More of Tunku Aziz, and less of wannabe Che Guevera

To understand a law-abiding man like Tunku, one only has to read Josh Hong’s brilliant analysis of the man in Malaysiakini’s Tunku Aziz and the Dewan Negara.

Hong eruditely provided us with a glimpse of Tunku’s psyche when the man “… related how his father was a stickler for rules who would not tolerate it if his son cycled home without a lamp. This anecdote illustrates his father’s fastidious adherence to the rule of law that certainly has had a powerful impact on the Tunku’s future political understanding.”

“But the Tunku did (and still does) harbour political ambitions, perhaps not aspiring to be a government minister of sorts but at least to be able to effect policy changes to some extent. Umno, that is universally known to be corrupt to the core, was out of the question, leaving the DAP the only viable option.”

“Indeed, it would take an enormous amount of courage for someone with dignity and prestige as the Tunku to join Umno of the present days.”

“In some way, the DAP’s ideology matches that of the Tunku. When the left-wing forces were boycotting what they saw as sham elections in the 1960s, the DAP filled the vacuum by contesting in most of the winnable seats and becoming the largest opposition party in parliament, a position that it went on to hold for the next three decades.”

“Again, the party’s faith in what the leftists and socialists would describe as capitalist parliamentary democracy reflected that of the Tunku’s.”

Hong also explained why Tunku didn’t bother to join PAS or PKR, especially the latter which Tunku probably viewed as “… made up of a bunch of rabble-rousers and law-breakers.” Wakakaka.

And wasn’t Tunku’s fears proven correct about Bersih likely to be abused to incite mindless morons to deliberately break the law?

That the police went unprofessionally berserk like hoodlums and attacked Bersih supporters doesn’t hide the fact that a number of Bersih participants (from a particular party) misbehaved. As Dina Zaman wrote in The Malaysian Insider’s The Bersih that wasn’t:

But now I see videos of protestors breaking down the barriers and committing acts of violence. And yes, while the police showed more restraint this time they were behind some of these as well. Al-Jazeera journalists reported via Skype that their equipment was smashed by policemen to prevent them recording some of these acts of violence.

Despite suffering from the teargas effects I myself have not the spirit to summon the moral indignation I would like to have, because although they should have done so lawfully I cannot blame the police for taking action against violent protestors.

What can we Malaysians expect post April 28 2012? With a video circulating showing that Anwar Ibrahim and Azmin Ali had ordered the Dataran breach, this does not bode well for Pakatan and the rakyat. This is a massive public relations disaster. The average Malaysian like me can only tear her hair out.

And now we are told that the duo were signalling to the police. What is this — Tonto and the Lone Ranger?

As I said on Twitter all this resembled a Hindustani film. Throw in a tree and a pair of sarees and we’ll have a great sandiwara.

By contrast, Tunku’s brand of politics is like those practiced by Lim Kit Siang, Karpal Singh and Lim Guan Eng, where politicians in the finest tradition of Westminster parliamentary democracy debate in gentlemanly fashion issues pertaining to national policies rather than personalities, and certainly not bite policeman nor wear a flak jacket while rushing off to hide at the Turkish Embassy wakakaka.