Whether black or red, we are all for yellow
COMMENT Whether black or red, the colours conjure one ugly side of Malaysian politics.
Within the past one or two months, it is interesting that those opposing the yellow-T-shirt-clad Bersih convoy participants were mainly members of Umno.
Red was created in response to yellow, with an attempt to mimic the red and yellow shirts that clashed in Thailand.
And here in Malaysia, Sungai Besar Umno division leader Jamal Md Yunos is heading the red-shirts trying to provoke Bersih.
Interestingly, it is only Umno members who are mainly involved in the red-shirt movement. There is no indication that other political parties or their youth leaders are involved in the red-shirts. Perhaps, these leaders from MCA, MIC and Gerakan are occupied with their soft campaign, whereas their counterparts from Umno are out there showing off their invulnerability using silat.
Therefore, after two hours of protests near the Malaysiakini office, for Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin to now dissociate the wing from the red-shirts simply does not make sense. Umno’s signatures are all over the red-shirt movement.
When they rally even without a police permit, they are rarely hauled up by the police. It would be interesting to find out from inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar, whether Jamal had applied for a permit to rally in front of Malaysiakini’s office. They threw bottles at the police, but the police could not act. At the time of writing, only four red-shirts have been hauled up, with Jamal still untouchable.
Although there were only 700 people, Jamal boasted that he had 10,000 supporters. Were the rest having a siesta elsewhere?
In 2015, 200 red shirt supporters turned up in Ampang to rally against the present Selangor state government. Typical of his big mouth, Jamal also boasted that he would rally some 5,000 protesters to “save Selangor from the haphazard alliance”.
Unless one pays for the turnout, it is difficult for any rally organiser to predict the number of people turning up. Even at this point in time, Bersih 5 organisers would not know for sure the number of people who will be coming down to the streets of Kuala Lumpur.
And who would have the reason to protest against Pakatan, unless there are political motivations behind it? In the early days when Selangor was taken over by Pakatan, similar efforts were made to parade in front of the Selangor secretariat office with the head of a cow.
The same with the black shirt movement. When they appeared recently at Menara Umno in Penang, they were also Umno members led by Penang Umno Youth chief Rafizal Rahim. Their objective for the rally was to demand for the Penang chief minister to resign.
Again, we saw from the Sept 16 rally last year, ‘Himpunan Rakyat Bersatu’ was led by former Malacca chief minister Mohd Ali Rustam. Although Mohd Ali claimed that his rally was open to all Malaysians, it did not gain much traction from other races and the majority of the civil society.
He claimed that the Malays had been insulted by the four Bersih rallies, but the first three rallies were in fact, made up mainly of Malays from PAS.
I hope Bersih 5 will also see more Malays and Indians joining hands to support the urging for Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to resign from his position, in order for institutional reforms to be carried out for the sake of a better Malaysia.
COMMENT Whether black or red, the colours conjure one ugly side of Malaysian politics.
Within the past one or two months, it is interesting that those opposing the yellow-T-shirt-clad Bersih convoy participants were mainly members of Umno.
Red was created in response to yellow, with an attempt to mimic the red and yellow shirts that clashed in Thailand.
And here in Malaysia, Sungai Besar Umno division leader Jamal Md Yunos is heading the red shirts trying to provoke Bersih from the day he made his debut in front of former Bersih co-chairperson Ambiga Sreeneevasan’s house.
Interestingly, it is only Umno members who are mainly involved in the red-shirt movement. There is no indication that other political parties or their youth leaders are involved in the red shirts. Perhaps, these leaders from MCA, MIC and Gerakan are occupied with their soft campaign, whereas their counterparts from Umno are out there showing off their invulnerability using silat.
Therefore, after two hours of protests near the Malaysiakini office, for Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin to now dissociate the wing from the red-shirts simply does not make sense. Umno’s signatures are all over the red-shirt movement.
