FMT: The political impact of Bersih 2.0... By Johan Saravanamuttu

The political impact of Bersih 2.0

July 20, 2011

The BN is still haemorrhaging from the Sarawak state election of April 16, where it lost the urban vote. Bersih 2.0 shows a continuing slide.

COMMENT

By Johan Saravanamuttu

The repercussions of Bersih 2.0 will no doubt be profound. It has already been dubbed as Malaysia’s “Hibiscus Revolution”. The question that is now uppermost in the public imagination is whether the current government will also suffer a severe blow for its inept handling of the event.

Bersih started out in 2006 as a movement of civil society forces and political parties calling for clean and fair elections. Its demands for cleaning up the electoral rolls, reviewing postal votes, including allowing for voting from abroad, fair access to the media, the elimination of corrupt practices are nothing radical or revolutionary and yet the government’s resistance to it has allowed the opposition parties and those not in support of the present government to easily latch on to a ready-made platform for galvanising support.

Bersih’s first political rally on Nov 10, 2007 saw some 40,000 Malaysian streaming into the heart of Kuala Lumpur, setting a benchmark for peaceful political protest in Malaysia.

On July 9, 2011 almost the same number of demonstrators were out in the streets of Kuala Lumpur, as estimated by the independent “politweet”, despite a ban on the rally and police roadblocks at every point of entry into KL. If the political impact of Bersih 1.0 on the general election of March 2008 is now axiomatic, would Bersih 2.0 have a similar impact on the next general election?

It is important to first understand the character of the rally itself. The outpouring of material on the social media and through social networking websites reached proportions which, in my view, have been unprecedented and have not stopped. At the point of writing, over 200,000 facebookers have called on premier Najib Tun Razak to resign. The webpage has picked up 20,000 votes or more in one day.

The people who showed up at Bersih 2.0 came from a cross-section of Malaysia’s multicultural society, with Malays and youth as the dominant groups. This spoke well for the continuation of the trajectory of Malaysia’s non-racialised “new politics”. The involvement of national literary laureate A Samad Said who wrote a touching poem about Malaysia’s “wounded democracy” was highly inspiring to the would-be Bersih rallyers.

Various attempts made to delegitimise Bersih by Umno-related groups had a counter-productive effect. Thus it was alleged that it would be “unIslamic” for Muslims to participate in an illegal rally. The bogey of May 13 was also invoked and the Chinese were asked to stock up on food and stay at home. Such racialisation of the event by Perkasa and the Malay paper Utusan Malaysia helped to further augment multiracial supporters on the other side. The lame counter march of a couple of hundreds of Umno Youth “patriots” proved to be the proverbial drop in the bucket in terms of its impact.

The event received a crucial boost when Suhakam chairman Hasmy Agam weighed in to opine that it was legitimate. Najib had called for the rally to be held at a stadium and the organisers obliged after meeting with the King but the police were adamant about not giving a permit for use of the Merdeka Stadium.

The heavy-handed action on the part of the police – some 1,700 arrests, heavy use of tear gas, water cannons, and some argue, responsibility for one death – has put the government in a no-win situation vis-à-vis the common Malaysian citizen.

BN in damage control mode

In public imagination, Bersih 2.0 would stand out even more than Bersih 1. Already folklore about Bersih has gone “viral” on the Internet. A few examples should suffice. “The Lady of Liberty”, an elderly woman well into her 60s, who braved the water cannons, holding a branch with two daisies has been reproduced ad infinitum in multiple incarnations and web designs.

Numerous individuals present at the rally have written first-hand accounts to show why as ordinary citizens their participation was a morally and socially uplifting experience. Not least of all, Marina Mahathir, the daughter of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the patron of Perkasa, wrote in her blog that she had gone to participate in the Bersih rally in support of her daughter and all the young people who were drawn to the cause.

Admittedly, Bersih 2.0 is largely an urban phenomenon. But this is not to be taken lightly, if urbanites are fast becoming the voting majority. The prime minister and his ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional, are now in damage control mode.

