Malaysian politics take to the
streets By Anil Netto
PENANG - With new polls expected within a
year, Malaysia's hotly contested politics are set
to hit the streets, setting the stage for a
potential confrontation between pro- and
anti-government interest groups.
On July
9, more than 60 civil society groups calling
themselves the Coalition for Clean and Fair
Elections, or Bersih for "clean” in Malay, are
calling for a "Walk for Democracy" in downtown
Kuala Lumpur to push for sweeping electoral
reforms.
If implemented, such reforms
would likely boost the Anwar Ibrahim-led
opposition at the next polls. Right-wing
Pertubuhan Pribumi Perkasa (Indigenous Empowerment
Organization), a
Malay rights interest group
led by firebrand Ibrahim Ali, however, is
spearheading a counter-rally backed by 57 groups.
Another counter-Bersih rally is being
organized by the youth wing of the United Malays
National Organization (UMNO), the dominant party
in the ruling coalition, to support the Election
Commission's own election reform program. The
Commission's proposals have not satisfied Bersih,
which wants a clean up of the electoral rolls,
automatic registration of voters and other
balloting issues that critics claim have
historically favored ruling coalition candidates.
In particular, Bersih is seeking a longer
official campaign period of at least 21 days. The
coalition noted that the first national elections
in 1955 held under the British colonial government
had a campaign period of 42 days, but by the last
general election in 2008 the period had been
whittled down to just eight days. In the past,
such a short campaign period has severely
handicapped opposition parties that are unable to
effectively reach voters in rural areas.
In contrast, the ruling coalition enjoys
almost wall-to-wall coverage of its campaign over
state-controlled national television and radio.
Bersih is thus also calling for free and fair
media access to all parties. Other demands call
for the strengthening of public institutions such
as the Election Commission, the judiciary and the
police, and an end to gutter politics.
The
July 9 Bersih gathering has been dubbed "Bersih
2.0" as it will be the coalition's second major
gathering. The first Bersih demonstration was held
in Kuala Lumpur in November 2007, a year after the
coalition was established. Some 60,000 people,
mostly wearing yellow T-shirts, flocked to the
peaceful gathering in downtown Kuala Lumpur.
The government did not take the gathering
lightly. Crowds in some locations braved tear-gas
and water cannons fired by riot police. Dozens of
demonstrators were arrested. Although news reports
put the turnout at 40,000, thousands more were
blocked from entering the capital by police
checkpoints, traffic jams and the closure of light
rail stations near the gathering points.
The rally was followed a couple of weeks
later by another pivotal rally organized by the
Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), supported by
disempowered Indian Malaysians who felt they had
been marginalized from the mainstream of
development. It also was harshly dispersed by
police authorities.
Political observers
have pointed to both these rallies and the
government's heavy-handed crackdown as major
factors in the March 2008 general election that
saw the opposition make historic gains, winning
five of 13 federal states. (The opposition later
lost control of one of those states through
political defections.)
Rally organizers
are at pains to stress that Bersih 2.0 is a civil
society-led initiative; none of the 14-member
Bersih steering committee is from any political
party. Among those in the committee are two former
presidents of the Malaysian Bar Council, including
the Bersih steering committee chairperson Ambiga
Sreenevasan, and representatives from prominent
rights groups.
Opposition parties,
however, have thrown their support behind Bersih.
Despite making sharp inroads at the 2008 general
elections, opposition politicians have expressed
dissatisfaction with the current electoral
process, seeing its shortcomings as a major
stumbling block towards it capturing federal
power.
PAS, the main opposition Islamic
Party, has already vowed to bring 100,000
supporters to Bersih 2.0. But given the expected
lockdown of the capital and other tough measures
likely to be taken by the authorities, that figure
may be overly optimistic, one PAS state-level
leader privately told Asia Times Online.
The party is fresh from a makeover after
internal elections that saw moderates, including
the charismatic Mohamad Sabu, take over key party
leadership posts.
Perkasa, on the other
hand, has demanded that Bersih call off its rally.
Its leader, Ibrahim Ali, has drawn parallels
between Bersih's planned rally and the uprisings
sweeping the Middle East and North Africa and
warned that Bersih's agenda was to create chaos.
True to form, he added a racial twist by
controversially saying that minority Chinese
Malaysians expected to participate in the rally
needed to stay at home and stock up on food
supplies. He later backtracked from the statement,
saying he was misquoted.
Critics say
Perkasa's racially charged statements have made a
mockery of prime minister Najib Razak's
'1Malaysia' sloganeering, which appeals to racial
harmony. While UMNO has officially distanced
itself from Perkasa, there are widespread
perceptions that the two groups are linked.
This perception was boosted when former
premier and ex-UMNO president Mahathir Mohamad
opened Perkasa's first general meeting at a
convention hall in Kuala Lumpur last March, an
event attended by some 4,000 supporters. It has
been further reinforced by the kid gloves
treatment Ibrahim Ali has received from the
authorities, allowing him leeway for his racial
rhetoric.
"UMNO is outsourcing this kind
of racist posturing to Perkasa which is totally
outside the party to hoodwink the people into
believing that UMNO is a changed, moderate party,"
opposition parliamentarian Jeyakumar Devaraj was
reported as saying,
Analysts are skeptical
that Perkasa and UMNO Youth can match Bersih's
expected turnout. It is no doubt not lost on UMNO
that these gatherings come against the backdrop of
fast-rising food and housing prices that have
contributed to a grassroots sense that real wages
have not kept pace with the cost of living. That
has prompted Najib to say that he hoped a new
minimum wage policy would be introduced by
year-end.
Meanwhile, the World Bank has
highlighted concerns about a serious and rising
brain drain that threatens to undermine the
country's long term economic potential. Among the
million-strong Malaysian diaspora, one third are
college graduates. At home in Malaysia,
paradoxically, the number of unemployed graduates
in Malaysia has more than doubled since 2008.
The political stakes for the planned
rallies and their potential impact on the next
elections are thus high. A general election must
be called by 2013. Home Affairs Minister
Hishammuddin Hussein, a former UMNO Youth leader,
says no permits have been issued for the
gatherings planned by Bersih 2.0, UMNO Youth or
Perkasa. Police have warned they will make
preventive arrests before and during the rally.
Some observers are privately concerned
that these warnings, coupled with Perkasa's fiery
rhetoric, could provide the cue for a more serious
crackdown against opposition politicians and
dissidents ahead of the general election - similar
to the sweeping crackdown against dissent seen in
1987 during the Mahathir administration.
But much has changed in Malaysia since
then. Many ordinary people, fed up with
corruption, abuse of power and questionable
electoral practices are expressing their
dissatisfaction on Twitter and Facebook and in the
comments section of independent news sites. And
their voices of dissent are unlikely to be
silenced by another round of tear gas, water
cannons and arbitrary arrests.
Anil
Netto is a Penang-based writer.
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