Opposition steals a march in Malaysia
By Ioannis Gatsiounis
KUALA LUMPUR - Bad weather and government intimidation tactics failed to
prevent as many as an estimated 40,000 people from gathering in the Malaysian
capital to demand electoral reforms, marking the country's largest public
protest in nearly 10 years and a stiff new opposition challenge to Prime
Minister Abdullah Badawi's scandal-plagued administration.
On Friday, Abdullah said the government would not tolerate street
demonstrations, while his son-in-law, Khairy Jamaluddin, called the activists
"monkeys" and said if the protesters sought to
challenge the ruling coalition that has ruled the country since independence to
do so at the polls - ignoring, or merely failing to comprehend, the premise of
the rally.
Police checkpoints were stationed at all major arteries into the city and as
far as the northern state of Kedah to prevent ralliers from attending, those
involved in the demonstrations said. On Saturday, thousands of police were on
hand, blocking off roads and cordoning protesters in various locations, to keep
them from gathering en masse. Outside the Jamek Mosque train terminal police
fired tear gas at largely quiescent demonstrators. According to government news
reports, 245 people were arrested and later released.
The ralliers, many wearing yellow t-shirts, planned to march from the Jamek
Mosque area to the king's palace to deliver a memorandum containing their
electoral reform demands, including a cleanup of the voter rolls and free and
fair access to the state-controlled media. Elections have in the past been
plagued by allegations of phantom voting, vote-buying and manipulative
gerrymandering. The election commission has failed to address these issues,
said rally organizers BERSIH (Clean), a coalition of 26 non-governmental
organizations as well as non-ruling political parties.
An incident witnessed by this correspondent at about 4pm on Tun Perak Road on
Saturday was a window into the ill health of Malaysian democracy. As riot
police stood watch behind shields, ralliers began to move parallel to them down
the sidewalk. Those in the front urged the others to pull forward, but there
was a pronounced apprehension about the crowd - a stutter in the step, as if
the notion of free expression was only vaguely familiar.
Some twirled Malaysian flags. Others waved to police in a gesture of goodwill.
Then suddenly police blitzed from the side, sending protesters scurrying. Some
of those caught were dragged to the ground and kicked and punched by several
officers before being hauled away. Minutes later, police rushed the shop-lined
alleys behind the Jamek Mosque area, barking and banging their clubs against
drawn shop fronts, as shopkeepers and customers sought cover behind lattice
doors.
Plainclothesmen demanded those with cameras to shut them off or risk arrest.
Back on Tuangku Abdul Rahman Road, police fired water cannons from atop police
trucks crawling toward retreating protesters. An estimated 30,000 protestors
managed to reach the king's palace and deliver the memorandum, according to the
rally's organizers. Fitri Shukri, 31, a consultant who traveled from the
northern state of Penang to attend the rally, said overall he was encouraged by
the day: "This is a start. We know it takes time. But sitting at home won't
help and Malaysians are beginning to realize it."
Broken promises
Abdullah came to power in late 2003, promising greater transparency and to
fight the country's endemic graft. However, the general perception is that he
has failed to deliver and there is a growing sense as he becomes entrenched in
power that he no longer intends to. He has retained a number of high-ranking
officials widely suspected of corruption. The anti-corruption agency remains
under the purview of the ruling government. Critics also charge Abdullah with
neglecting to address judicial corruption and electoral fraud and other cases
of official abuse and neglect.
Malaysia's race-based political landscape means agendas often play out along
ethnic lines. Saturday's protest witnessed the participation of a large number
of members from the opposition, the ethnic Malay-dominated, Islamic PAS party,
which apart from running on a clean governance platform would like to turn
Malaysia into an Islamic state. But a much broader swath of Malaysian society
was represented - activists, ordinary citizens, young, old, Indian, Malay,
Chinese. Police expressed alarm at the large number of children present, state
media reported.
"It was a citizens' event involving an issue that is quite universal," said
activist Tian Chua. The last time Malaysians took to the street on such a scale
was during the reformasi movement in 1998 after the nation's then deputy
prime minister Anwar Ibrahim was sacked after challenging former prime minister
Mahathir Mohamad's hold on power and later received a black eye from a beating
in jail by police chief Rahim Noor.
Public participation in the political process waned sharply after reformasi,
however. Indeed, a much overlooked consequence of the period is that the
government has used that tumultuous turn of events to repel many Malaysians
from being active stakeholders of the national development process. The ruling
elite now often brands those vocalizing dissatisfaction with official policy
short-sighted troublemakers intent on destabilizing the nation, and many
Malaysians today echo that government line.
The government's rhetoric of fear and intimidation was employed once again
during Saturday's protest. For instance, Abdullah was quoted as saying, "They
are challenging the patience of the people who want the country to be peaceful
and stable." Anonymously sent text messages warned people to stay away from
Freedom Square, where an "illegal anti-government" rally would be held. It was
illegal in the sense that gatherings of more than five people require a police
permit and organizers were unable to obtain one on the grounds that it would
block traffic and disturb business.
That the demonstration still managed to attract so many people (though
supporters estimated as many as 40,000, police estimates put the number at
4,000) is testament to the level of dissatisfaction over Abdullah's governance,
said Tian. Although the ralliers themselves were peaceful, and state security
officials violent, it did not stop the state-run New Straits Times newspaper
from running a story on Sunday entitled, "Illegal gathering causes traffic
chaos in city." The story was buried on page four, reserving the front page for
a photo of a girl who had had a heart transplant chomping on chicken from a
skewer.
This despite that fact that international eyes were trained on Malaysia over
the weekend, as much if not more over the government's handling of the rally
than the calls of the demonstrators. The government's violent response to basic
democratic rights has led some advocates and analysts to draw comparisons with
the repressive military regime in Myanmar, which likewise aggressively
extinguished street protests in August and September.
The New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch said in a statement, "If
Malaysia wants to count itself a democracy, it can begin by upholding
constitutional guarantees of free speech and assembly. The way the system works
now, only the ruling coalition can get its messages out."
General elections are expected to be held by early next year and as it stands
the voices for reform will probably only be heard in protests to those polls,
which they argue will be systematically stacked in Abdullah's favor.
Ioannis Gatsiounis, a New York native, is a Kuala Lumpur-based writer.
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