Bersih has given Umno the ammo it needs
The upcoming Kongress Rakyat offers a better alternative for those seeking change
Sahabat Seperjuangan
Because the Malay crowd was not there, the ruling regime did not feel threatened and therefore accorded the gathering the velvet glove treatment. It could afford to do that because videos and photographs of screaming and shouting Chinese, the more the merrier, can only add to its arsenal to distribute in the rural and semi-urban areas to pump up the adrenalin of its supporters there. What’s more, with the insulting comments on social media directed at Malays who did not come, UMNO just needs to collect those insensitive remarks and build up enough ammunition to raise anger and resentment.
The Malaysian political scene is becoming more menacing because a demonstration characterised by overwhelming numbers of a sizeable boisterous ethnic minority is a godsend to the fascists in playing upon the insecurity of the majority to support their narrative that their political hold will be diminished, if not destroyed.
Some can say such views are outmoded, countering with grand notions of people being colour-blind and other altruistic motives, but Malaysia is not only made up of towns and cities where different races can mingle and, during such socialisation, come upon ways and means to cross ethnic and religious lines for a greater good. In the rural heartland, the ethnic composition is largely homogeneous and engaged in the most part to putting food, shelter and clothing above all else in the quest for life. Do not look down upon them as ignorant country cousins because they can harbour strong views about race and religion.
In general elections, some political parties can take the towns and cities, but until you can convince the rural inhabitants to be on your side, you cannot take the whole country. You can argue till the cows come home about unfair delineation, devious gerrymandering, disproportional representation, etc., but till the day you can win the hearts and minds of the countryside, forget about winning the country at the ballot box.
The urban-rural divide is also accentuated by what each side sees, hears or reads. The city slickers are inundated by Facebook, Twitter and all the other paraphernalia of the internet-enabled social media. For the non-Malays, there are any number of English and Mandarin news portals and blogs to turn to and end up having their perception manipulated by the inputs and outputs in those places with an axe to grind. The Malays in the countryside are swarmed by government-sanctioned TV and the ubiquitous Malay printed newspapers and, to an increasing extent, by blogs and news sites with another agenda in Bahasa Melayu.
It is not surprising that town and country can hold different viewpoints of the same event. The most recent example is that while most people in towns are led to think that PAS was invited by Bersih but spurned the invitation, the rural folk are certain that PAS was snubbed in favour of the new hope, Gerakan Harapan Baru, which, in the end, failed to deliver the phalanxes required to reflect the racial composition of the country and deny UMNO the pleasure of portraying Bersih 4 as a Chinese uprising.
The little people
Therefore, PAS members and supporters were conspicuous by their absence. True and tried political party members will hew to the iron discipline of a political party, especially one that has built its strength upon the contributions of the little people who make the leaders great. While the official line has been declared in no uncertain terms in the Setiasuaha Agung’s circular of 24 August 2015, that the party agrees with the fundamental demands for clean government, but cannot agree with the method and timing of voicing those demands, the democratic right of every member must be respected. You can attend the demonstration if you wish in your personal capacity, but not as a member of an organised unit.
When the clarion call does not go out, the PAS country-wide machinery will not be activated to mobilise the foot-soldiers to gear up for a show of force. There is not much guessing as to the crowd size because the commitment from the akar umbi as part of the mobilisation exercise will determine the numbers. You do not leave it to chance because the success of a demonstration depends on the number of your supporters who will be there in the public glare.
Don’t forget that the first Bersih on 10 November 2007 was almost wholly a PAS affair, with the opposition political parties (there was no Pakatan Rakyat then) joining hands with a small number of NGOs to organise the rally for the specific purpose of pressing for the rakyat’s right to free and fair elections, so that there can be a level playing field for political parties to contest in general elections and ensure legitimacy for any party or parties in coalition to win a general election and form the government, in line with the basic tenets of a parliamentary democracy.
When NGOs took over from the second Bersih onwards, the change was welcomed so as to rope in more inclusive support from wider society, and PAS was still involved intimately with co-organising the rallies, especially with mobilising its well-trained Unit Amal in their by-now familiar maroon uniforms for crowd control and security. Hadi Awang was committed to the cause of the rakyat exercising their fundamental right to demonstrate peacefully.
It is sad to see that what started out as a people’s movement for a clearly delineated cause to serve the constitutional process of peaceful change has spiralled out of control into more emphasis on superficial sloganeering of all kinds of other demands without the concomitant sustained effort to reach out and educate the masses to imbue them with the right approach as to how they can participate meaningfully and effectively in the electoral process.
No doubt the loud slogans will appeal to the middle classes in the town and cities, who, after having had their first hierarchy of needs fulfilled, will look to something else to fill their lives. The idea of revolution and bringing down governments by street action brings with it a certain cache of romanticism to feed their egos, but deeper intellectual reflection will bring up questions like whether this is what the country needs in a time of crisis in the context of the 21st century, where after the hell of great wars in the 20th century, people all over the world would still want to continue along the same path of violent confrontation with its humongous human and economic costs.
So the alternative offered by the Islamists in launching Kongres Rakyat (People’s Congress) on 21 August 2015 is to be welcomed. Chaired by Tuan Haji Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid, affectionately known as Cikgu Azmi for his long years of involvement in various NGO movements, the congress has registered more than a hundred NGOs under its umbrella – NGOs of farmers, smallholders, factory workers, fishermen, Felda settlers, rubber tappers, orang asal, OKU, students, social activists, academicians and politicians, even the Hindu Sangam of Terengganu.
