reduced and recycled

I can almost hear the screams of panic and the alarm bells going off in every Barisan Nasional member’s head as I sit and type this. It’s the second rally in as many weeks and the Police have demonstrated that they are willing to take action, or “kekerasan” as some who have been there report. Is this a sign of nerves? Is this a sign that the authorities in general are starting to lose patience with peaceful Malaysians trying to make their anger felt? In Myanmar, the junta didn’t wait for protests to run several weeks before taking decisive and brutal action. I was hoping it wouldn’t come to that, but thinking about it later made me realized that violence would always be a viable option for those inured to its use.

How much more will it take before BN government cracks and orders the unthinkable? From what I saw on TV, and from the pictures that are now coming in, what’s clear is that the government might be on the brink of the Next Step (c). But then again, so are the people. What really shook me, what really got to me, and what really gave me goosebumps was the fact that the participants of the rally had learned to pick up those tear gas canisters, and have learned to lob them back at the Police. As far as I can remember, from reading accounts at Masjid Jamek during the BERSIH rally, this never happened. The Indians fought back. They fought back because they had no where else to go.

In the midst of this rally, Malaysians nationwide who subscribe to the New Straits Times woke up this morning to pie charts, bar charts and figures purporting to take the pulse of the Malaysian public. The Merdeka Centre, in association with some foundation or another, had conducted a poll on how the public feels about the Badawi administration. I couldn’t help but think that the results were staged for release on the very day that Hindraf held the rally, as if to assure the people at large that the participants of today’s rally were the unruly minority who didn’t believe in Pak Lah’s absentee leadership. I won’t believe a single bit of those reports in the NST today unless I can get a hold of the raw data, and unless I know how such a poll was carried out. I trust statistics as much as I trust Judas Iscariot, having had to prepare a few for customers.

The point is, it is fast approaching the time when Barisan Nasional must decide how it will deal with Malaysians seeking true justice, equality and freedom. Will this back BN into a corner, and will this mean a more strident, hard-nosed stance on Malay / UMNOputera privileges? Will it mean more violent crackdowns, and a ready use of force?

There was the BERSIH rally and the Hindraf rally today. Fatigue and wariness after the BERSIH rally immediately put me on a defensive footing when Anwar Ibrahim suggested holding another one a week after 10-Eleven. I was wary, wary of political actors seizing the initiative and making these rallies about them rather than about the rakyat. I see now that it might be important to maintain a firm pressure on the Barisan government in order to force them to their knees. It is like catching a snake; I remember this survival training fler teaching us young scouts about catching snakes with a forked staff. The trick isn’t to break the snake’s spine but to maintain enough pressure on its neck so it can’t wriggle free.

Rallies prove that they paralyze the government, forcing them to go on the defensive. All you’ve got to do is recall how anxious Khairy Jamaluddin and Nazri were to assure us on Al-Jazeera’s 101East that Malaysia was still democratic.

If you’re looking for more proof of the effectiveness of such a strategy, the response in the press should suffice. It’s been a hailstorm of spin since the BERSIH rally, and there will soon be yet another one from tomorrow onwards. I can find a small place in my heart to pity the overworked editors and writers (yes, writers, not reporters or journalists - they don’t deserve being called the latter) who must be working crunch-time hours trying to figure out ways to spin the facts. The question now, I suppose, will be just how much more pressure from the rakyat is necessary?

I would just like to point out one last thing, here. I think its time NGOs and other civil action groups stop shying away from rallies such as the one held by Hindraf. I won’t attempt to work out a logical, moral argument for the need to support groups like Hindraf. What I can say is to repeat what Polytikus says most eloquently:

“Remember, injustice on one is an in justice to all. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

I think in this struggle, we cannot fail to see that the hurt suffered by one community under the hands of Barisan Nasional is an indictment of the rest of us as Malaysians. I would like to think that we’re all Anak Bangsa Malaysia and we are all brothers and sisters under the same sky. Maybe it’s time we all start looking out for each other.