The BN is still haemorrhaging from the Sarawak state election of April 16, where it lost the urban vote. Bersih 2.0 shows a continuing slide. Umno’s vote banks in the rural areas alone cannot assure it of regaining a two-thirds control of Parliament – which Najib must get to prove he is better than his predecessor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

The premier is now surely conflicted about waiting out till the mandatory date for the next election in early 2013 or holding it much earlier in 2012. Another difficult budget awaits in October this year and with the Malaysian economy invariably on the verge of a dip, prospects are somewhat dim for the ruling coalition.

Larger than the issue of the next general election, which would now likely to be in early 2012, is the changing nature of Malaysian politics. Political parties like his, which continue to mobilise support purely on the basis of race, after Bersih 2.0, are on a short political tether.

The writer is senior visiting research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. The article first appeared on Aliran. http://aliran.com/6077.html

TMI: An open letter to His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI — by Martin Jalleh

An open letter to His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI — by Martin Jalleh

July 18, 2011

JULY 18 — Dear Holy Father,

I am a Catholic, writing from my blessed and beloved country, Malaysia, a land of poignant diversity, pitiful contradictions, pathetic leadership and plentiful opportunity. It is a nation which I am proud of, one where anything and everything is possible — from the most virtuous to the most vile and venal.

Very soon our Prime Minister Najib Razak will be paying you an official visit at your summer residence Castel Gandolfo. He will no doubt put on a “grand show” in Ganddolfo, in spite of having suffered from “heat stroke” after a recent summer of discontent in Malaysia.

The Star, an established (i.e., one dictated by the establishment) newspaper has described the scheduled visit as one “making waves among Roman Catholics” in Malaysia. Strangely the only “wave” still etched in the minds of many Catholics is a “political tsunami” that took place in 2008.

The visit that The Star claims is “bound to make an impression especially on Catholics” was not even mentioned at Sunday Mass in Catholic churches. Further many Catholics currently wave off the PM as one who is leading the nation into abysmal political backwaters.

Catholics who are against the visit, fail to understand that as a spiritual leader, your doors are open to any leader — be he honourable or hypocritical, saint or sinner, righteous or rogue and towering statesman or tyrant, though they know for sure which category their PM belongs in!

It seems this “watershed” event will lead to the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Malaysia. Still, many Catholics fail to see the difference such diplomatic ties would make on their daily lives. Will closer ties mean better times to exercise their religious rights, or will there be bolder lies?

The Star also sensationally exclaims: “There cannot be a better opportunity, and at a more appropriate juncture, for the Malaysian leader to highlight the country as one that embodies the principles of inter-religious harmony and respectful co-existence.” Ask anyone who does not read the mainstream press and they will tell you, Holy Father, that since Najib became the PM, Malaysia has been slowly but surely imploding as a result of unprecedented racial and religious insensitivities and intolerance brought about by Muslim zealots and bigots.

In the past, Malaysia had so often been touted as a melting pot of all races and religions in Asia. It has now become a boiling pot! We were once a model, a showcase of a multi-racial-religious society. Now the government has to put on a big show though the reality that we are so divided is showing!

The truth be told, inter-religious harmony is a myth in this country. Sincere attempts at inter-religious dialogue with Muslims and earnest intellectual discussions and discourses have often been derailed by a mob adept only at displaying their ignorance and irrational arguments to justify their intimidating behaviour.

Myth and mockery of moderation

The Star also quotes a senior Malaysian diplomatic official involved in the behind-the-scenes work with the Vatican as saying: “The Vatican has also been wanting to engage with Malaysia which it recognises as a moderate Muslim nation made up of various ethnic groups.’’

Joceline Tan, a senior journalist of The Star at her jocular best even “canonises” the PM as such: “There is no doubt the Western world has begun to take note of Najib as a Muslim leader of reason and moderation and the visit will certainly reinforce that.”

