Political violence - the nature of the beast

Malaysiakini - Penang anti-Lynas rally disrupted, smooth elsewhere

The Penang leg of solidarity gatherings for the Himpunan Hijau 2.0 rally in Kuantan was the sole event which saw disruptions, with two journalists hurt during a fracas that erupted at the rally.

Himpunan Hijau supporters began gathering at the Penang Esplanade were met by a hostile group, which includes local leaders from Umno Youth and Malay rights pressure group Perkasa, numbering about 50.

Several members of this group have often been spotted at anti-Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng rallies organised by Suara Anak-Anak Malaysia and Komtar Traders Association vice president Abdul Ghani Mohammed Jiman.

Sometimes I wonder why police have to take such drastic actions against innocuous assemblies like candlelight vigils or even massive rallies like Bersih. Likewise, UMNO-Perkasa thugs shouldn’t have wrecked the Himpunan Hijau in Penang.

If the police had ignored those candlelight vigils, their messages would have had the life span of a butterfly, and in the cases of the bigger rallies, if the police had not taken aggressive and brutal (totally unnecessary) actions against the protestors, like firing tear gas into a hospital where the participants were seeking refuge, I wonder just how much value (or sympathy and thus support) would have the rallies wrought from the public?

Thanks to the hooliganism of UMNO-Perkasa thugs in Penang Himpunan Hijau assembly, Pakatan will undoubtedly receive more votes in the next state as well as federal eletcions.

Today, in Free Malaysia Today’s article Gerakan man slams Umno’s thug politics Baljit Singh, head of Penang Gerakan’s legal and human rights bureau warned UMNO to cease and desist from thuggery-style politics as it’s counterproductive to BN cause.

Baljit, who I observed had been vocal against UMNO’s Mat Rempit-ish politics on a number of occasions, was speaking in regard to the anti-Lynas protest at the Penang Esplanade Speaker’s Square yesterday.

He warned that such thuggery will see BN kissing goodbye to Putrajaya in the next polls. He came to the point he wanted to make, namely, that UMNO’s thuggery will cause collateral damage to other BN component parties because of guilt by association with UMNO.

Baljit is right of course but I doubt his appeals to Tai Koe will be heeded. ‘Tis the nature of the UMNO beast to resort to such violence.

Now now kaytee, don’t you think it’s rude to say that UMNO has a proclivity to thuggery politics?

Well, I so happen to recall that sometime in 1996, there was an international conference in Kuala Lumpur called Apcet, the second ‘Asia-Pacific Conference on East Timur’ which was convened to propose a peaceful solution to the Indonesian militant oppression of East Timorese in Dili. The conference was held at Asia Hotel.

On 20 July 2007, a person by the name of Joe Gombak wrote a letter to Malaysiakini asking whether our mainstream media knows exactly which aspects of Malaysia's political culture could possibly benefit other countries. Gombak was of course being sarcastic in sneering at one of our mainstream press’ gratuitous article about how Malaysia was a wonderful example of unity and diversity. He confessed he nearly vomited after reading that bull, and indicated his displeasure, distress and disgust at the rotten state of affair, to wit, our failed state.

What attracted me to his letter was his statement: Our dominant ethnic political party organizes mob violence at venues (such as the Apcet II meeting) whenever the occasion suits itself, and unashamedly threatens violence against the ethnic minorities at its AGM (Kerishamudin's ‘keris’-waving and ‘bathe it in blood’ antics courtesy of national television) and not to mention mobilizing its youth wing mobs to threaten to burn down a public building belonging to an ethnic minority - the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall.

Indeed, indeed, but I wonder whether Joe Gombak was aware of who was the acting PM when the UMNO thugs went to Asia Hotel to wreck violence on Apcet II?

Hint – this was in the mid-1996 and Dr Mahathir was away in Ghana, hence there had to be an acting PM back at home. The then acting PM actually praised the mob violence which disrupted the Apcet II meeting and forced its abandonment.

He declared after UMNO Youth’s successful disruption of Apcet II: “Our mission was to stop the conference and we did just that.”

Wah, congratulations lah, hoe liao man!

Incidentally, did you know that Tian Chua was a member of the organizing committee of Apcet II? Wakakaka. No, jokes aside, I really did admire him for his pre-PKR human rights activities but since he joined PKR, pffffffft wakakaka again. But he was a victim of the mob violence at Apcet II.

The other PKR person involved (also a victim) was the party’s former Deputy President Dr Syed Husin Ali, who was physically abused in the UMNO-perpetrated violence.

