Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
| Malaysia's Najib must abandon the Mubarak model Posted: 13 Jul 2011 08:53 AM PDT By Simon Tisdall, Guardian As Najib comes touting for UK trade, Cameron has a chance to show him strong-arm tactics against protesters are unacceptableIt is not in the same league as Arab spring uprisings in Egypt and elsewhere. But Malaysia's fancifully named "hibiscus revolution" has potential, at least, to inflict a winter of discontent on the gormless government of prime minister Najib Razak. That's something David Cameron should bear in mind when Najib comes touting for business in Downing Street on Thursday. Bilateral trade and investment is important. Respect for basic human rights more so. Najib reacted with characteristic heavy-handedness when tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Kuala Lumpur at the weekend demanding "reformasi" – democratic reform – and an end to a defective electoral system that guarantees Najib's party representing the Malay majority, Umno, stays in power indefinitely. About 1,700 people were arrested and many injured as police used baton charges, watercannon and teargas to break up peaceful protests. In an echo of Britain's Ian Tomlinson affair, one protester, identified as Baharuddin Ahmad, 59, collapsed and later died near the Petronas Towers in central Kuala Lumpur while fleeing teargas. Amnesty International said police had beaten many demonstrators. It demanded an investigation into claims they failed to provide prompt assistance to Baharuddin and that there was a 90-minute delay before an ambulance arrived. "Prime minister Najib's government rode roughshod over thousands of Malaysians exercising their right to peaceful protest," Amnesty said. "This violent repression … flies in the face of international human rights standards and cannot be allowed to continue. David Cameron should tell prime minister Najib that these human rights violations are unacceptable." The protests, the product of rising tensions linked to mooted early elections, spending cuts and political upheavals in neighbouring Thailand and Singapore, echo events across the Muslim world. Many of the participants were reportedly younger-generation Malaysians kicking back against establishment cronyism, curbs on public assembly and debate, and state-imposed censorship considered draconian even by regional standards. Within hours of the violence, a Facebook petition demanding Najib resign was attracting 300 "likes" per minute, the (Singapore-based) Straits Times reported. As of this morning, more than 172,000 people had expressed support. "I don't understand why the harshness, the beatings," posted Sofie Muhammad. "The crowd didn't even throw stones at the shops. Why is the government afraid? All we want is free elections." Videos were also recorded by protesters. Marimuthu Manogaran of the Democratic Action party, representing the ethnic Chinese minority, said many of the protesters were "first timers". "Young people [are] coming out there to demand their rights … and I think that is a good sign for Malaysia," he told Luke Hunt of the Diplomat. Another report, denied by police, said a hospital where protesters had taken refuge was attacked by security forces – an incident akin to events in Bahrain earlier this year. Appalled by the behaviour of police and federal reserve unit special forces, Bersih 2.0, the opposition "coalition for clean and fair elections", called for a royal commission of inquiry and vowed to continue its reformasi campaign, come what may. Anwar Ibrahim, the veteran opposition leader endlessly persecuted by successive governments on trumped-up sodomy charges (he is due in court again next month), was among those injured. He said later the government had lost the people's confidence and more street protests were inevitable. "We will have to pursue free elections inside and outside of parliament," he warned. Far from admitting fault, Najib has threatened more strong-arm tactics if the demos continue. "Don't doubt our strength. If we want to create chaos, we can. Umno has 3 million members. If we gather 1 million members, it is more than enough. We can conquer Kuala Lumpur," he said. Such threats seem ill-advised. When elected in 2009, Najib promised to bridge Malaysia's political, ethnic and religious divisions. Now he's in danger of exacerbating them, as his old boss, Malaysia's founding father Mahathir Mohammed, suggested in a recent interview. Malaysia is not on the verge of revolution, hibiscus-coloured or otherwise. Relatively speaking, it is more stable, homogenous and prosperous than other Muslim or Arab countries currently experiencing popular turmoil. But it is not politically immune to the international zeitgeist, any more than its economy is immune to global trends. This latter consideration explains why Najib is in London. And it gives Cameron and other European leaders leverage should they choose to use it. Malaysians need only look north to see how Thai voters defied the political-military establishment and voted in a leader of their choice. When Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi speaks of the twin imperatives of freedom and democracy, she speaks for an entire region. And if Malaysians look south to Singapore or east to Hong Kong, they see entrenched ruling elites under determined challenge by activists emboldened by the spirit of change. Malaysia's leaders should wake up and smell the coffee. Led intelligently and openly, Malaysia could be a paradigm for south-east Asia. Led repressively, it could fall apart. Najib must get on the right side of history. The Mubarak model doesn't work. |
| Posted: 12 Jul 2011 04:46 PM PDT
Two — that if nothing else, Saturday was a reminder to both the Najib administration as well as Pakatan Rakyat that the people of Malaysia are in fact, the boss. Zeffri Yusof, The Malaysian Insider As Malaysia takes in the aftermath of Bersih 2.0, a few things have been laid quite bare by events in our capital over the weekend. One — that tens of thousands of Malaysians can accomplish what most of us already know we're capable of doing: unite for a common cause. And no, not necessarily a drummed-up one handed down from up top, but a grassroots one based on the universal values of justice and fair play that transcends religious, racial and even political interests. The fact is, many of us already do this with our multiracial friends, co-workers and neighbours, so only the truly integration-challenged folks out there would raise an eyebrow at this. Two — that if nothing else, Saturday was a reminder to both the Najib administration as well as Pakatan Rakyat that the people of Malaysia are in fact, the boss. All of us – not just the majority but the minorities as well. Any politician or political faction that forgets, chooses to ignore, or worse, asks that the people be "grateful" would do so at their peril. You can't want to cultivate a knowledge-based society and not deal with what naturally comes with it – a thinking populace with strong opinions to put forth. Three — that no amount of propaganda or choreographed mainstream media campaign by the government can gloss over; much less overturn the honest, heartfelt and emotionally resonant personal accounts that have been shared, re-shared and made viral for and by the more than 17 million Malaysians who now regularly access the Internet. The poignant words and images of #bersihstories have collectively bore witness, recording a moment in our history that would echo on. Indeed, the mindshare slam dunk also exposes just how out-of-touch existing government machinery is in dealing with information age realities. Some GTP NKRAs may be in need of a relook. Four — that no one is really swayed anymore by the tired, disingenuous argument that street rallies and demonstrations "tarnish" the country's image... whatever that is supposed to mean. On a personal level, how many of us really occupy our time thinking about and judging other people? Aren't we busy enough with our own matters? Did the French racial riots tarnish their country's image? Did Tahrir square condemn Egypt in the eyes of the world? And no, for the pedants out there I am not necessarily equating the two with Bersih 2.0. Besides, image should arise from substance, not artificially shaped by what façade we would like to portray to outsiders. For lessons on that, we can always look to the likes of North Korea. Five — that at the end of the day, those who shout the loudest are often the ones without the stuff to back it up. Of all the factions that were supposed to "show" on the day, only one really mattered in the end. And more importantly, it was plain for observers to see that it was the one non-partisan cause that represented the concerns of ordinary Malaysians who just wanted to exercise their constitutional right to peaceful assembly. Six — and certainly most damning of all is that whether by miscalculation or incompetence, the police's actions and especially the FRU's excessive show of force on the day had more or less ensured that the government of the day loses yet more hearts and minds, particularly that of our youth — including and especially those who only experienced their political awakening on July 9th.
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