If Najib were indeed “moderate” we would not have had to contend with controversial race and religious issues, which are too many to list down here. Najib’s heavy-handed response to the recently held Walk for Democracy (to institutionalise clean and fair elections) made Malaysia look like a moderate Police State!

Such is the “moderation” of Najib that Christians to date cannot use the word “Allah” though a High Court in 2009 had affirmed it as a constitutional right. Surely the shocked and speechless Preacher to the Papal Household, Fr Raniero Cantalamessa, who visited East Malaysia in 2010 can fill you in on the details!

The PM’s political party, the United Malays National Organisation (Umno) has been politicising religion for its survival by creating unfounded fears and insecurities, sowing seeds of suspicion (and definitely not of “reason”) amongst Muslims, and deepening their distrust for the adherents of other religions.

Malays/Muslims are made to feel that they are always under siege and non-Muslims are their enemies! Yet, as the Muslims are constantly reminded, Malay/Muslim rights have been carved into and guaranteed clearly by the Federal Constitution. The only party that they have to fear most is the Umno elite and warlords!

Imaginary threats and bogeymen have been created by Umno and its cohorts, such as the Christians being hell-bent on confusing and converting every Muslim and the latest being an unsubstantiated allegation of a Christian conspiracy to replace Islam as the official religion, and to pave the way for a Christian PM!

At times the paranoia created has reached such a ridiculous level that the enlightened Muslim community have expressed their embarrassment and even disgust. Marina Mahathir, a truly moderate Muslim lady once highlighted the existence of a group of defenders of the Islamic faith whom she called the SS (the shallow and superficial).

 They are people “who have nothing better to do with their lives than look for monsters under their beds, enemies in their blankets or crosses in their buns (and) ice-cream biscuits”. She also wrote about “the Simple-Minded and Stupid (SMS)… who believe every little message that comes into their hot little phones, no matter how unlikely”.

There are also the “Korrupt Kombative Knuckleheads (KKK) who “will do things like throw firecrackers into churchyards, destroy temples and raid married people’s bedrooms”. She pointed at “the supreme irony of trumpeting our religious superiority while at the same time claiming that it only takes biscuits to destroy us”.

Meanwhile Najib’s government, through its religious departments and the Home Ministry in particular, dominates, dictates, decides, determines and even defines what non-Muslims can and cannot discuss, deliberate on, display in print, and do. Talk about moderation!

In 2008, the then home minister, when issuing a show-cause letter and several warning letters to The Herald (the Catholic newspaper in Peninsula Malaysia) made it his implicit prerogative and position to preach to and pontificate on what Catholics should and should not believe in!

Umno-owned papers, especially the Utusan Malaysia, are allowed to go on a spree of spinning falsehood, spouting lies, spewing seditious articles and spreading what the minister in the PM’s Department called “outdated racist propaganda” with impunity and immunity provided by the home minister.

In June this year, the Utusan Malaysia claimed that millions of ringgit were being funnelled from some 11 foreign Christian organisations to fund the Walk for Democracy. The organisers denied any links to Christian funding, saying instead that funds for the march came from local sources.

Bishop Paul Tan of the Malacca-Johor diocese who is concurrently president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Malaysia, said the Malay daily “appears to have a licence to publish unsubstantiated and wild allegations aimed at fomenting discord between Christians and Muslims in Malaysia.”

“It appears the authorities are more interested in checking and monitoring people engaged in legitimate expression of their rights than in stopping people who spread all sorts of calumnies against individuals and groups in this country,” he added.

Honour or hypocrisy?

The religious freedom of Christians and other faiths tragically rests on the PM’s political expediency and circumstantial goodwill conveyed during crisis moments in cordial, congenial and courteous close-door meetings together with a chosen few — and not on the constitutional guarantees of religious freedom!

