Precaution or persecution: Anti-Bersih 2.0 Rally
By J. D. Lovrenciear
It is very alarming. A righteous citizens’ action is being forced fast into a potential riot and definitely a political issue. And that is the doing of those aligned to the government, while the opposition chooses to go along with the righteous citizens’ pledge.
And therein lies the peril for the nation.
The rate at which we were seeing objections laced with speculative and induced fear being raised against the citizens’ pledged march for a free, fair and just elections now crescendos into a dangerous trap.
Not only is the rally being banned with the non-issuance of a permit to assemble, the key figures whom the citizens have anointed to work with them in engineering this mammoth rally are also being identified to be hauled in for questioning by the authorities.
And to have a make-believe scenario, even those who crossed the racism bar or peddled fear-mongering are seemingly going to be hauled in for questioning by the authorities.
Meanwhile lurking very close to the intimidating and admonishing tactics, the dreaded, dark hood of fear – the ISA, is also being cast as the ultimate deterent.
But even a mufti has spoken in defense of the citizens’ role in marching for free, fair and just elections and its governance. Many citizens have expressed their concerns against those who blabber all kinds of race-blood tragedies as the eventuality if the march went ahead.
Many are of the opinion that all these seeming objections to the Bersih 2.0 are deliberately stage-managed and piped-up using the mainstream media by the presiding government.
It appears that the Malaysians who are keen on expressing their right to peaceful assembly and call for a fair, free and just election are being denied that very right that the democratic world of today professes globally.
What the leaders are failing to recognize is that the denial and the intense fear-casting amounts to persecution of the citizens. Going by the numerous examples of recorded human history in the world, persecution will only snowball on the agents that stand in the way of humanity’s march for a free, fair and just future.
The question is: why do the government and its leaders want to do exactly the opposite of what history, prudence and honor dictates? Why fear the citizens’ march? Is providing all the necessary safety and security measures to avert the many fears that the government and/or their agentries claim, beyond the government’s capability?
Why are the BN leaders – and their supporters, hell bent in preventing the citizens to express their concern and demand within the framework of the Constitution and tenets of democracy and the hallmarks of justice?
On the same token, suppose the citizens decide that they are going to march peacefully by the tens of thousands to show the world that they are solidly backing the present government and its leaders as they (BN) represent true democracy and accord the highest standards in terms of promoting civil liberties, would the BN government persecute the citizens by denying them that right to peaceful assembly? Or would all the measures be taken at immense cost to provide the peace and safety for the marchers?
Please stop making this rally into a political coup game. But at the rate the government is reacting thus far, it may in all probability end-up this way for when human existence and expression is persecuted, the will to ensure survival of the human free-will, eventually breaks free.
Persecute humanity with the denial of the fre- will to be free, fair and just and end up being persecuted. That is what world history has taught humanity down the centuries. The government must be wiser.
