warisan comes to mind. The best epitome of inconsistency is the term “market-friendly affirmative action.”

Again, 1 Malaysia in the end is about projects and cold hard cash. There is no principle governing it. Anything goes.

To prove that this is really a prevailing political culture rather than merely one belonging exclusively to BN, members of Pakatan Rakyat themselves are not doing well in terms of ambiguity. The “negara berkebajikan” introduced by PAS is the latest example.

What is it exactly? So far, the buzz has it that it is Islamic, it is not an Islamic state, it is not the welfare state concept and it is different from the system practised by the BN-led federal government. There is little clarification on why it is Islamic, why it is not an Islamic state, why it is not the welfare state and why it is different from BN policy. Apart from several key terms, it is ultimately vague.

To be fair, PAS must be given time to articulate the idea, especially since the idea is creating a competition to the political centre. Nevertheless, the fact that concept was released before its articulation makes it susceptible to the same criticism directed against 1 Malaysia. Unless the articulation lifts the veil of ambiguity soon, “negara berkebajikan” will be a potpourri of contradictions, much like 1 Malaysia.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 6 July 2011, 8:32 am and is filed under
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Why am I not surprised?

By
Shanker

July 06, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

JULY 6 — So, the Home Minister remains adamant that Bersih is an illegal outfit, notwithstanding that the highest Ruler in the land has implied his acquiescence by meeting with Bersih representatives yesterday.

Sigh … what else can we say about Umno that hasn’t been said already? The whole world has taken flight at an unimaginable rate in this 21st century; changes are happening all around the globe — just witness Thailand’s maturity in the democratic process …

And yet our Umno boys think they can run this country ala some caveman attitude from the Ice Age — “Me Tarzan, you Jane. Listen to what Tarzan say, or Tarzan thump you with Tarzan stick”.

But why should we be surprised, eh? The stakes are pretty high; for Umno to accommodate a two-party system after 54 years of power is like asking Al Capone to start selling cendol instead of moonshine. Their tongue is simply too addicted to the lustful delicacy that power is.

So, when an Umno minister like Hishamuddin proclaims Bersih as illegal, it means more than just posturing for “security” reasons. It means they would do whatever it takes to avoid being held accountable for all their misdeeds over the past three decades.

Thus, you can bet your bottom ringgit that if it suits Hisham and company, then they would declare a coconut illegal just to save their skin.

What Hisham and Umno need to realise is that Bersih is symbolic; the coming together of NGOs as Bersih is not so much in the forming of an entity, as it is a collective representation of the people’s aspirations — WE WANT CLEAN ELECTIONS, GET IT?

And for how long are you going to try and contain that? How long would you go on illegitimatising our vision for a better country and a better future? How long will you demonise our requests for a fair, transparent and just system?

The T-shirts, the posters, the rally — those are just symbols. But what they represent are our aspirations. Aspirations of people like YB Michael Jayakumar, who pay their taxes and fight for the poor and the downtrodden. They don’t ask for the spotlight or photo op moments in newspapers. They don’t wish to make fancy overseas trips on the back of taxpayers’ money and then mouth off to others to tighten their belts. And for such aspirations, these folks are placed under incarceration. Nama je Malaysia, tapi politik — ikut model Myanmar …

So remember Hisham, Bersih is about the people’s aspirations.

And for how long are you going to declare that illegal?

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 6 July 2011, 8:21 pm and is filed under
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Will ‘fortress BN’ fall?

By
Sheridan Mahavera
 | July 06, 2011

The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, July 6 — It may be known as Barisan Nasional’s (BN) fixed deposit in the Malay peninsula, but a recent straw poll showed that more than 30 per cent of Johoreans want Pakatan Rakyat (PR) in charge of the state and country.

Though this is low compared with other states, it could be a bellwether of how ordinary folk all over the country feel towards the ruling coalition.

Except for the 2008 elections, Johoreans have always given BN near-unquestioning support. Even as the DAP and PAS won the most number of seats of any non-BN party in that year (six state and one parliament), some of their candidates also lost their election deposits campaigning in south-eastern Johor.

PR parties may boast that its increasing support is because of the tsunami’s momentum and a larger national profile. The straw poll of 147 Johoreans by The Malaysian Insider, however suggest that it is more of a backlash against the BN for how it’s managed the economy.

The fact is PR is not seen positively by many, even by those respondents who feel choked by the higher cost of food and fuel.

Though their ringgit buys them less each day, 51.7 per cent in the poll still want a BN federal government. While 49.7 per cent says they’ll vote in a BN state government.

This is not blind loyalty. BN support in Johor cuts across all ethnic, gender, age and class barriers. It is reflective of the coalition’s deep history in the state, the way it has shaped how Johoreans view themselves and how it is being undone by its own success.

