Bersih 2.0 triggers early fever for UMNO
Bersih 2.0 is asking for justice, fairness and transperancy in the execution of the elections. But UMNO is asking that its everyday business interests should not be disrupted.
By J. D. Lovrenciear
The planned Bersih 2.0 rally for July 9 has already set a running fever for UMNO. This is diagnosed from the numerous police reports being lodged by UMNO followers so early.
The rational for those from UMNO is that the rally would ‘disrupt businesses’. And that very telling rational is also not doing any favor for their leaders within UMNO. Why?
Simply because what Bersih 2.0 stands for and what UMNO reps are asking for clearly indicates that the very fundamentals within UMNO are not rightly placed as has always been claimed by the opposition members and various NGOs as well as the rakyat.
Bersih 2.0 is asking for justice, fairness and transperancy in the execution of the elections. But UMNO is asking that its everyday business interests should not be disrupted.
Now which is a nobler intent – self interest and daily profiteering or long term fundamentals that are consistent with democracy and good for the whole nation?
It would have earned UMNO millions of kudos if their reps maintained that the authorities must safeguard the peaceful protest march so that both protestors and business operators at the protest venue are not adversely affected.
In maintaining so they would have actually helped their business people whom they claim to represent. Given the hundreds of thousands present, can you imagine how much and how many business operators would profit from the captive market?
Unfortunately, the advisors of UMNO must be totally blinkered. Or they cannot help thinking inside the box. And so the Bersih 2.0 rally has set a fever running inside UMNO.
In all likelihood, the other component members of UMNO within the BN fold would jump the plank too. And soon the PDRM will compound UMNO’s vulnerability further by issuing a stern warning to the organizers and threaten to arrest those taking part in the rally. And like it or otherwise, there will be mammoth road blocks all over the country.
It is the same old strategy hatched and re-hatched. And in the end, instead of helping BN and UMNO resusitate, the members themselves are only digging a deeper grave for their parties.
It beats the daylight out of many thinking citizens who are asking why can’t the leaders and followers of BN think strategically and spin the Bersih 2.0 rally to their advantage and thereby fortify the quicksand beneath their feet?
In fact even PDRM can salvage its battered image by saying that they will ensure that the protest is held peacefully and any mischief maker at the scene will be nabbed by our world-class SB personnel. That would immediately absolve all their past sins and sins of omissions instantly.
Just imagine what the world would be like if the Egyptians, Tunisians, and others talked like UMNO each time people wanted to hold a peaceful protest? Or where would India be if the ‘Salt march’ led by Gandhi was banned? Or what would Indonesia be if the public outcry was killed off in the bud? Sigh!
