ANTIDOTE Mad dogs and Anglophile lawyers go out in the midday sun, I was thinking to myself, when I joined the crowd of between 2,000 and 3,000 men and women at Parliament House yesterday, demonstrating against the Peaceful Assembly Bill.

The anti-constitutional Bill is a proudly ironic name, in the same way that our Education Ministry is trying to misinform and brainwash our children, and our health minister is planning to deprive poor Malaysians of access to healthcare services under its 1Care insurance scam. The Justice Ministry has been abolished, presumably because the joke had worn thin.

To my mild surprise, the marching lawyers, renowned  for loquacity, were not as vocal as protestors in other rallies in which I have participated. Even so, their chants of ‘Bebas Himpun!’ and ‘Hidup Rakyat!’ were more than adequate to drown out the desultory chants of 150 pro-Umno supporters across the road at the entrance to Parliament House.

I have great respect for Bar Council leaders like Lim Chee Wee, Ambiga Sreenevasan, Shahrezan Johan and Edmund Bon. They may not be perfect, just as all Malaysians are imperfect, but they know the law and they are unafraid to speak out in defence of justice. Jurisprudence to them is not simply another ‘module’ in law school.

NONEThe lawyers marching to Parliament have also won my respect. By comparison, it would be a Herculean feat to rally, for example, a similar number of teachers to speak out against revisionist history in schools, or doctors to champion patients’ rights in the face of 1Care hijacking of our health system.

In response, the de facto law minister Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz launched an astonishing tirade against the Bar Council: “If you’re unhappy then fight it out in an election,” he cried.

This ridiculous statement would have led to his resignation, or dismissal, in a more enlightened democracy. Still, the minister’s angry outburst was revealing, for three main reasons.

Firstly, it made it clear that BN-led federal government has painted itself into a corner with its racist and corrupt policies, and has created broad opposition throughout society, from farmers toiling in Felda settlements to lawyers working at litigation settlements.

Despite gerrymandering and electoral fraud, no corrupt and unjust government can remain in power forever.  Blatant injustices like Project IC, native customary rights land-grabs and religious discrimination are alienating poorer, rural Malaysians, even the BN vote-bank in Sabah and Sarawak.

Secondly, the defiant response to threats from ministers and the police showed that many Malaysians - lawyers and the general public alike - are no longer cowed by the sound and fury of the BN bullies.

NONE“The new Pakatan Rakyat governments in Selangor and Penang have shown there is an alternative,” a fellow-demonstrator told me, as we walked, gently steaming in the heat.

“In 2008, people woke up after a change of government (in five states) and realised that life goes on. There were no riots.”

Bersih 2.0 has played a crucial role in removing fear of state violence, despite the feral police action on July 9.The massive rally diminished the fear of ethnic riots, and highlighted inter-communal bridging and cooperation: we witnessed the sharing of water and salt among all races during the tear gas attacks. All of us bleed when pricked, and cough when poisoned.

The Kamunting detention centre simply cannot hold the growing numbers of Malaysians willing to stand up against human rights abuse.

The Arab spring has inspired a worldwide revolution in the way we think about people power. Dictatorships have been peacefully toppled in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen, even if parts of the old guard are still clinging on to power.

In these revolutions, as well as in Syria, Libya, Bahrain and the global Occupy Wall Street movement, it is clear that corrupt politicians dazzled by power and money will always be driven to sponsor state violence.

But in modern politics, it has become obvious that violent repression is a somewhat inadequate long-term political strategy.

azlanThirdly, Nazri’s tantrum highlighted the BN’s contempt for our judicial system and for civil society. The minister must be hoping that most of his voters do not understand the role of the Bar, and of NGOs, to champion public interest when BN elected representatives fail in their duty.

Nazri surely understands his party’s electoral success has come predominantly from cynical and deceitful manipulation of the constitution, the mainstream media, the civil service and the education system.

But the ‘dumbing down’ of society is in decline, thanks to an increasingly mobile and young workforce, and the proliferation of smartphones and Internet access among rural populations, even those in Sabah and Sarawak.

The BN leadership is struggling to keep up with demographics and technology. It promises to reinvent and repackage its policies. But these half-hearted publicity stunts are doomed to failure, thanks to its inbuilt conservatism, ingrained in the vested and corrupted interests at the top. The BN leadership is as incapable of reform as a crocodile is of embracing vegetarianism.

Nazri has succeeded in Umno politics by playing to the lowest common denominator of ethnic insecurity. In contrast, Bar Council members have been elected to their posts by their articulate and educated peers. It would be ironic if Nazri, a lawyer, were to stand for election to the Bar Council, because he might well be humiliated.

Penan protesters in harm’s way

The debate over public protests has mostly overlooked the desperate situation of Penan villagers in middle Baram. These villagers have been threatened with violence by state ministers and their cronies in logging conglomerates.

NONELogging and plantation companies have brought in armed gangsters and police field force personnel, but the blockades across their access roads continue, warning them to stay off their land. The Penan remain defiant of the logging companies.

The Penan and other rural Sarawakians have been beaten, kicked, tear-gassed and jailed by police for resisting logging and plantation companies, and some have paid with their lives.

The Penan are a quiet and gentle people, and have never resorted to violence despite provocation. But elsewhere in Sarawak, where loggers have threatened the Bidayuh and Iban, the threats and intimidation have elicited an angry response, with villagers torching loggers’ equipment and camps, without harming the workers.

NONEThe lawyers’ relatively genteel protest outside Parliament and the Penans’ resistance despite threats to their lives, share the same root causes: corruption in high places and contempt for the rakyat.

Perhaps one day we shall look back and realise the Bill was simply another bad law (among dozens) to be eventually repealed. We may, in hindsight, realise the most significant events of the last few months have not been the passing of new, oppressive laws, nor the glorious announcement of fake reforms.

Instead, we may come to see that the greatest transformation in our national politics has been the growing awareness among all Malaysians - ranging from lawyers in the Klang Valley to Penans in the Baram Valley - that history is changing.

Even with increased ‘discretionary powers’, the police are highly unlikely to be able to make history stand still.

KERUAH USIT is a human rights activist - ‘anak Sarawak, bangsa Malaysia’. This weekly column is an effort to provide a voice for marginalised Malaysians. Keruah Usit can be contacted at keruah_usit@yahoo.com



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