Kampungs on fire

The anger was most acute in suburban and village areas. In Johor’s western Malay heartland such as Sungai Abong, Parit Jawa and Bagan, respondents say they have watched in despair as the value of their small salaries shrink as food prices go up.

About 59.9 per cent of respondents said their most common problem was the rise of fuel and food prices. Two-thirds of that group (88 people) live in Muar, Batu Pahat and Kluang districts.

About 23km from the town of Batu Pahat, a group of men sat despondently at a makeshift nasi lemak stall on the Muar-Batu Pahat road and complained of being left behind by “orang di pusat” (federal government bureaucrats).

Most of them are day labourers in the oil palm plantations that blanket Batu Pahat’s countryside.

“The price of sawit has gone down and so have our wages. When it rains, we don’t see any work. But our subsidies keep getting cut. The people who make these decisions only think of themselves in Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya. They don’t think about us,” says a 38-year-old father of two.

His friend, also a plantation worker, says if the election was called tomorrow, he would give PR a try.

“I want to give them a try, see what they can do. It’s like trying new clothes. If you don’t like them, you can change them again.”

As villagers like him start scrimping on food, stalls like the one he’s patronising and the small restaurants that are a fixture of the kampung economy have also suffered.

A 37-year-old who sells snacks and drinks at Pantai Leka in Parit Jawa says he’s now the only stall left at this popular hangout famed for its assam pedas dishes.

“The guys next to me have all closed down because they could not deal with the increase in costs. I don’t know how long I’ll survive. I’m going to vote for PR next time.”

Who is this city for?

Johor Baru is undoubtedly going through an infrastructure renaissance. Mammoth multi-storied highways are magically being raised in previously congested old neighbourhoods in Pasir Gudang, Pasir Pelangi and Danga Bay.

The elite personality of Nusajaya, the new administrative centre is starting to emerge, with its international colleges, private schools, marina and exclusive gated communities.

Yet despite the euphoria over JB’s transformation, there is a feeling that much of the benefits are going to foreigners — Singaporeans who are being wooed to the manicured neighbourhoods and communities in Nusajaya.

A long-time JB resident who commutes to the island city everyday observed that many of the new upmarket homes are being snapped up by Singaporeans, especially Malays, who are moving to Malaysia but who still work in Singapore.

As Singaporeans and the Malaysians who work there drive up property prices, some JB respondents in the survey complained that it was difficult to find affordable homes in the city area or its outskirts.

If inflation in the kampungs is due to low wages, in JB it is partly because of the Singaporean dollar. The rise in goods prices was the most cited problem among JB respondents at 41.4 per cent.

Some residents complained of how some traders at the popular Larkin wet market were reticent about charging high prices for fresh food.

“When you ask them for a discount they say, if you don’t want to buy there’s always Singaporeans”, says one 47-year-old housewife.

But being flush with money is dampened by feelings of insecurity. About 24 per cent of those interviewed in JB said high crime — muggings, murders and rapes — was the biggest concern in their lives.

Despite these complaints, 17 of the 29 (or 58.6 per cent) JB residents surveyed said they would vote for BN if the election was held tomorrow. Only six of the 29 (20.7 per cent) said they would vote for PR. An equal number (6 of 29) said they are undecided.

“We want to see Najib continue because we’ve seen some good things,” says a dry goods trader on Jalan Dhoby at the centre of an old, refurbished part of JB that he says has seen a drop in business.

A knock on the head

Even in the villages, those surveyed showed a deep intellectual sophistication when it comes to thinking about politics.

Whether they are petty traders, labourers, lawyers, bureaucrats or shop keepers, Johoreans semm to have the canny ability to cut through the rhetoric of PR or BN.

Though they felt they were drowning in a tide of high fuel and food prices, many did not automatically lash out at the BN.

“I don’t believe the PR can manage better,” stressed a roadside fried chicken seller. This was in response to the query of why if she felt things were bad, did she not consider choosing someone besides the BN to fix the country.

A guava seller a few stalls down said he had voted for Pas in the past elections but was dismayed by the Islamist party’s recent change in tack.

“They had an Islamic state campaign and now it’s the welfare state. But the welfare state is something Umno has done. So I don’t know if I’ll vote for PAS again.”

This inability to countenance that someone else could replace the BN is perhaps because of the coalition’s deep roots in Johor.

Not only was Umno here but almost every village branch is a mini service centre. Need musicians for your wedding? Call the Umno Youth branch chief. Need help organising a funeral? Call the branch chief. Unlike in the Northern states, the surau, the opinion generator of the Malay community is dominated by Umno officials.

It’s roughly the same for MCA and MIC in the Chinese and Indian communities. After Selangor, Johor has the second largest number of MCA branches.

But over the years that kind of dominance has bred complacency. The phrase “if the BN candidate was a tree stump Johoreans will still vote for it” went from being a term of pride to being insulting.