Muslim extremists or fanatics who have been found guilty of sedition, criminal intimidation and sacrilegious acts either go scot-free or are given light and ludicrous court sentences which make the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the judiciary and the government laughable, and reduce Najib’s “moderate” resolve to check extremism to mere lip service.

Fanatics, extremists, or what the minister in the PM’s Department calls “clowns” are given a free hand in taunting and threatening Christians and other faiths with a bloodbath and a holy war (jihad) whilst the landscape is littered with an increasing number of “Little Mullah Napoleons” running riot with their own brand of religion.

What gives extremist Malay/Muslim groups the audacity to display their insolence with impunity? The moderate PM is their inspiration! During the 61st Umno Annual General Assembly, Najib moderately vowed to defend Umno’s five-decade stranglehold on the federal government at all cost.

 After being PM for almost three years, Najib has failed to fight the fires of racial and religious fanaticism, aggressively fanned by his own party. He takes flight and hides behind his 1 Malaysia slogan — a faltering façade, farce and flop which makes him look so utterly foolish! Now we have another slogan — “moderation”!

According to Najib’s Umno, the Malay/Muslim majority in this country must stamp their superiority over the rest, made all the more easier by Executive Supremacy! Yet this very party that harps on supremacy (be it race or religion), claims that Muslims here can be very easily confused, convinced, controlled and converted!

Perhaps the saddest outcome of today’s “moderate Malaysia” is that we have accepted the distinction between “Muslim and non-Muslim dominated areas”. Yet, there was a time when the citizens of diverse races and religions so successfully lived together side by side in mutual respect and admiration!

Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, a veteran in Umno, once with dead honesty declared that ours is a “sham democracy… one which existed only in name but grievously compromised in substance, reality and fact”! According to the politician and prince, Malaysia has “a domineering style of leadership with the cult of the great leader”. How can there be moderation?

I hope that you will remind our PM of your wise warning in 2009 when speaking at the King Hussein bin Talal mosque in Amman, that the “manipulation of religion sometimes for political ends… is the real catalyst for tension and division and at times even violence in society…”

I pray, Holy Father, that you will not allow our prime minister to politicize the papacy and use the visit as a political ploy and a public relations exercise with his predictable “moderate” proclamations, pious pronouncements and pretentious promises.

In spite of the depressing scenario that I have so described, we are not discouraged nor do we despair. You had once declared that “interreligious and intercultural dialogue between Christians and Muslims … is a vital necessity, on which in large measure our future depends”.

It is this path and one towards a “more authentic mutual understanding” with our Muslim friends that many Catholics in Malaysia continue to strive towards. The divine always triumphs over evil human designs.

 May the heavens intervene when His Holiness meets His Hollowness! May hype give way to true hope! May honour prevail over hypocrisy! May humility be the spirit that will grace the hallowed halls of Gandolfo!

* This is the personal opinion of the writers. The Malaysian Insider does not endorse the view unless specified.

malaysiakini: BN destroyed what the people built... by Mariam Mokhtar

BN destroyed what the people built

Mariam Mokhtar
Jul 18, 2011
12:47pm

It was reported in a mainstream paper on July 4 that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak told Malaysians that they should not “destroy what had been built over the years”.

Najib is wrong because it is Umno/BN which is responsible for the destruction of Malaysia and the breakdown in our social mores. If Najib had any imagination, he would realise that the people are trying to salvage what is left of this once great country.

The PM had instructed his Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein to ban the Bersih 2.0 march and call it 'illegal' He had rejected all avenues of discourse with the leaders of Bersih 2.0 and had unfairly roped in the Agong to enter the political arena thus compromising the monarch's political neutrality.

After giving indications that he (Najib, left) was willing to meet Bersih 2.0 leaders and allocate a stadium for the rally, he went back on his word.

His failure to meet his end of the bargain created a dangerous set of conditions whereby tens of thousands of people, about to converge on Kuala Lumpur, had nowhere to go to.