When they rally even without a police permit, they are rarely hauled up by the police. It would be interesting to find out from inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar, whether Jamal had applied for a permit to rally in front of Malaysiakini’s office. They threw bottles at the police, but the police could not act. At the time of writing, only four red-shirts have been hauled up, with Jamal still untouchable.
Although there were only 700 people, Jamal boasted that he had 10,000 supporters. Were the rest having a siesta elsewhere?
In 2015, 200 red shirt supporters turned up in Ampang to rally against the present Selangor state government. Typical of his big mouth, Jamal also boasted that he would rally some 5,000 protesters to “save Selangor from the haphazard alliance”.
Unless one pays for the turnout, it is difficult for any rally organiser to predict the number of people turning up. Even at this point in time, Bersih 5 organisers would not know for sure the number of people who will be coming down to the streets of Kuala Lumpur.
And who would have the reason to protest against Pakatan, unless there are political motivations behind it? In the early days when Selangor was taken over by Pakatan, similar efforts were made to parade in front of the Selangor secretariat office with the head of a cow.
The same with the black shirt movement. When they appeared recently at Menara Umno in Penang, they were also Umno members led by Penang Umno Youth chief Rafizal Rahim. Their objective for the rally was to demand for the Penang chief minister to resign.
Again, we saw from the Sept 16 rally last year, ‘Himpunan Rakyat Bersatu’ was led by former Malacca chief minister Mohd Ali Rustam. Although Mohd Ali claimed that his rally was open to all Malaysians, it did not gain much traction from other races and the majority of the civil society.
He claimed that the Malays had been insulted by the four Bersih rallies, but the first three rallies were in fact, made up mainly of Malays from PAS. I hope Bersih 5 will also see more Malays and Indians joining hands to support the urging for Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to resign from his position, in order for institutional reforms to be carried out for the sake of a better Malaysia.
Difference between red and yellow
Red-shirts smacked themselves with wood showing that they have some form of power beyond this world. This is nothing new. People who dabble with the spirits or have entered into a trance such as a medium would know what kind of spirits these are, and I am personally quite surprised that Islam does not have a fatwa against such practices or for people who consult the bomohs.
Most of the red shirts who turned up at the demonstration at the Malaysiakini office on Saturday were teenagers. Some admitted that they did not even know what the rally was about.
Hearing from people who have worked with the street people, I would not be surprised to learn that some of them may have been picked up from the streets and given the red T-shirt to wear in exchange for food. Based on a video recording, this was exactly what happened on the eve of the Sept 16 red-shirt rally.
Bersih supporters are from the civil society, mainly middle-income professionals and an educated lot. Bersih chairperson Maria Chin Abdullah has warned that Bersih would not hesitate to apprehend anyone caught causing trouble and hand them over to the police.
In Bersih 3, I was surprised to meet an associate professor from the university that I was working in. In Bersih 4, even former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad joined the rally. The wife of former MCA leader Ling Liong Sik also joined Bersih 4 in Perth. In Bersih 5, we are told that a Catholic bishop will also be turning up for the rally, out of his concern for the country’s future.
As I understand it, wives of a number of people with titles of ‘Tan Sri’ who had joined Bersih 4 last year are also planning to join Bersih 5. Former civil servants will also be joining the rally. G25 coordinator Nor Farida Ariffin is likely to join in the rally as well.
Rubbish was seen strewn all over after the red shirt rally at Malaysiakini, and even after picking up the rubbish, Jamal, claiming that the red shirts are a responsible lot, merely dumped the bags of rubbish at Malaysiakini’s doorstep, but during Bersih 3 and 4, I have seen volunteers carrying plastic bags to collect rubbish.
Therefore, for Khairy to claim that unlike the Open Society Foundations (OSF), the donor of RM2.6 billion has no strings attached, it is laughable. Everyone knows that there was no Arab donor, but that the money which went into the private accounts of Malaysian Official No 1 (MO1) - identified by his Umno fellow minister as Najib himself - was all part of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.
STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.