Residents in seats which the BN lost say the incumbents and candidates were notorious for being aloof and never seen. In contrast, the PR candidates that beat them had for years built up a reputation for being active in the community.

Going by the survey’s results, the BN is most likely to retain control of Johor and the state will continue to provide a stable supply of parliamentary seats.

One PR supporter perhaps best summed up the mood of his fellow Johoreans.

“Many are angry but it doesn’t mean that we are going to overthrow the BN. The PR will be a reminder to the BN to buck up”.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 6 July 2011, 9:45 am and is filed under
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Are police waging war against the Agong?

Malaysiakini Your Say
 | Jul 7, 11

‘Who are the communists – the rakyat or Umnoputra? They are doing what Mao Zedong had done by clamping down the rakyat.’

DAP: Continued clampdown an affront to Agong

Swipenter:
 The Umno regime and PDRM (Royal Malaysian Police) must immediately desist from harassing the Bersih 2.0 supporters and release all those who are detained under Emergency Ordinance immediately now that the Agong has spoken and a compromise has been reached.

The Agong’s consent in meeting S Ambiga and two others and the go-ahead given by Najib to have the rally to be held in a stadium is nothing short of acknowledging the legitimacy of Bersih 2.0.

Unless of course, there are other forces opposed to PM Najib Razak and the Agong and/or some kind of a power struggle is playing out behind the scene and Bersih 2.0 is being used as a convenient scapegoat to mask the power struggle. This happened to Umno in the mid-1980s under the early years of the Mahathir administration.

Abasir:
 I was stuck in traffic for an hour during which time I cursed Najib and his gang of crooks for this blatant abuse of state machinery. I am sure other road users felt the way I did. I am also sure that all of this BN-engineered hardship, waste of expensive petrol and time, and colossal loss of productivity will translate into votes.

I urge Najib to continue with this lunacy. It will be his road to destruction.

Ipoh2:
 It seems that despite the agreement to move the rally to a stadium, Najib/Umno/BN is being nasty and still persist to prevent the rally from taking place. Or at the very least, to drastically reduce the number of people attending. This is the result of dealing in good faith with two-faced snakes.

Quigonbond:
 The king has already proclaimed that Bersih 2.0 has good intentions. How could anything with good intentions be deemed illegal? Further, Najib has agreed for Bersih 2.0 to gather at a stadium, so why the hypocrisy of continued clampdown in Bersih 2.0? It looks like the Najib is confused, and his administration is in disarray over this matter.

S.citizen:
 From what is happening, it is the police who are waging a war against our beloved king. Their behaviour is really disgusting. They have no respect for our constitution and the rule of law. I have lost all the respect for them. Najib, be a man of ethics and practise what you preach.

Muak:
 “Polis sudah derhaka kepada Yang DiPertuan Agong!” There shouldn’t be any more crackdown after the king has called for the government and Bersih 2.0 to meet. The king has also met up with Bersih 2.0 and has acknowledged the movement’s concerns.

A regime that says one thing and does another needs to go. A regime that allows Ibrahim Ali to question and challenge the king has to go. A regime that manufactures ‘evidence’ to frame its citizens does not deserve to be in power. A regime that does not heed to calls of the very people that put it in power has to be voted out of office.

DannyLoHH:
 A police force that does not up hold the constitution, a police force that does not respect rule of law, and a police force that arrest woman for having a yellow badge in her pocket with message that call for clean and fair elections, is not a police force of a democratic state.

The police force has gone way overboard, it should be blatantly clear now that there is a dire need for the IPCMC (Independent Police Complaints and Misconducts Commission) to be set up.

Meluat:
 Indeed we are now a police state. But the rakyat who want change must persist. Wear and carry anything yellow. They are trying to use scare tactic on Bersih but please remember they are the scared one. The insecurities are mounting hence all these extreme measures.

Chuath:
 So does anything Najib says really matter then? This is not unexpected. We do not have high expectations that the police will act according to the law.

May87:
 Malaysians, we have to continue to unite to make our stand and our voice to be heard that such blatant ignorance to proper rule of law will not be tolerated. Malaysians shall continue to unite to push for a fully-flourished democracy, not the dictatorship we seem to be living in now.

MyMalaysia_4c4:
 Who are the communists now – the rakyat or Umnoputra? They are doing what Mao Zedong had done by clamping down the rakyat.

Just imagine, to the extend of arresting one who had a Bersih 2.0 badge in her bag and those who wear yellow. Isn’t yellow the colour of the Agong? Is Umno waging a war against the Agong?

Army’s simulation exercise: ‘Disperse, or we’ll shoot’

David Dass:
 This is unreal. “Disperse or we will shoot.” Is this rehearsal simply designed to frighten would be demonstrators from demonstrating?