The deployment of riot police and the spreading of malicious lies about the breakdown of order and that violence and threat to property and life, promulgated by a scared but arrogant government are indefensible.

Najib is responsible for engineering a potentially dangerous scenario. That there was no incident could be put down to the discipline of the rakyat and the leadership of the various team leaders, who maintained law and order on July 9.

Even when confronted with witness statements and video/film documentation that one protestor had died as a result of police action, Najib's administration still showed lack of concern and with a characteristically blasé attitude, denied any involvement in the death.

The unnecessary tear gas attack into the compound of a hospital was also dismissed by the police.

The PM's comments that the Bersih 2.0 rally was not a “good way to find a solution” and that the march was “illegal”, are laughable.

He said, “The illegal rally is not intended to correct the system but is politically motivated to gain power via undemocratic means.

“Street protest..if it does happen...will give a free ride to many people. There is no guarantee that everything will proceed peacefully. Those who love rioting and chaos will take advantage of the situation. This is what we want to avoid.”

In the past week, Najib was in London on a four-day official visit. He repeated the message that street demonstrations could 'spiral out of control, causing casualties and damage to property'.

He said, “If some quarters are still unhappy with the government, let's square it out when the election comes and let the people decide. We'll present our case, and the opposition will present their case. Let the people decide.”

The people, if Najib cares to know, are fed-up with electoral fraud and cheating. You don't really win an election by swopping the ballot boxes with ones stuffed with BN votes.

Ironically, Najib's visits to Mansion House (where he met the Mayor of London), Downing Street (to meet David Cameron the British premier) and the IntercontinentalHotel were greeted with street protests.

Najib might have observed that there was no damage to property and no untoward incident.

The Metropolitan police were in attendance and they did not have baton charges, or deployed water cannon hosing crowds with chemical-laced water, and they did not aim tear gas canisters directly at the demonstrators.

Clueless Najib

Najib seems to be the one who is clueless. Bersih 2.0 was never about any one political party. It is not about the opposition nor is it about communists taking over. It is about the rakyatdemanding a right to free, fair and clean elections.

How dare he say that the authorities were willing to prepare a venue for the Bersih 2.0 protestors? Therakyat have a right to be in KL. Even members of therakyat who live in Perak or other states have a right to travel to KL.

Right up till the last minute, the amount of prevarication and lies were astounding. Which person would not be angered by the false rhetoric and assurances presented by Najib and his cohorts in the days leading up to July 9?

Najib had said: “This is a reminder before its too late. If they want to submit a memorandum and so forth they can show democratic decency by cooperating with authorities.

“We are willing to provide a stadium for them to rally but why choose to protest in the streets....they must have other ideas. The government is not against them rallying in a stadium from morning until night. Just don't hold street protest as it is very risky to the nation.”

Najib's theory is that if BN managed to lose five states in the 2008 general election, then in his opinion the election system is free and fair.

Again, if Najib had any imagination, BN might have lost more or all of the states, if elections were truly free, fair and clean.

He claimed that the Election Commission (EC) was willing to make improvements by introducing a biometric system.

Does he remember that his predecessor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had said that the EC was going to introduce indelible ink? Well what happened to that promise? Why should we believe Najib? 

Which of his appointed cronies will win the contract to supply the government with this expensive biometric system which will net him several millions of ringgit at the expense of the taxpayer?

Najib was also quick to remind the nation to obey the Agong. It appears that everytime the BN administration is in a bind, as in previous years, like the power-coup in Perak, Umno/BN runs to a member of the royalty for help. This use of the royalty by Umno/BN destroys the respect the rakyat have for that member of the royalty.

The PM also said: “I hope we remember and realise the responsibility to take care of the country's future for the sake of the children and the survival of Malaysia that we love.”

A Samad Said (left)and 150 artistes were correct in their assessment that as a nation we have run out of creative solutions and ideas.

If only Najib will imagine that therakyat is trying to salvage Malaysia as a nation and restore the pride and respect the people have for each other.

