No bloodbath, there’s too much to lose
This Saturday was supposed to see only the yellow-shirts of the Bersih rally at Dataran Merdeka, but the red-shirts want to stop them by rallying as well.
Bersih has a cause, which is to draw public attention to the need for systemic reform to save Malaysia’s democracy, including clean elections, clean government, upholding the right to dissent. What is the red-shirts’ cause?
On the side, the rally dubbed Bersih 5 is urging Najib Abdul Razak to step down as prime minister in order to allow for independent investigations into the corruption scandal surrounding him. It looks obvious that the red-shirts are against that.
Their leader, Jamal Md Yunos, is, after all, the chief of the Sungai Besar Umno division, and Umno information chief Annuar Musa has said that the party’s members can join the red-shirts rally.
Bersih has time and again reminded its supporters that their rally must be peaceful, but Jamal has more than once talked of “blood”.
Three weeks ago, he said he would do anything, even “bathe in blood”, to stop Bersih 5. Last Sunday, after getting punched in the nose during a scuffle between the police and his Red Shirts at a shopping mall, he threatened that “blood will be paid in blood”.
Is he for real?
Obviously, the inspector-general of police (IGP) Khalid Abu Bakar doesn’t think so. He has said, “Jamal has been making a lot of statements, but nothing comes of them.”
Is Jamal a bully whose bark is worse than his bite? Will nothing come out of the avowed confrontation between the yellows and the reds this Saturday? Will Jamal be able to even gather a big enough crowd to match the expected Bersih numbers?
This is where it will matter very much for Bersih supporters to come forward on Saturday to overwhelm the Reds in numbers. And how can they not come forward when they will be supporting the much nobler cause? How can they not stand up to a bully that is trying to muffle Bersih’s messages calling for reform? How can they buckle under the threats of violence that the bully spouts?
Besides, I don’t think there will be violence. I don’t think Saturday will see a bloodbath.
The police will be monitoring the situation closely. That’s because it is most unlikely that Najib will allow violence to break out after he has secured lots of spoils from China that could benefit fellow Umnoputras. The East Coast Rail Link alone is going to cost RM55 billion. Imagine how much benefit the cronies are going to get from it. You can bet the red-shirts are with Najib. They will not rock his boat.
China, too, would expect a peaceful and trouble-free Malaysia if it is to invest substantially here. So would the 4 million Chinese citizens who Najib says should be coming next year. Surely, the government would not allow violence to break out and frighten them away.
To put it metaphorically, this Saturday, China will be holding a string tied to Najib’s testicles, and Najib will be holding one tied to Jamal’s testicles and another to the IGP’s. None of them would want to risk the strings getting pulled.