The king has proposed a solution. The PM appeared to have accepted the king’s proposal. And the problem was resolved. The stand-off was averted. But now the government says Bersih is an illegal organisation, the police say that no permit will be given to the them as they do not meet existing criteria and the stadium officials say that they will not allow the stadium to be used.

Why is the king’s proposal already accepted by the PM not accepted by the rest. We would show disrespect to the king if we suggest that he participated in a ruse to induce Bersih to announce acceptance of his suggestion.

We must accept that the king was sincere. We must accept that the PM meant it when he accepted the proposal. So what has gone wrong?

Anonymous_3del:
 It will be a sad day for this country if a standing army is being deployed to kill fellow citizens on the orders of a corrupt and desperate regime out to muzzle the people’s dissent against election malpractices of a brazenly bias Election Commission.

My understanding of the sacred duty of the armed forces is to protect the nation against external threats and enemies. Are we plunging into the level of some tyrannical banana states where the army becomes a cat’s paw to carry out the despots’ wishes to cling to power by killing kith and kin?

The FRU and police force are already known to be brutal in their handling of peaceful assemblies. What now with the army ordered to use live bullets on unarmed civilians? I hope the authorities are merely calling their bluff. Otherwise we will descent into a failed state.

Tel:
 What is the government trying to prove by having such an exercise during such a time? What do they mean by ‘we will shot’? Are they warning us, the rakyat? Are they trying to create Middle East-type tensions in Malaysia ? Or are they just plain stupid?

BTN:
 I believe that all this signs point towards one thing only and that is change is imminent and cannot be stop anymore. The government who professed to the world that they practice democracy is actually bullshitting as long as they are secured as government.

These stupid idiots are so afraid to lose. Winning and losing is normal in a healthy democracy and if there is nothing to hide, there should not be any fear of losing.

P Dev Anand Pillai:
 In 1969, a group led by then Umno Youth chief Harun Idris were allowed to go amok and now we have the second generation of Umno leaders ready to use the army to shoot at civilians.

This regime has come to a point that it is ready to kill its own people, and it is beyond redemption. It is now up to the people to massively vote against it and ensure that no other Southeast Asian immigrants who have been given IC cards are able to vote.

Massive rigging will take place and we have to capture this on video to pass on to the election watchdogs of the world and to the United Nations to show how elections are rigged in Malaysia.

The moment the army has been given instructions to shoot, we can’t reason with this government anymore.

Anonymous_4196:
 I appeal to the army and police, don’t kill innocent rakyat. We are not going out there to cause chaos. There is no need to threaten the rakyat. Violence has no place here. The rakyat are assembling peacefully for the betterment of Malaysia. It is for your children and our children’s future.

Dood:
 I feel like a Palestinian now.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 7 July 2011, 11:44 am and is filed under
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Bersih 2.0 warns of telco, Internet blackout

Malaysiakini
 | Jul 7, 11

With less than 48 hours to the Bersih 2.0 rally, the movement now claims to have received information that the mobile phone networks and Internet services would be suspended this weekend.

In a statement today, the Bersih 2.0 steering committee said that such a measures to frustrate the rally would make the authorities no different from Middle-Eastern dictators.

“Bersih 2.0 is alarmed by intelligence that there might be a full or partial clampdown on the Internet as we approach this weekend.

“Bersih 2.0 warns the federal government that should access to the mobile phone networks, the Internet, mobile 3G services, specific websites or social media be compromised in any way, then the authorities will look absolutely no different from the Middle-Eastern dictators who have used the same measures with no success whatsoever,” it said.

The steering committee said repression, intimidation and other obstacles will not deter the movement’s resolve to gather at Stadium Merdeka at 2pm on Saturday.

“After which, we will disperse just as peacefully,” read the statement.

Should any of such repressive measures come into effect, the authorities would be seen as desperate and show an inclination towards unwarranted extremes in preventing free and fair elections.

‘Enter KL before Saturday’

Meanwhile, the steering committee is also urging the rally participants to enter Kuaal Lumpur today or tomorrow in view of an expected tight clampdown of the city centre by tomorrow.

“Observing the shocking fact that bus permits to Kuala Lumpur have already been frozen, plans seem to be well in place to make entering (the city on Saturday) as difficult as humanly possible,” he said.

Police have been mounting roadblocks during rush hour traffic since yesterday, ostensibly to check for weapons and weed out possible protestors.

Additionally, Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) chairperson Syed Hamid Albar has also confirmed that temporary bus permits would not be issued for busses entering Kuala Lumpur this weekend.

However, Syed Hamid said that this was not a new directive in view of the rally and that it was a policy not to issue such permits during non-festival seasons.

After being granted an audience with the Agong, Bersih 2.0 has agreed to government suggestions to hold the rally in a stadium and not on the streets.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 7 July 2011, 3:29 pm and is filed under
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