It is because of Najib and his politics of protection for Umno/BN and its cronies that Malaysia is in self-destruct mode.

MARIAM MOKHTAR is a non-conformist traditionalist from Perak, a bucket chemist and an armchair eco-warrior. In 'real-speak', this translates into that she comes from Ipoh, values change but respects culture, is a petroleum chemist and also an environmental pollution-control scientist.

fmt: Najib and gang say the darndest things... By Kee Thuan Chye

Najib and gang say the darndest things

fmt, July 7, 2011

By Kee Thuan Chye

The government has two laws for Malaysians – one for itself and those it favours, and one for the rest of the people.

The Bersih 2.0 episode has taught us a few important things. About the officials who are supposed to serve us, the rakyat.

First, it has taught us that our prime minister, Najib Tun Razak, is a coward, a passer-of-the-buck, and a man with a slippery tongue.

Although he has now offered the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0) a stadium to hold its rally on July 9, he refuses to say if the government no longer considers it an illegal organisation.

“This is a point whereby we consider them illegal, they don’t consider themselves as illegal but what’s important is public interest, I’m concerned with public interest,” he says. What kind of waffle is that?

Because he is wishy-washy about this matter, he appears utterly contradictory in allowing an illegal organisation to hold a public rally in a stadium that his government will provide.

Related to this, when asked by the media whether the police would continue to clamp down on Bersih 2.0 supporters nationwide, he said, “You have to ask the police.”

Asked if supporters would be arrested for wearing Bersih T-shirts at the rally at the stadium, he again said, “That is up to the police to decide.”

He doesn’t know? He doesn’t have a say? Who is the boss? The prime minister, who is the chief executive of the country, or the police?

He dared not even answer the media’s question about whether he was called to see the King on the morning of July 5 before the latter was to meet with Bersih 2.0. His lame and characteristically evasive reply was: “When I meet the King is my right, and as the prime minister, I am the chief adviser to the King.” He wasn’t man enough to be honest and transparent.

Same old trick

Now let’s look at Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin. A few days ago, on the Bersih 2.0 rally, he warned that it could lead to chaos and invite “interference from major powers”. Where did he pull this out from?

“Based on the experience in the Middle East, we know that foreign powers are all too eager to send their troops on the pretext of helping to solve the crisis,” he said. What a hoot!

How ridiculous it is to draw from the Middle East experience (is the United Nations about to authorise the bombing of Malaysia?), and how convenient to blame it on some phantom foreign powers. It’s the same old trick the government used on Hindraf in 2007, linking it to the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka. In the end, not a shred of evidence was ever produced. Once bitten, twice shy.

Sure enough, what Muhyiddin said was to provide justification for six Parti Sosialis Rakyat (PSM) members who were pro-Bersih 2.0 to be detained under the Emergency Ordinance (EO), on suspicion of being involved with “foreign elements” and having “subversive tendencies”.

One of them is Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj. If you knew him for the soft-spoken, humble and dedicated helper of the poor that he is, you would laugh in Muhyiddin’s face. Jeyakumar would not be so stupid as to align himself with foreign elements to subvert the state.

Let’s turn now to Information, Communication and Culture Minister Rais Yatim, who disparaged “desperate parties” for making use of Communism to drum up support for the Bersih 2.0 rally.

“They see this as an opportunity to stir up dissent and seize power,” he said. “Spreading Communism is against the law. It is evil and illegal.”

What wild words would these ministers not use against a rally that was aimed at nothing more sinister than asking for electoral reform, for the good of democracy? Do they not realise we can gauge from their words the level of their intellect?

How did Rais get his PhD?

PM’s undignified talk

Malacca Chief Minister Ali Rustam called on the government to strip Bersih 2.0 chairperson S Ambiga of her citizenship. “If she thinks that we should have democracy by going on demonstrations like the way other countries do, then let her be the citizen of another country,” he said.

He also said she was against the tenets of Islam for previously defending Lina Joy in her apostasy case.

