Malaysians’ right to peaceful assembly is unequivocally enshrined in
the constitution, and since when has the nation’s highest law been
superseded by a municipal by-law?
It is beyond doubt that the government and the police are now working
in unison to shift the blame onto the participants by playing up the
alleged breaching of the barricades. On this, I have only one thing to
say: a genuinely democratic government elected by the people through a
clean, transparent and fair electoral process will be least likely to be
in a haste to perceive its citizens as potential rabble.
By
sealing off the Dataran and securing a court order to ban the public
from setting foot on it, the mayor and his political masters had done
just that.
Najib Abdul Razak’s paltry argument that the authorities had to
resort to extreme precaution for fear that the crowds would end up
occupying the Dataran permanently simply cannot stand up to scrutiny.
Had the organisers and the protesters come with this intention, it would
not matter whether it was held in Stadium Merdeka or elsewhere.
If the apprentice prime minister had indeed been so wary over a plan
as such, why did his cohorts offer several “more suitable” venues? Would
it make any difference had the participants been bent on wreaking
havoc?
It is precisely because we are an orderly and peaceful lot that we
had insisted on the Dataran. It would also present an opportunity for
the public to break Umno’s monopoly on the discourse of nation-building.
My friends in Thailand were amazed that we had only prepared to occupy
the historical square for one afternoon and promised to vacate it
thereafter, for any public mobilisation on this scale in Bangkok would
more often than not last for days, if not weeks.
Najib and his paranoid team should truly be grateful and relieved
that Malaysians had served them a notice well in advance and also
pledged cooperation. But it was the police – acting with the connivance
of a shamelessly cunning government – that once again tarnished
Malaysia’s image as a friendly country.
Instead of acknowledging its excessively violent reaction and making
amends, the police made the utterly ludicrous claim that the officers on
duty could not tell journalists apart from perpetrators, effectively
implying that it was perfectly justifiable for them to resort to
violence. It is as good as saying the police from now on would be given
the right to shoot indiscriminately while chasing a robber, and there
would be no legal recourse.
I
fully understand the Bersih 3.0 committee was duty-bound to ensure
public security, especially when the presence of the elderly and other
relatively vulnerable groups was expected. The consent not to breach the
barricades – reluctant it certainly had been – was therefore arguably
acceptable. However, all the indicators point unmistakably to a police
conspiracy, in which the crowds were lured into thinking all hurdles
were cleared for them to enter the Dataran.
I personally witnessed how Tian Chua, the Batu MP, and several
individuals – Malays and Indians – negotiated with the police near Jalan
Parlimen, just across the road from the Bandaraya Buildings. Minutes
later, the police withdrew and the FRU trucks started to leave. The
crowds burst into cheers and began to rush towards the Dataran. Yet my
gut feelings were right: it was a trick, and tear gas and water cannon
were fired into the crowds from the other end in no time!
Betraying the public trust
This, coupled with the deliberate disruption of mobile phone services
which had crippled communication between the organisers and the
participants, was no doubt a sinister plan to discredit the entire
movement. Quite clearly, the police – by charging into the crowds with a
vengeance – have betrayed the public trust while the Najib
administration has lost its legitimacy completely.
My heart goes out to all those journalists who had to endure physical
harm in order to cover the otherwise joyful and carnival-like event.
But my solidarity will only be with those who care earnestly about
truth, integrity and justice in a tightly controlled and horribly
manipulated media environment in Malaysia.
In other words, I will never wear black for the likes of Zainuddin
Maidin, the so-called Tokoh Wartawan Negara but in actual fact a veteran
Umno propagandist, Wong Chun Wai, the piper who never fails to play for
whoever becomes MCA president, and Tay Tian Yan, a Sin Chew deputy editor-in-chief who lauded unashamedly
Najib “the reformist” for pushing “Malaysian democratic progress 10
years, or even 20 years, forward”, only to have egg on his face with
every policy flip-flop and PR disaster of his idol.
These “media professionals” are nothing but craven lickspittles, and
they can keep their datukship (or future datukship) with them, for there
is no better testament to their gullibility and servility.
In
any case, the biggest protest in Malaysia’s history has been an
empowering experience for many. I saw people who took pictures right in
front of FRU trucks, and would not hesitate to explain to the police why
they had to be there when questioned. After decades of subjugation to
Umno’s fear tactics and paternalistic rule, Malaysians have finally
found the courage to rediscover the vital significance of active citizenship.
But the mayhem that followed laid bare the abusive and corrupt nature
of the Umno regime, under which much injustice has occurred. Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, the theologian who sacrificed his own life in order to
remind his fellow Germans of Hitler’s evil rule, once said that “we are
not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of
injustice; we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.”
After Bersih 3.0, it is no longer viable for Malaysians to just reach
out to those who have been subjected to the abuse of the naked power.
It is high time that we jam the spoke of the wicked wheel by removing
this immoral government that rules with blatant lies, skulduggery and
brute force.
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