Bersih: No Malays, or you failed to notice?
Hafidz Baharom, The Malaysia Insider
The Bersih protest is still ongoing, yet there are already those wondering just where are the Malays since their attendance has dropped to ranging from 10% or less, by some measure.
While political leaders and members of the federal opposition are quickly spinning this fact to “we only see Malaysians” or even “they will appear today”, some have already taken it upon themselves to mock the entire race.
Accusations are ranging from the Malays are comfortable, the Malays are privileged, the Malays are cowards and my favourite thus far, the Malays are missing their balls.
Quite humbly, I will just call all these morons as morons because they have obviously failed to notice the fact that Malays were everywhere but they themselves failed to notice.
Allow me to explain.
I was at Nu Sentral yesterday, which borders Brickfields as one of the gathering points.
And while some attendees were wondering where the Malays are, they keep forgetting to notice just who the heck was serving them breakfast if they were in the same mall as I was.
Furthermore, since you took public transport, who the heck do you think was manning the train or the LRT control centre?
Who were the baristas who prepared your coffee while you rushed to charge your phones at the Starbucks?
Who were the waiters at The Chicken Rice Shop, or the Nando’s or even the Texas Chicken with the controversial sauce?
And even more to the point, who did you buy your last minute yellow t-shirts from Uniqlo or wherever, just in case that last minute gazetted law was enforced?
More to the point, who were the police officers and the Federal Reserve Unit members currently manning their stations?
Who are those currently investigating the threat made via SMS against Bersih?
In fact, here is another thing you may have failed to notice. From an economic standpoint, the Merdeka Centre survey says that those most disapproving of Bersih, while Malays, are also those earning below RM2,000.
There is already a floating story of how one uncle from Perlis had to spend an entire week’s wage just to attend the protest.
Safe to say, the majority of those disapproving or not attending Bersih are those who cannot afford it.
So for those mocking the majority Malay population as balless, spineless, privileged people, shame on you.
Who the heck do you think you are “saving the economy” for? Just yourselves?
It is for those who do not earn enough, who are unemployed graduates who even Tun Dr Mahathir was asked a question about in Pasir Gudang before appearing to have a look see in Kuala Lumpur.
It is for those who cannot take a weekend off to join your protest, especially since most will probably be paid three times their daily salaries due to it being a three-day weekend.
It is for those who have lost their houses and still live in tents in Kelantan and Terengganu due to the floods, are still waiting for their houses to be rebuilt and cannot afford to spare a dime.
Have you forgotten them in your veracity to be gung-ho propagandists?
So for those so militantly supporting Bersih to the point of calling the majority population cowards, you obviously do not know your own country’s people well enough.
For those who say it was because of PAS, you also do not know what they had to spend to bus people into the city for the past rallies. Religion and politics may be the matter you think of, but you obviously failed to see the cost and logistics of such an endeavour.
And I will say this once more to all those detractors. While the Malays are poor, they are still the largest voter base in this country for Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah.
While they may not be attending Bersih, I can assure you that they are reading what you say of them on social media and even in the online portal comments sections.
