As expected, Malaysia's best known racism-monger Mahathir Mohamad shrouded the Bersih rally with a racial tinge, describing it as a possible clash between the Malays and non-Malays.
He also condemned the rally as a plot by the Pakatan Rakyat leaders to topple the ruling BN government, and seemingly gave tacit endorsement to the string of arrests made by the Najib administration so far.
“I hope that it is not a clash between the Malays and the non-Malays. The Malays with the government and the non-Malays with Bersih. And also, it should not be Muslim against non-Muslim. That is the danger in Malaysia. You play that game, you will divide people. You divide people and then there will be no peace in the country,” Mahathir told reporters on Saturday.
“The purpose is political... precisely for Pakatan Rakyat. It is not about whether the election is clean or not, that is secondary. But they want to paint the government black and therefore, although you are gray, you look more white."
Whose stories are more outlandish
To Pakatan supporters, the slew of outlandish stories about Bersih and PSM were the final proof of BN's desperation to cling to political power. They are sure that the so-called PSM Commie-plot would fail, just as the Sodomy II, Datuk T sex video and Christian Prime Minister conspiracies had failed to convince the Malaysian public.
In his haste to jump onto Malay versus non-Malay bandwagon, Mahathir also omitted to mention that Bersih 2.0 is supported by PAS, the second largest Malay party, in the country. Condemning UMNO's gutter politicking, Hadi had urged all one-million odd PAS members to attend the rally, sparking the current panic among the UMNO leaders.
"Amongst the Bersih 2.0 electoral reforms, one is the cleaning up of the voters registration rolls, two is the cleaning of the elections from bribes and corruption and three is to clean up the postal votes system. Only those who are dirty would reject that which is BERSIH (Bersih means clean)," PAS MP for Kuala Selangor Dzulkefly Ahmad told Malaysia Chronicle.
Warning to Najib
While Mahathir chose to talk tough, his close former aide Matthias Chang had a day ago made a rare posting on his blog, warning Najib not to impose Emergency rule.
Most pundits including many from UMNO had said it was Mahathir warning Najib not to go full throttle on fears that, once armed with the sweeping powers that Emergency gave the prime minister, Najib might use it to prolong his own stay in power.
This would jeopardize Mukhriz's chances for the top job. Mukhriz is Mahathir's son.
"The word is that Mahathir wants one term for each president, which means each PM, because the queue is too long. Don't forget his son Mukhriz is not that young. There is more than meets the eye in UMNO right now and I would be very careful if I were Najib," said an Umno watcher.
In 1987, Najib had helped Mahathir to successfully launch the Operations Lalang crackdown on political dissidents and rivals. At an UMNO Youth rally, Najib had vowed to bathe the 'keris' with Chinese blood.
Mahathir was then under pressure from factions led by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. In 1987, Tengku Razaleigh challenged Mahathir for the UMNO presidency. Mahathir managed to retain his position, but the struggle left UMNO split down the line.
Mahathir was also trying to hammer through a tolled highway deal that was strenously opposed by activists and political rivals who warned the exorbitantly-priced project would shackle the county in debt.
Ops Lalang helped him to stay in power
“As a result, we had to arrest some people and put them under ISA. But we did not have clashes and I still won the election with two-thirds majority,” said Mahathir.
However, his words failed to create much impact with Pakatan leaders, who while they acknowledge his huge wealth and still significant influence in UMNO, have little respect left for him.
"At the end of the day, UMNO and BN is full of intrigue. The most important thing for the UMNO elite is to stay in power. Once they are out, just like Suharto and Marcos, they will be hunted down and made to return the wealth they stole from the country," Pakatan watcher Eddie Wong told Malaysia Chronicle.
"So like a band of thieves, they are always fighting and watching each other. Never expect any redemption from Mahathir or Badawi or Najib. The only way to save Malaysia and the Malays is to reject UMNO and BN."
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