What about HARTAL for BERSIH?
By Bluesyworms Jazzyworms
Personally I believe the reason why the Government is doing this ‘overkill’ towards BERSIH supporters is because Najib is not in control. ‘Somebody’ from UMNO itself want to remove him from PMship and as UMNO President and so thats why you see all this arrest and mindless provocation. They want to heat things up so that riot will occur, and then ask Najib to declare emergency. Then after that, they’ll remove him like what happen to Tunku, blaming him for the riots. That’s what I believe.
In short its a power struggle. And whether you all like it or not, BERSIH is being used by politicians. As it is now even some PR supporters have turned this march into a street demo demanding change of government rather than just to send the memo. The mindless provocation for the past 2 weeks, has worked. But the real person who will benefit is this one faction in UMNO, whom in 2007 also used BERSIH as a catalyst to overthrow Pak Lah. In the end everyone, from BERSIH organisers, to NGOs and PR is being used by this fella for his own purposes. There was no real electoral reform after the BERSIH demo in 2007, Anwar did not become PM except for PR controlling some states, but Pak Lah was overthrown. The saying ‘better to lose some battles but win the war’ have never been clearer.
Now the Agong himself, whether His Highness realise it or not, have thrown a spanar in ‘his’ plans, asking BERSIH and Putrajaya to negotiate. But ‘he’ and his goons still keep on the provocation via Utusan and such. Najib now may have realised his errors falling into this fella’s trap, and now making a ‘U-Turn’ trying to give BERSIH a chance to rally in any stadium. Strange because his own cousin Hishamuddin the Home Minister have recently declared BERSIH as an illegal organisation. Unless Najib realised something he wasn’t aware before, he would not make such a blatant U-Turn and make a fool out of his own cousin.
As to Najib’s suggestion rallying in a stadium, anything can happen at that rally too. He is not in control of PERKASA and other like minded NGO’s. Heck, he is not even in control of UMNO. Recently he advised UMNO members to stop factional politicking. A riot can still happen at the stadium unless Najib gonna order the police to provide security. And that will in turn make the IGP, his deputy and other police officers into fools, especially after those mind boggling arrests and statements against BERSIH. Whether Najib likes it or not, his U-Turn is starting to turn out as a nightmare.
The rally actually, was a non-starter from earlier on. We must remember, was there any reform after the 2007 rally. Nope. There was that indelible ink suggestion by EC, but it was revoked later by the EC themselves mind you. Somebody got the ink from Thailand or abroad it seems. Going by that experience, another memo to the King would be useless anyway because the government will find ways to overturned any of His Highness suggestions or opinions as usual. Therefor it is basically just a show of force. And this time the other side decide to fight with all their might instead of combining forces like in 2007. Even HINDRAF is giving BERSIH 2.0 a rain check.
Its time for us to be more creative in the way we fight. Its time to be not only non-violent, but more non-cooperative. Remember street demos and rallies are not just the only methods used in Gandhi’s Satyagraha….
So now the ball is in BERSIH’s court. If my theory is true, do you wanna walk and become this fella guinea pigs, become another tool for UMNO’s internal power struggle like in 13th May 1969 or find another way to carry on the Rakyat’s fight? I’d say lets call off the rally and do something quite opposite instead like a HARTAL. They don’t want the rally, fine, lets just stay home all together. End it with turning off the lights or something…
The best thing about a HARTAL is that no one is the leader. Anybody can do it. No politician be it from PR or BN can hijack such a show of force. And police can’t force people out of their homes for no valid reasons.
Of course some in the business community would cry wolf. Well take that day to clean up your premises or something. DBKL, DBKK etc can for once clean up most of the rubbish. Let’s give our city a break once in a while. Days before the rally many have decided to stock up on food etc anyway, so you businessmen would have covered the cost you suffered on 9th July. People can spend time at home with their family. People can take the time to pray to clean their soul. Its a day to contemplate, take a breather. Its good also for the environment. Make it a day for spring cleaning. Ramadhan is coming soon, so why not ‘BERSIH’kan the house now. I got to bersihkan my longkang from those lalang that I have been delaying for two months….
As A Samad Said said in his poem;
“Tak diperlu gempita sorak yang gebu,
diperlu hanya unggun api yang syahdu.”
Remember we have made our point anyway. The rally was to show the strength of people’s support to BERSIH, but its not just the only method. A HARTAL or just a Spring Cleaning Day would be just as powerful as we turn all major cities in Malaysia into clean or ‘BERSIH’ ghost towns for one day…..