Alamak! What has the Lina Joy case got to do with the Bersih 2.0 rally? But then, that’s the Umno-BN dirty tactic, isn’t it? Turn a non-religious issue into a religious one. Never mind if it’s irrelevant. Never mind if it’s divisive.

Najib was worse in making a similar personal attack: “We know who this Ambiga is. She is the one who threatened the position of Islam.”

He must have known it was totally uncalled-for and outrageously irresponsible, but his audience was in Kelantan, comprising mostly Muslims, reportedly about 20,000 of them there.

When Ali Rustam said that sort of thing, it was inexcusable. But when Najib, the advocate of so-called 1Malaysia, said it, it was unforgivable.

More than that, he warned, “Ambiga should not think herself so strong. We will not bow down to her at all, we will fight for the truth. We will simpan kuku kita.” This is menacing; the threat is in “simpan kuku kita”, implying Najib and his supporters will hide their claws for now and use them when the time comes.

This is undignified talk unbecoming of a prime minister. He sounds like a street brawler.

Let’s save the best for last. And who else might that be but the Home Minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, already famous for the numerous bloopers he has made in the past?

When the police started arresting people for wearing the Bersih T-shirts, without any apparent law to back them up, Hishammuddin justified it thus: “If the Bersih T-shirt is related to an illegal activity, then whatever they are wearing is illegal.”

But the rally had not happened yet, so how could it have been an illegal activity? By the same logic, how then could the Bersih T-shirts be related to an illegal activity?

Caught in a corner, Hishammuddin then resorted to declaring Bersih 2.0 illegal. One of the reasons cited was that Bersih 2.0 had been spreading propaganda with the aim of toppling the government.

What propaganda? Its eight demands for electoral reform constitute government-toppling material? Which school did this minister go to?

And now that the King has met with Bersih 2.0 and the coalition has agreed to hold its rally in a stadium provided by the government, Hishammuddin is still clamouring: “They are banned. They are still banned… just because Tuanku met them doesn’t mean they are no longer illegal.”

One would have thought that the King, in showing respect to Bersih 2.0 in granting it an audience, would have legitimised the coalition, but Hishammuddin seems to have a different view. He must have felt the egg all over his face when the King granted the audience.

His reaction is therefore understandably defensive. He has screwed up big-time, but he won’t admit his mistakes. If he has been doing his job like he should have, he would not be vilifying Bersih 2.0; he would be going after Perkasa instead.

The real troublemaker
No matter how you look at it, there’s no denying that the real trouble-maker is Perkasa. It never had a real cause to rally for on July 9 except to disrupt Bersih 2.0’s serious purpose.

And now it wants to create further trouble by applying for the same stadium that Bersih 2.0 is applying for and hold its own rally there. And the reason for it? Merely to show that “there are others who feel differently”.

Perkasa is obviously envious that the King acknowledged Bersih 2.0 by granting it an audience, so it too is applying for an audience with His Majesty. Perkasa is nothing but an envious bulldog that won’t let go until it gets to spite Bersih 2.0. And all for what? Do its members even know?

If there were one organisation Hishammuddin should act on, it would have to be Perkasa. And yet for all its antics and for all the veiled threats of violence its president, Ibrahim Ali, has been issuing since the whole episode started, the minister has said or done nothing.

Hishammuddin is plainly inept in his handling of the entire mess. And for that, he should resign or be kicked out of the Cabinet by his cousin, Najib.

In fact, both of them have clearly shown in the past two weeks that the government has two laws for Malaysians – one for itself and those it favours, and one for the rest of the people. You can guess for yourself which side is the worse off for it.

But not to worry. What we the rakyat have learned, we can use to good effect. Taking the wisdom from Najib, we can simpan our kuku for now and reveal them when the time is right.

Dramatist and journalist Kee Thuan Chye is the author of ‘March 8: Time for Real Change‘. He is a contributor to FMT.