Here comes the ’3rd Farce’ and with badges too

ARCHIVES 2012

By admin-s On Jan 11, 2012

A sly backdoor move to get you to masuk Melayu?

By uppercaise

Advertising man Anas Zubedy wants young Malaysians to join his new “3rd Force”, a hijacked version of the Third Force that Raja Petra Kamarudin set up in 2010 as the Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement. The MCLM split up last week when Haris Ibrahim resigned as president in a disagreement with RPK.

But a couple of weeks before, in mid-December, Anas Zubedy had hijacked the idea of a Third Force and also put up a Facebook badge that uses the same “I Am the Third Force” slogan used by the MCLM. On Tuesday, in an article at Free Malaysia Today, he also used the term “Third Force” for his version of the campaign.

So now you have the RPK-initiated Third Force which lost its president and two prospective election candidates. (RPK remains as chairman)

And you have Anas Zubedy’s 3rd Force with Facebook badge.

Actually, if you want a badge, you can choose from four different “Third Force” badges, by different people, with different aims.

The original ‘I Am The Third Force’

This badge is linked to the Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement set up in October 2010 as the Third Force, to empower citizens and effect political change by selecting better MPs. MCLM president Haris Ibrahim resigned after a disagreement with RPK, and two prospective election candidates followed suit.

A Third Force against political demonstrations

This “Third Force” badge seems to have been formed by people who are totally against political demonstrations by any party.

The new 3rd Force, for Malay Firsters

A campaign proposed by Anas Zubedy, the man who says May 13 should be a celebration of national unity, and who says the DAP must become more Malay-like, and also apologise to the Malay people.

The military Third Force

This badge, just called Third Force, represents the Regular Reserve Force of the armed forces, although rather confusingly the Picbadge page also describes it as Veterans of the armed forces. (Regular reserves are officers and other ranks who have retired from regular service, not to be confused with the Territorial Army which is the volunteer reserve of civilian weekend warriors. The reserves may be called up for active duty when required.)

Which one to choose?

As always, when someone is trying to sell you something, remember Caveat Emptor — Let the buyer beware. And read the fine print.

Multiracialism or multi-Malay-ism?

The Anas Zubedy 3rd Force wants you to choose an MP who will agree to abolish Chinese and Tamil schools, accept Malay customs as the core culture, and get everyone to speak Malay fluently and English “comfortably” or take lessons until they do. That’s two thirds of the way for a non-Malay person to become constitutionally-defined as Malay: habitually speak Malay, follow Malay customs, and are a Muslim. (The only other legal factor is to have a Malay parent.) So it looks like Anas Zubedy is trying to get the non-Malay MP to masuk Melayu, more or less.