First the home affairs minister signs and issues a gazette which states basically that the Bersih T-shirt with the words and letters ‘Bersih 4\’ are banned . Yes, you heard right, BANNED! And yes, anyone in possession of the T-shirt would be jailed.

Can you imagine why a minister would sign such a notice the day before the event, and even more importantly, what was the real agenda and intentionality? That was not the end either. I suspect it was the first-ever such signature that the minister put on paper as home affairs minister.

Now, after all he is also deputy prime minister, right? Wrong! He, like Al Gore, will become an also-ran because he failed to provide leadership with integrity when it mattered most.

For what this idiocrat did in public office, on that fateful day, let me propose I can fully be justified to call him an idiot; one who abuses the law to rule and not to rule by law. Why do I think he is an idiot, and let me remind him also what Dr Mahathir Mohamad reminded PM Najib Abdul Razak; that the people today are not stupid any more.

What Dr Mahathir means is that he got away with murder during his time, because times were different, and most importantly, social media was not present, and he may even be apologising for what he did. After all, he introduced the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) to Malaysia!

Maybe that is why the two Tuns were captured on site at the Bersih 4; not once but twice. Well, while the former PM can try to steer the course of the nation in his wishful direction; it is solidly the civil society organisations or CSOs who will define the course of how we will ‘membersihkan negara ku’. He did not support us before, and we cannot forget.

The Berish 2.0 steering committee is currently led by Maria Chin Abdullah and formerly by Ambiga Sreenevasan.

We in the Oriental Hearts and Mind Study Institute (OHMSI) have our own executive committee which provides leadership and defines direction. I am not on the steering committee but we are an NGO which has supported this cause from the very beginning. We will participate in the Bersih movement until we achieve the goals and demands of Bersih from the beginning.

These demands, as stated and included, this time included:

  • No 1. That PM Najib steps down until the unexplained monies issue is resolved.
  • No 2-6 you all know about and it was printed on the banned T-shirts and so you can buy one and keep it for posterity.

Another ‘stupid’ deputy minister

In the Malay Mail of Sunday Aug 30, 2015, it was reported that we have another deputy minister who said the following:

Quoting Bernama, Malay Mail highlighted in red the following, and I quote verbatim:

Information to be gathered on those taking part abroad

ROMPIN – The Foreign Ministry will gather information on Malaysians participating in the Bersih 4 rallies abroad for eventual legal action against them, said the Deputy Minister Datuk Seri Reezal Marican Naina Marican. He said their identities would be handed to the relevant authorities for action. They should not be exempted from legal action because their actions could tarnish the image of the country at the International level, he told reporters after opening the Rompin Umno Youth delegates meeting yesterday. Reezal said it was inappropriate for Malaysians to voice their dissatisfaction with the government of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak overseas.

I cannot believe any deputy minister can issue such an ignorant statement. I see this statement as silly and uninformed for the following reasons:

  • The Foreign Ministry that I know, and the ambassadors that I know have little or no time to bother with Malaysians, unless they need some help from the embassies; especially when you are overseas. For that matter, even for students on government scholarships, they have a Malaysian Students Department official whose job is to take care of students and help them with problems; but never to monitor their activities, or curtail their learning experiences. They are not under the purview of Foreign Affairs.
  • So, for this idiocratic deputy minister to say that their information will be gathered and their identities reported is not just a silly statement but a ludicrous, one as any public servant worth his weight will tell him: this stupidity is impossible.
  • Moreover, in Melbourne alone there were more than 5,000 participants; apart from the fact that more than 70 cities in 23 countries had their Bersih 4 rallies.
  • Furthermore, at a wedding dinner over the weekend, I heard that in my hometown of Sungai Petani, they actually arrested people for wearing Bersih 4 T-shirts at a rally of 300 citizens. If that is true, why the inconsistency and selective prosecution?
  • If I give the benefit of the doubt, I would only say, this idiocrat is speaking only to his ‘Dumno’ members; dumb Umno members.

Apa lagi Cina mau?

What was obvious to me at the Bersih Rally was that more than 80 percent of those who marched for Bersih 4 appeared to be Malaysians of Chinese descent. That is genuinely impressive given that in Bersih 3 it appeared that less than 30 percent were Chinese. Najib has in fact got his reply to the question; what else the Chinese want? They want you out and the RM2.6 billion explained transparently.

What this also means in today’s terms is the following:

  • Civil society organisations and/or DAP can mobilise the young Chinese to march especially if the issues are real and evident. Even with a 4 on their T-shirts they wear and march.
  • The Malays appear to be either confused or too afraid to show their real cards on this specific matter; or, the majority are already beneficiaries of the system and dare not be seen publicly walking. They also have stopped talking. They need their fish fed daily.
  • There were some marginal Indian groups who were willing to march and be counted. They were noticed and this is a very good start. MIC can essentially close down, as far as I am concerned.
  • Both Kota Kinabalu and Kuching had more than a few thousand participants for their rallies. This is a fantastic start for their very first one; imagine what it can be in 2020, if they are still the worst-developed geographical areas in Malaysia.
  • More than 70 cities in 23 countries marched or demonstrated their true and honest feelings. The next time it will be 200 cities and 50 countries. Foreign affairs minister, take not of this statistic.
  • The ordinary but dependent Malays appear currently confused by the mixed signals from PAS; no one is sure where they stand, or if they have become a single-issue party focused only on hudud. Where has poverty gone?
  • The full launch of Parti Amanah Malaysia by Gabungan Harapan Baru (GHB) is brilliant, therefore and they will get many multi-ethnic members so long that they understand the word ‘amanah’ does not exclude the current federal constitution and its historical promises.

Apa Melayu tak mau!

Malays of Malaysia do not want cheating, stealing, and lying; at least 80 percent of the Malays I know for about 50 years. The strange thing is that this is exactly what the young Chinese Malaysians also do not want. But, as is with the language of how ‘tak mau’ became ‘tak nak’, is it simply another neo-colonial misinterpretation of Malay ideals?

I am no literary expert of Malay, but I was hard pressed the other day to explain to my American-Korean daughter-in-law, why tak nak is grammatically correct; her argument, would you say “tidak hendak?”

With no other retort available in terms of logic within my literary skills, I said, “Oh, the contractor of the programme was a Chinese and he must have not got his Malay right but used his colonial Malay from the English version of ‘do not want!’”

Want is ‘hendak’ but so is ‘mahu’, so why was ‘tak mau’ not used? Maybe that is why most Malay kids still smoke and the same consultant is now no longer with government; so, I too say, apa lagi Cina mau?

My advice to the government of Najib Abdul Razak; please ask him to resign, as he has denied and failed to provide leadership for a nation integrated with integrity. Right now, Malaysians are united and quite integrated; it is the government which is fractured and fragile, but also willfully creating new fissures. Why else would MCA publicly support Bersih 4 and Dr Mahathir turn up two times, when it was the opposition which was in complete disarray?

May God bless Malaysia.