KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's ruling Barisan
Nasional (BN) coalition finds itself on the
political defensive after police personnel cracked
down on a largely peaceful April 28 protest held
in the national capital calling for electoral
reforms. The large popular turnout and
government's perceived mishandling of the rally
will likely push back general elections, earlier
expected to be called by June, as Prime Minister
Najib Razak's government deals with the fallout.
Reports and images of demonstrators being
assaulted by police have been circulated, raising
the hackles of international rights groups about
the excessive use of force. The country's Bar
Council has condemned the violence against unarmed
demonstrators while media freedom groups have
expressed their
concerns about the
targeting of journalists who attempted to document
scenes of police brutality.
However, the
Associated Press reported officials as saying that
three demonstrators and 20 police were injured.
The rally was staged and organized by
"Bersih 3.0" (Clean 3.0), a non-partisan coalition
of civil society groups calling for clean and fair
elections. It was held ahead of anticipated snap
polls to air complaints about the integrity of
electoral rolls, skewed gerrymandering and
allegations that foreigners have been registered
as voters. Bersih representatives believe such
irregularities have allowed BN and its dominant
United Malays Nasional Organization (UMNO) to win
past elections and maintain its uninterrupted grip
on power since independence from colonial rule.
Predictably, the government has defended
the police's handing of the rally. Home Minister
Hishammuddin Hussein said police had acted
"professionally" in maintaining security. He said
that even though the government had allowed the
protesters to gather peacefully, they adamantly
forced their way into the Dataran Merdeka, or
Independence Square.
The police had
earlier obtained a court order and barricaded the
square with razor-wire to prevent the crowd from
entering the symbolic heart of Kuala Lumpur. There
were fears among some quarters that a rally on the
green could have led to the establishment of a
prolonged Tahir Square-style encampment, similar
to the one that contributed to the downfall of
Egyptian military leader Hosni Mubarak in the
so-called Arab Spring.
Until now, Najib
has sold his government and economic
transformation programs - broad-based initiatives
aimed at addressing key areas of economic concern
- as leading the nation's transformation into a
developed, high-income nation by 2020. Malaysia is
currently heavily reliant on cheap migrant labor
that has suppressed wages for local workers,
resulting in many struggling to deal with the
rising cost of living.
After the
crackdown, political analysts say, Najib's
political programs now face a credibility gap.
"Many urbanites are simply not buying what he is
selling," said one political observer. "It's gone
beyond [the call for] clean elections."
The crackdown could raise more searching
popular questions about the credibility,
professionalism and independence of the
institutions of governance and Najib's commitment
to genuine reform.
"As noted by some UMNO
leaders, this time the rally showed the level of
frustration among the young and middle-class,
which suggests that the government is becoming
alienated from the mainstream," said Farish Noor,
a Malaysian political scientist based in
Singapore.
In the run-up to the rally, a
public outcry broke out when it was revealed that
the supposedly independent Election Commission
chairman and his deputy were reportedly members of
UMNO. The allegations were made by the opposition
People's Justice Party's (PKR) secretary general
during an interview with a local newspaper.
The Election Commission deputy chairman
has since denied the allegation. Other reports
have said that the duo admitted that it was
possible they could be members but they were not
active in the party due to their jobs.
Opposition leaders who attended the rally,
however, did not escape criticism. In particular,
they stand accused of trying to hijack the rally
after Bersih organizers had asked the crowd to
disperse. From Friday evening, when crowds first
gathered at Dataran Merdeka, until about 2.45pm on
Saturday when the call to disperse was made, the
rally had been largely peaceful.
Soon
after that the square's security cordon was
breached and police responded with force by firing
tear gas and water cannons. Further controversy
was sparked when news reports and video footage
suggested that opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and
his deputy Azmin Ali allegedly signaled to their
party supporters to breach the cordon. The two
denied later allegations, saying that their hand
signals captured on film were meant as
negotiations with police.
Those who rely
on state-influenced mainstream media coverage,
including urban senior citizens and rural voters,
will by now have seen images and read editorials
blaming the sporadic violence on Bersih
supporters. State-influenced media have dutifully
blocked images of police brutality and excessive
use of force.
With the ruling coalition
relying on rural voters in stronghold states such
as Johor, Pahang, Sarawak and Sabah, the test will
be how these constituencies view the rally in
retrospect. Many may be struggling with their
daily existence to care much about reform debates,
while government cash handouts ahead of elections
may sway their votes as they have in the past.
The challenge for the Anwar-led opposition
will be to convince the masses to think about the
need for wide-ranging democratic reforms. "Most
worrisome is the view that the demands of Bersih
3.0 were superseded by political rhetoric, which
suggests that everything is political now," said
political scientist Farish, noting that not all
Bersih demonstrators are opposition People's
Alliance supporters.
He said some of the
opposition's political promises were unrealistic
"but the divided nature of public opinion also
shows that Anwar's supporters still have faith in
him." "The [government's] attempts to damage his
image have failed and his supporters clearly do
not believe or accept the slurs on their idol,"
said Farish.
Subramaniam Pillay, a Bersih
steering committee member and social activist,
said the rally's disorder should be put in broad
perspective. He said the biggest positive from
Bersih 3.0 is that while government agencies with
large budgets have failed to create "1Malaysia" -
as Najib's drive to promote ethnic harmony and
national unity is called - "Bersih has succeeded
in uniting Malaysians of all ethnic and religious
backgrounds".
If the first and second
Bersih rallies in 2007 and last year drew crowds
of around 50,000 people on each occasion,
independent observers concurred that last
weekend's crowd was several times larger. The
Bersih Steering Committee put the figure at
250,000 while others estimated the crowd at around
100,000 to 300,000. "Whatever the actual figure,"
Bersih Steering Committee member Toh Kin Woon
observed, "it was large enough to worry Najib."
Thousands more gathered at smaller Bersih
solidarity gatherings in almost a dozen cities
across the country, while overseas Malaysians,
many of them fed up with UMNO and BN policies,
held similar rallies in a scores of international
cities.
Other domestic protest groups also
joined the cause. For instance, large numbers of
Himpunan Hijau (Green Assembly) supporters,
especially those campaigning against an Australian
rare earth refinery built by Lynas Corporation
being constructed near the eastern coast city of
Kuantan, descended on Kuala Lumpur to join in the
Bersih rally. Other observers saw hope for
longer-term reforms in the presence of large
numbers of young Malaysians.
Strikingly,
many among those who attended the rally displayed
a distinct lack of fear. In the cat-and-mouse game
between police and protestors that lingered on
after the organizers had called for participants
to disperse, one activist observed how groups at
one location laughed mockingly and even danced
after water cannons had been fired.
"The
freedom from fear argument is compelling," said
Malik Imtiaz, a human-rights lawyer. "The police
were unprepared for the resoluteness they met,
hence the brutality."
The worry for Najib
and his ruling UMNO is that if the same popular
resolve witnessed at the rally translates into a
greater push for political change, the ruling
coalition's prospects at the next polls, whenever
they are held, could be further dimmed.
Anil Netto is a Penang-based
writer.
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