In the midst of the (alternative) media storm was news that a blogger had been hauled up and taken away by the fuzz. I feel both DSAI’s day in court today and Penarik Beca’s arrest confirms that to me that we are firmly in it, and the final pieces are being put in place for an all out war.
It’s like the battle lines have been drawn, with Anwar Ibrahim afforded bail, with Bakaq’s arrest being UMNO’s attempt to teach bloggers - and anyone else - the virtues of silence. Bakaq has been arrested under the Sedition Act. It feels like the implements of an obsolete past are being paraded out for one final act, just one more scene.
It’s pretty funny, all of this. It’s like one big sandiwara getting ready for the grand finale to be broadcast all around the world; I was a little shocked this evening when I checked out the number of news stories on Anwar’s posting bail with news services all over the world carrying a bit of the story. Seems like everyone else are having a good laugh at Malaysia at our expense.
Our own mainstream media, no doubt, will be at the heart of this great shadow play and will find some way to liven up the festivities with colourful bullshit. Bloggers and such will grow incensed over the articles and will post online, declaiming the mainstream media and such. If the government were two-step or even three-step thinkers, they would surely have anticipated this.
Which makes sense of Bakaq’s arrest, maybe. Even if it isn’t the main intention, giving other bloggers pause is definitely a side effect the powers-that-be wouldn’t mind. I know it chilled me to the bone how, once again, the government drives home an important point: flailing for life, slipping at the edge of the precipe UMNO may be, but it still has the power to rob you of everything you have in this life. This is the government demonstrating its divine right to punish you for being, apparently, seditious.
And while Anwar Ibrahim and the opposition parties gear up for war in Permatang Pauh, what will really happen behind the scenes? It’s been a protracted war of words and wills, between factions within UMNO, between Abdullah Badawi and Mahathir, between Badawi and Najib, between Anwar Ibrahim and everyone else in power. I wonder how much further DSAI can take the fight what with all of the recent nonsense tiring enough to sap anyone of the will to continue. But he continues, good for him and, I hope, good for us. Still, with DSAI’s focus and energy elsewhere, that leaves the bad guys room to maneuver and prepare, I’m sure, for the upcoming UMNO General Assembly expected in the next few months.
I say that because I’m basically grasping at straws; my gut tells me there is another more subtle war being fought behind the scenes and I can’t seem to get my around this bit of speculation. What sort of background deals are being brokered, and on how much does DSAI’s winning in Permatang Pauh depend on this? Will there be consolidations amongst UMNO warlords to pry Badawi (and Najib, crucially) from their entrenched positions? And just what plots have Mahathir engineered to revise the very leadership quotas in UMNO which he put in place after 1988?
I’m dead sure this swirling undercurrent of activity exists, and it both irks and worries me that decisions which will affect our future will be made by those hands behind the scenes.
In the meantime, I guess I will sit back and watch and wait.