OK, let’s revisit what Dr Syed Husin Ali, victim of that incident said during the court case in which the victims successfully filed a RM83 million suit over their wrongful detention by police on the opening day of Apcet II, which as mentioned, was stormed by the UMNO mob.

The doctor said he recognised 3 UMNO blokes who were among the rioters. They were wakakaka Saifuddin Nasution, Ruslan Khamis and Mustapha Yaakub. He knew them because Saifuddin Nasution and Ruslan Khamis joined PKR subsequently [though the latter returned to UMNO].

It was reported that Dr Husin actually grinned when he mentioned Saifuddin’s name – a sort of ‘hmmm, what a very very small world!’ or perhaps 'goodness gracious me, I'm now in the same party with a thug at Apcet II' wakakaka.

You know Saifuddin Nasution , don’t you? wakakaka. He is PKR’s current sec-gen and a member of Anwar Ibrahim’s inner coterie, that exclusive party within the PKR party that RPK told us about (and which PKR members like Tian Chua, Eli Wong and Sivarasa won't have a ghost of a chance of ever being privy to their deliberations), and as the party sec-gen the man who dismissed angry complaints about the PKR party polling process. Wakakaka.

This was what the mob did to Dr Syed, according to Dr Syed’s statement to the court:

… the 300-strong BN angry mob broke down the doors and invaded the conference hall carrying sticks and chairs in their hands.

Dr Syed further revealed: “One of them who had in his hand a food-container half-filled with water, emptied the contents all over me. He shouted at me saying, ‘Get out! Get out!’. It was mayhem.”

“I was personally assaulted by three persons. They used force and pulled my hands and body. They kept insisting that I should leave the hall.”

I just wonder whether they were the same 3 persons he recognized, wakakaka?

Saifuddin, one of those wreckers turned reformed (pun intended) apologist, who was then No 3 in the UMNO Youth leadership hierarchy but now the PKR sec-gen, admitted it was indeed an UMNO orchestrated attack on the conference. But naturally he placed the blame on (1) Megat Junid, at that time deputy Home minister, (2) Zahid Hamidi, UMNO Youth Chief, and of course (3) the bete noire of PKR, Dr Mahathir.

Then, when Dr Mahathir arrived home from Ghana, Megat Junid and Saifuddin met him, where Saifuddin related "Megat told Mahathir that it was all orchestrated."

Now, isn’t it just strange that, according to Saifuddin (who is now, just a reminder, the current sec-gen of PKR), Dr Mahathir who gave the approval for the disruption of Aptet was informed by Megat Junid that “It was all orchestrated.”

Tell me, is it logical that Mahathir who, according to Saifuddin, allegedly gave his approval in the first place had to be so informed by Megat Junid? Wouldn’t Megat Junid have said “Semua kowtim Datuk” instead of "It was all orchestrated."

And I ask again: Who was in charge at home when Mahathir was away in Ghana? Was it possible for this person not to be aware of affairs that his sidekick Zahid Hamidi (the man he used in a failed attempt to drive Dr M into expeditious retirement) and Saifuddin were up to?

If you read this link again, isn't it amazing, that according to Saifuddin Nasution, those that PKR coincidentally hates, namely, Dr M and Zahid Hamidi (both in Ghana), and Hishamuddin (in Singapore) were asked for directions and approval to disrupt Apcet II, while someone at home, yes, in Malaysia as the acting PM, was not even mentioned at all and thus portrayed as clean as a whistle? The bullshit was just too f* rich, wakakaka.

And aren’t we also aware that Megat Junid had been accused as the architect of one person’s fall from UMNO's grace?

But recall this, who boasted of the UMNO disruption of Aptet II:

“Our mission was to stop the conference and we did just that.”

Sure as hell wasn't Dr M, Hishamuddin, Zahid Hamidi or Megat Junid (mind you, not that they're angels).

Strange [or should it be] that Saifuddin Nasution didn’t even once mention his name, despite that person's very vocal boast: “Our mission was to stop the conference and we did just that” wakakaka.

You want to wait for Saifuddin to confess? Manmanlai, or as a matey of mine would say, tankookoo (tunggu2 selamanya).

But I wonder what those anwaristas who have been and are no doubt condemning the police in Kuantan's Himpun Hijau rally and the UMNO-Perkasa thugs in Penang's Himpun Hijau rally would say of the by-far-worse 'orchestrated' mob violence at Apcet II?