How Patriot helped defeat Barisan Nasional

Wong Ang Peng, The Malaysian Insight

AS the minutes ticked from the midnight of May 9 to the early hours of May 10, my emotion was a mixed cocktail of trepidation, then exuberance and tears of joy.

Thanks to the Almighty, Malaysia had been reborn.

Like many others, Patriot was singled out as a significant contributor to this historic moment.

Where did this organisation of military and police veterans come from? Why did this collection of Malaysians who served the uniformed services with distinction answer the call of duty again?

The six months leading to GE14 saw Barisan Nasional’s outsourced assailants, such as Raja Petra Kamarudin (RPK) and Jamal Md Yunos, and religious bigots and racist politicians play the race and religion card.

The repugnance could be felt throughout civil society. With the institutional apparatus under the control of the ruling party, the opposition was handicapped against the onslaught of BN’s agents.

The modus operandi of the political campaign employed by BN was causing the fragile social and ethnic fabric of Malaysian society to be put under further stress.

As members of the security forces who had once risked our lives to fight our nation’s enemies, tolerated prolonged hardship and helped bring about peace to our beloved country, we were not going to stand idle and watch our beloved Malaysia being torn apart by BN politicians.

Jamal was a pretender and the public soon found out he had no fangs after Patriot successfully called for his arrest and his honorary membership of the KL Commando Veterans Association to be withdrawn, after his beer-bottle smashing antics.

Patriot also caught out RPK as a great liar when he said Brig-Gen (rtd) Mohd Arshad Raji (pic), president of National Patriot’s Association, received millions of ringgit from Dr Mahathir Mohamad through former attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail.

Weaving and spinning lies has been RPK’s style of writing for a long time. His intention has always been to sow confusion and hatred.

Also contributing to this vicious and divisive climate were Umno politicians, particularly apologists for former prime minister Najib Razak.

Left with little choice, Patriot entered the fray and spoke up against these pretenders, liars, spinners, and bigots.

This small band of aging former soldiers and police officers led by Arshad soon were recognised in the civil society space.

When prominent civil society groups expressed the desire to work together in areas of good governance and for the betterment of our society, Patriots humbly embraced them all. Armed with new allies and strengthened resolve, selective thrust in campaign direction was determined.

Bersih 2.0 requested Patriot’s help to reach military and police veterans and serving security forces personnel.

Invoke also reached out to Patriot to address the problem of having sufficient polling and counting agents in camps and other security installations.

We also heard horror stories about a single officer marking ballot papers for all other personnel.

There were also stories about how the final ballot box of votes arriving at the eleventh hour after the count had indicated an opposition win, but finally turned the tide with the last-minute addition of ballots of postal/early voters.

Furthermore, Patriot understood that there was speculation on possible trouble after GE14.

In the mother of all elections, Patriot did what it had to do.

It wasn’t a walk in the park.

Patriot committee members received incessant crank calls. Some of us also prepared ourselves to be called in by Special Branch.

It was expected that Arshad would receive a “visit” from SB after the elections and as the PR director, I would be next.

Picturing myself being interrogated, my best “mitigation” would be to tell my interrogators that I had risked stepping on booby-traps during my years of jungle operations fighting the nation’s enemies, and that today, I still carry an enemy bullet in my leg after the shooting incident on June 1, 1979.

A few media statements, both in English and Malay, were issued to remind serving security personnel that their votes would be a secret and could not be traced to them. Officers and commanders were reminded of the Election Offences Act 1954.

Reaching out to the men in uniform proved effective. The numerous media statements about righteousness resonated with them.

Video clips of Patriots asking the public and members of the security forces to come out to vote without fear or favour, and to ignore the #UndiRosak campaign, were also produced and disseminated.

Patriot’s final plea to come out to vote in large numbers was in the form of a video with a sajak recitation, Kembalinya Pahlawan Silam, to arouse patriotic spirit of the people.

The YouTube video had more than 10,000 views in less than a week, and probably doubled that with shared viewing.

While the Pakatan Harapan politicians were busy on the ground campaigning, Patriot’s approach was subtle persuasion through media statements and short video clips, lending their voice particularly to where it was needed most – the veterans and the men and women still serving in the military and police.

Three weeks prior to the polling date, Patriot announced that their members would be mobilised in monitoring the early voting at military and police establishments throughout the country.

Patriot would also be involved as polling and counting agents. That announcement sent a clear message that any cheating or discrepancy in postal and early voting would not be tolerated. That was important, as the bulk of the early voters were those serving security forces personnel and their family members.

Patriot also issued a few statements calling on the inspector-general of police and armed forces chief to be professional and to do the right thing in the event an emergency was declared.

On the eve of polling day, Patriot issued a final statement to again urge the IGP and the armed forces chief to be neutral and be vigilant and arrest any trouble-makers, especially in the hours prior to the announcement of the electoral results. As witnessed, the tense hours passed very slowly but passed by without any incident.

Looking back, Patriot positioned itself to be apolitical but critical voice on important issues.

We stood up to be counted when the need arose, and lent our voice to the people’s call for change. The pre-emptive statements issued possibly had the desired effect and dissuaded any criminal act and conduct that might have been planned. No one knows for sure.

For now, let us continue to rejoice for the rebirth our beloved country.

* Wong Ang Peng is public relations director of Patriot.