Vilifying Bersih will not put food on table

Vilifying Bersih will not put food on table

S Thayaparan


“Our masters have not heard the people's voice for generations and it is much, much louder than they care to remember.”

- Alan Moore, V for Vendetta

COMMENT | What really angers me about the Bersih demonstrations described as riots is the fact that there have been Malay political operatives who have actually threatened riots and got away with it.

Here is former Sungai Besar Umno division chief Jamal Md Yunos in 2015, threatening the kind of violence that Bersih has been characterised as advocating: "If the authorities don't act by Friday, I am 99 percent certain on Saturday, there would be a rally and a riot may happen."

Mind you, so concerned that there could be violence against the Chinese community that the then Chinese ambassador Huang Huikang visited Petaling Street and said: "But with regard to the infringement on China's national interests, violations of legal rights and interests of Chinese citizens and businesses which may damage the friendly relationship between China and the host country, we will not sit by idly."

If this is not a “black mark” on our nation’s history, I do not know what is.

Other black marks include Umno Youth rioting and disrupting the Apcet II civil society gathering, Zulkifli Noordin and cohorts threatening violence against the Bar Council regarding a religious forum, and, of course, who could forget the Low Yat riots.

The riot in Low Yat Plaza in 2015


Who can forget when Umno Youth threatened to burn down PKR’s headquarters because they wanted PKR to withdraw from the Bersih 2 protests, or when Umno Youth threatened to burn down the DAP headquarters?

Or how about when Jaringan Melayu Malaysia president Azwanddin Hamzah threatened to attack a Klang police station?

"My warning to them, immediately arrest the developer, arrest the lawyers. If not, ladies and gentlemen, we will attack the Klang police station," Azwanddin had said.

What Bersih has been about

Riots are about violence. Whenever right-wing supremacists hold gatherings and threaten violence, they are coddled by the state.

Remember the infamous cow head protest? This was surely a black mark on the nation's history made blacker because then home minister Hishammuddin Hussein sat down with the protesters and claimed they were not to be blamed.

“All they wanted to do was to voice their unhappiness and the unwillingness of the state government to consider their request,” Hishammuddin said.

Funny, this is exactly what every Bersih has been about. People voiced their discontent towards the state and with Bersih protests, no animal heads were used.

Demonstrations can lead to violence and most often it is the agent of the state that disrupts peaceful protests and brings violence to the demonstrations.

At its best, what Bersih does is remind Malaysians that we are all in this together. This of course is what hegemonic regimes fear the most.

This is why anyone calling for violence at a Bersih rally should be vilified like I publicly did here when some folks actually thought that it was a good idea to storm Dataran Merdeka.

Reckoning is coming

I wrote in 2012 that Bersih was indeed our answer to the Rio carnival. It was our carnival of people of different races and creeds marching together under a common banner for the betterment of all, instead of slavish devotees to political parties which make compromises on our behalf which usually benefits only them.

It was a multiracial, multireligious street party which is what this type of regime fears the most. They fear people of all races and religions coming under a common cause, and even worse, a non-partisan cause of their own free will.

It is not only important that people do not publicly voice their dissent, it is vitally important that diverse groups of people do not come together to voice their dissent.

The reason for this is simple. It dispels the illusion that racial and religious preoccupations divide us when what really divides us are the instruments of the states, including compromised and unjust laws and policy decisions.

The dangerous idea of the Bersih rallies is that each time it is held, more diversity is introduced into our public spaces. The dangerous idea is that large groups of people of different races, and political and racial ideologies are congregating with a specific goal of demonstrating their discontent against the government of the day.

All Malaysians do is engage in rhetoric and mostly online. When they stop and engage in action, change is possible. What the huge number of people gathering and demanding reform does is that it reminds the powers that be that people are holding them accountable.

But this is not really about Bersih.

Why is it that the hegemonic forces in control of this country are afraid of people protesting over price hikes? It’s because this is about the most primal of issues.

This affects people who have very little, to begin with. This affects people who for years were told that they were looked after by virtue of their race and their religious beliefs.

A reckoning is coming, brought upon by incompetent management, decades of corruption and civil spaces being conceded to religious extremists and racial supremacists. All this privilege means nothing when the food on your table grows scarcer.

So, what do you do? You vilify public protest and scapegoat Bersih.

S THAYAPARAN is a commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”