How do you spell Democracy?
Technorati tags: Democracy, Totalitarianism, Bersih, Malaysia, Electoral Reforms, Police State
This has to be the proverbial straw that has broken Walski's back.
From this day forth, any claims by anyone in government, and BN (or their respective sycophants), will be acknowledged with a respectul salute using Walski's middle finger. On both hands.
Bersih memo: Four top opposition leaders, 10 others arrested
Four top opposition leaders were arrested this morning for trying to deliver a Bersih memorandum to Parliament on the extension of Election Commission chief's retirement age.
Among those arrested are PKR information chief Tian Chua, PAS treasurer Dr Hatta Ramli and party committee member Dr Lo'Lo' Ghazali, Parti Socialist Malaysia secretary-general S Arulchelvan.
According to eyewitnesses, the police surrounded Tian Chua’s vehicle and forcibly removed him before arresting him at about 10.40am. Another person in the car was also detained.
Chua had failed to stop at the roadblock and insisted on moving forward before the police swooped in on him.
About 10 minutes later, Arutchelvan and another identified person have also been arrested for trying to break the police cordon.The PAS leaders were also arrested shortly after nearby.
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Oh, and the English dictionaries in Malaysia, from this day forth until some real change happens, will spell the word "democracy" as t-o-t-a-l-i-t-a-r-i-a-n-i-s-m. When civil society calls for electoral reforms are made, particularly when the head of the Election Commission himself has admitted that the playing field is not exactly level, this sort of treatment is a sheer mockery of any claims to democracy.
If the government has any sliver of dignity left, then Malaysia should respectfully withdraw itself from the UN Human Rights Council with immediate effect. "Public safety" must take precedence over civil liberties (via The Star)? Which fucking dream world do you live in, old man?
(democratically fucked up, and more, in the full post)
Today, democracy just got a new definition: a government naively voted in by the people, for some people, and screw the rest.
You have to wonder about this "public safety" schmuck-screen - when 500 police personnel are deployed to harass 50 - 100 peaceful marchers, it's no wonder our crime rate has sky-rocketed. Blasted off the scale, to altitudes higher than our angkasawan (astronaut) could ever dream of reaching. Reading between the lines, "public safety" really has to mean "political safety". BN's political safety, that is.
Okay, now that Walski's let off some of that pent up steam, let's calm down a tad...
Yesterday, blogger Maverick SM posted about an interview the NaSTy published, by the impressive Aniza Damis, with former Deputy Prime Minister Musa Hitam. Walski has created a PDF version of the interview which you can download. The former DPM is diplomatically critical of how the current government has reacted to the people's desire for freedom of expression and peaceful dissent.
Now, you may not have the best of opinions about Musa Hitam while he was in government (neither does Walski), but let's give credit where credit is due. What the man says makes a lot of sense, in this case, and you should give the interview a read, if you can.
What he says, to paraphrase in a nutshell, is this: the more you clamp down, the more you try to sic the police to clampdown on the desire for expression and dissent, the more resentment and pent up feelings you're going to create. In fact, the heavy police presence in itself is a factor in things turning ugly (as we've witnessed for ourselves).
But Walski's view is that the AAB government is running scared. They know they've not done a good job, but don't have the decency, nor will, to intelligently engage their critics. We're talking about a stalwart cabinet, a portion of whom have outlived their useful shelf life, and another portion whom are defective and shouldn't be where they are in the first place. But do AAB and his Tonto have the will to make a real, honest to goodness change?
Again, Walski doesn't think so. Instead, the old Stalinist methods of crackdowns are used to silence the critics, and fear is used to keep the people's sentiments under wraps. This is a government that has devolved into one that wants to keep on to the reins of power by any means necessary. Including using the ISA, if necessary, using national security as an excuse. From yesterday, we now know that "national security" includes defying the KL City Council (DBKL) from carrying out their duties. Or at least according to Abdul Ghani "No Bail" Patail, Malaysia's Attorney General.
As buddy blogger KTemoc had written yesterday, in his post entitled "Threatening national security with your sneeze!":
If those were the ‘grounds’ for his objections to bail for a small group of peaceful people, it sure as hell reflects on his pathetic, or even absence of, professionalism and intellectual capacity. Even the Sessions Judge, Komathy Suppiah, saw it necessary to reject his idiotic arguments and allow bail for all the accused.
How in the world did he get to be the nations’ No 1 Law Officer?
(source: KTemoc Konsiders)
Yeah, how in the world, indeed. But based on the title of his post, Walski has just realized that it is possible to jeopardize national security with your sneeze.
The Bahasa Malaysia word for sneeze is "bersin" - just one letter different from bersih (Bahasa Malaysia: meaning "clean"), which has, of late, become a dirty word in the BN-led government's vocabulary. What Bersih (the organization, not the word) is calling for will surely pose a threat to BN's steamroller performance in the next general elections.
And just like how "public safety" really means BN's "political safety", what "No Bail" Patail in this case really means is Barisan "Nasional's security".
Which brings Walski to his final point: a government should serve the people, and therefore be scared of it. Not the other way around. Enjoy this video which was recommended to Walski a few days ago. You may find some of it eeriely familiar.
Now, if any of you BN cyber-mules are reading/watching this, tell your bosses, in hopes that it may some sense into the incumbent government's collective blockhead noggin. Before it's too late. For them.
Have you registered to vote?
