Keeping the country neat and clean
The dust has settled but the fight is not over yet. More battles lie ahead.
Free Malaysia Today
A small patch of ground became a battlefield between a band of brave citizens and a solid phalanx of riot police. The space where blood was split belongs to the people but the state “seized” it and called it its property. Barbed wires marked the boundary where the people were not allowed to cross the line and reclaimed their rightful land. But crossed they did – and briefly they took back what was theirs and defied the ruthless machine. Eventually police power – and brutality – prevailed. The protesters, armed mostly with water bottles, were no match against the mighty arsenal of the state.
Now the government is seeking revenge. Armed with a more draconian law, it wants the organisers and protesters to pay the price. Using a specious argument that the minority has threatened the lives of the majority, it is bent on crushing its intended target – the political enemies who represent a grave threat not to national security but to the survival of a party that is now dangling by a thin thread.
The citizens who poured out in the thousands into the city centre were not out to destroy the country. They built this country together and there is no reason for them to raze it to the ground. They saw the broad, sunlit land prosper and for decades they supported the politicians whom they elected to rule over their lives. By right, they should continue to embrace the status quo. But then they saw the light and the truth and decided the government of the day has overstayed its welcome.
People are fed up. Politics is dirty. The electoral roll is dirty. Corruption is rife. Obscene wealth exists side by side with extreme poverty. Power is abused. Parliamentary democracy has gone to the dogs. Money speaks louder than love for the environment. Things do not seem right. Something is seriously wrong with the ship of state. It is tilting badly.
Now the people have awakened. They are taking a fresh look at their country, without blinkers. . They saw the deception of the lawmakers and want to reclaim the moral high ground. So they marched, walked, sat. They defied water cannons, tear gas, baton charges. They stood up to the giant and demanded changes. Three “clean” waves have swept pass the country and each time, the message got louder. Their cry for justice cannot be ignored.
The ruling coalition will not give up without a fight. Whenever challenged, it uses repressive instruments to crush dissent. It uses race, religion and monarchy to attack citizens who oppose its political supremacy. It thinks that those who rally against its rule are just a vocal minority who want to destroy peace and harmony. Crush them and Malaysia will be a safe haven for investors. All these trouble-makers on the streets are seen as pests who must be extinguished for the benefit of the silent majority.
Wrong. The silent majority are the ones who grieve quietly at the misrule, abuses, corruption of the governing class. They can be found everywhere – the thousands of unhappy civil servants who have to take orders from the political bosses, the educated who can see through the veil of governmemt deceit, the awakened youth, the deprived natives, the marginalised, the poverty-stricken… the millions and millions of disillusioned ordinary voters waiting to troop to the polling booths.
