Arise the youths of Malaysia: Chase off Umno for not respecting a 2-party system

2012 may be the year of a people's uprising in Malaysia against a regime that has enslaved the country for the past 54 years. And sounding this off was the standoff between the police and the student activists demonstrating against an oppressive law at the UPSI in Tanjung Malim on New Year’s Eve.

The incident has deeply angered Malaysians, who want the police to be chastised and a public inquiry held. The main point of contention now is whether police brutality was employed when dispersing the student activists.

'Thin-skinned' police cannot be criticized

Videos have appeared and statements have been made by both sides. Bloggers have taken to writing about the incident which has prompted the police to set up a special task force to look into the postings. So defensive has the police become that bloggers can now be charged in court for defaming them. But reports by the mainstream media siding the cops are not really enlightening the public on the true nature of the incident at all.

Instead, the official police statement that the injuries sustained by the students were self-inflicted insults the intelligence of any neutral observer. Something happened that New Year's eve and the police cannot simply sweep it away as just another incident where the students went out of control.

Just looking at the available evidence has created a shouting match between the police, who are clearly protective of UMNO, and the university students, who were protesting the UUCA 1971, an oppressive law that bans students from taking part in the nation's politics, and the UPSI's decision to discipline student activist Adam Adli for removing a flag that bore the image of Prime Minister Najib Razak at earlier protest.

Despite the government machinery acting in concert to cover up or slant the truth, what really happened can be easily pieced together given the amount of verbal and video evidence.

Students behaved themselves, but not the police

Firstly, what did not happen can actually explain what happened and it is in this space that we must look and evaluate where the truth stands.

Based on the video tapes of the incident, what did not happen was that the students did not at any time turn nasty during their peaceful assembly. Not even when the police charged at them which must have been pretty terrifying. The act of charging at chanting, placard-holding students who were lying down by fully-grown and armed police officers already reeks of bad faith. So Round One of the Truth to the students.

Then the capacity to cause harm has always been on the side of the police, i.e. they hold the batons, the canes and the heavy helmets. Thus, their charge at the students will certainly be threatening and frightening to those who have no means to protect themselves. The fact that two students landed in hospital, one of whom was actually beaten into a coma, is testament of the police using brutal and excessive force against those who had no means to protect themselves. Round Two to the students.

There is no escaping it. Both visual and verbal accounts show that the police, who came out in full riot gear, deliberately moved in on the students 30 minutes into the protest. So the question stands, why move in on students who were lying down on the ground as a sign of protest? Did the mere act of lying down on the ground cause such a threat to national security that the police, riot gear and all, had to resort to excessive violence to disperse them?

Blatant double standards can no longer be tolerated

Also, why is it the police do not show the same zeal at other demonstrations by groups aligned to UMNO-BN? We do not hear of reports of police moving in to disperse demonstrations by UMNO-BN. Instead, we are fed with glowing reports, that in Malaysia, everyone is allowed to air their dissent. Why, even Najib mentioned that a little voice of dissent is needed for a progressive nation - so what happened! Was this another flip-flop or was it sheer hypocrisy?.

Action taken by the police prior to the New Year’s eve attack on the UPSI students also indicate that some form of measures would be taken against those supporting the cause of theMahasiswa movement. The IGP had specifically mentioned Adam Adli was being monitored, implying that the police were ready to act or react against the young man. The IGP was clearly biased towards anything that involved Adam Adli, so it was no surprise when Adam and his colleagues were arrested that night and remanded for 10 hours before any of their statements were recorded.

This sort of vengeful and 'preemptive nature' of the Malaysian police is evident in other incidents, time and time again. It is the police who issued statements that action will be taken against demonstrators days ahead of the actual UPSI rally. It is as if, the police were wishing for an incident to happen, so they can justify their high-handed reactions.

Not only was this evident in the UPSI rally, but also in the days leading up to the July 9 Bersih march for free and fair elections. With the police already geared and prepared for violence, should Malaysians be surprised that the police would 'move' to make their own warnings come true? The police may think they are being smart by warning the public that the students and Bersih are dangerous, but the ones who actually make the violence come true or happen is they themselves!

Low-calibre intelligence

Perhaps, the most baffling and illogical statement by the police is that the students' injury were all self-inflicted. It is just like Anwar Ibrahim inflicted his own black eye or that the 6 PSM leaders helping out in the Bersih rally were moles planted by an enemy Communist country to colonize Malaysia - this is the kind of outrageous low-level logic that the Malaysian police seem capable of and insist the people swallow hook, line and sinker.

Also, it would be interesting to know how the police came to the conclusion the injuries were self-inflicted? Did the police consult the doctors who stitched up the forehead of the bloodied student, who by the way had to checked himself into the Slim River hospital? Did the police consult the doctors of the unconscious student leader? What evidence did the police go by? This negligence of duty alone seems to show that the police are less than responsible for their actions. Charged with protecting the public, the police instead charged at the students.

Arise, the students and youths of Malaysia

And this is the real tragedy of this UPSI incident. What did not happen was a peaceful assembly of a hundred odd students protected by the police. What took place instead was a violent protest with 17 students arrested, one hit into a coma and another severely injured.

It is made additionally strange by the police being on hand to protect and supervise the UMNO-linked protest at the same venue days before without any undue incident what-so-ever. So why the difference in the latter demonstration?

Was it because one group of students were UMNO-linked and the other was not? Was it also because of Adam Adli and that he had taken down a flag bearing Najib's face to show disagreement with the government's refusal to amend the UUCA Act?

It is clear that in the incident of the UPSI demonstration, the police have failed miserably. The fact that they injured people during a peaceful assembly shows their incompetence in protecting public safety. How to have law and order when the police and the government of the day themselves turn lawless?

This is why the youths of Malaysia must arise. Arise and fight the oppressive UMNO-BN government for insisting on political hegemony, a dictatorship rather than respecting the people of the country and their rights to a two party system.

Malaysia Chronicle