"Saya pantang dicabar!" (lit: "I am allergic to challenges;" fig. "Don't
challenge me!") declared Prime Minister Abdullah in an
uncharacteristically bold assertion to the media on the eve of BERSIH's
massive street demonstrations in Kuala Lumpur last Saturday, November 10,
2007.
You have now been challenged, Mr. Prime Minister, openly and
publicly by your own citizens, and you have emerged impotent! That huge
street rally may be illegal to you, but the King had consented to
receiving its leaders and their petition. In effect, the King too has
challenged you, Abdullah! In case you did not get the message, you had
just been served a very public royal rebuff.
I too, challenge you, Abdullah! Instead of arresting those ordinary
citizen demonstrators, I dare you to arrest their leaders, Anwar Ibrahim,
Hadi Awang, Lim Kit Siang, and Raja Petra Kamarudin. Those ordinary folks
were merely exercising their basic rights as citizens of a democracy: the
right to free assembly and to petition the authorities.
As per the refrain of the Ghostbusters theme song, "Who are
you gonna call now!" Mr. Prime Minister? Your fabulous Fourth Floor
boys? Your son-in-law who is using you as his "protection?" Imagine
being considered as such by your son-in-law!
Khairy Jamaluddin obviously had not heard of your
"demonstrations are not part of our Malay culture" bit. Either that or
Khairy had blissfully ignored it as when he led that pathetic street
demonstration against your official guest, US State Secretary Rice.
In a speech earlier in the week, Khairy demanded that the
authorities "come down hard" on the BERSIH demonstrators. While there
were some water cannons and tear gas canisters unloaded, the
demonstrations went ahead smoothly and successfully to the palace. The
police even released most of those arrested. Your son-in-law challenged
you to be tough on the demonstrators, and you came out lembik (limp).
Dim Wit Understanding of Democracy
In denying the BERSIH demonstrators their police permit, Abdullah
demonstrated only a dim wit understanding of democracy, akin to that held
by Saddam Hussein and Pervez Musharraf. Both were voted in with over 98
percent of the votes, and they took that to mean they could ride
roughshod over their country and citizens. Never mind that their
elections were anything but fair and free.
Democracy means rule of the people, but it does not mean mob
rule legitimized through the ballot box. Electoral victory is not a
license for tyranny of the majority. As Fareed Zakaria wrote so
eloquently in his book, The Future of Freedom, democracy is more than
just elections. Even if elections were fair and free (far from the
reality in Malaysia, hence the demonstrations!), obsession with or sole
reliance on them would threaten the other far more important aspects like
the rule of law, private property rights, separation of powers, and the
right to free speech and to assemble freely.
Elections regular or otherwise, honest or rigged, do not
guarantee these; only independent and impartial judges could. An
independent judiciary is thus the hallmark as well as the guarantor of
democracy and freedom, certainly much more than universal adult suffrage.
As for the state of the Malaysian judiciary, the Lingam tapes
painfully showed what a sorry mess it is in. Even if BERSIH were
completely successful with its petition and the Elections Commission
completely overhauled, there is still the monumental task of cleaning up
the judiciary and restoring its long lost integrity.
These points are elementary and obvious to all, save the dim
witted.
Time to Deliver The Next Lesson
There is another feature of the dim witted; they are slow learners. It is
unlikely for them to have learned a lesson from Bersih's successful rally,
or if they did it may not have stuck.
Since the only lesson that would register on their thick
skulls is election returns, my friend Din Merican had started a campaign
to register voters. The next step would be to ensure that they will vote
against the Barisan coalition.
It would encourage voters to do that if there were to be
substantial and effective co-ordination among the opposition parties to
ensure that there would only be a one-on-one battle with the Barisan in
every constituency. The objective here is rather modest, to inflict
enough damage to the Barisan coalition such that it would precipitate
internal squabbling especially within UMNO to trigger its implosion.
Selecting the best candidate, meaning one who would most
likely defeat the Barisan's nominee, involves studying the demographics
of the constituency as well as the Barisan's candidate. Since race is
never far from voters' considerations, the best avenue to neutralize this
crucial factor would be to field candidates of the same race as the
Barisan's nominees. This was the clear lesson from the recent Ijok
by-elections. Thus the opposition must be ready to change candidates on
nomination day depending on who would represent Barisan.
For example, if Barisan were to re-nominate the current MCA
candidate but at the last minute the seat were to go to UMNO, then the
opposition must be ready to substitute a Malay candidate. If that party
(like DAP for instance) cannot come up with a Malay nominee, then it
should be willing to give the slot to a Malay from one of the other
parties.
BERSIH's victory should embolden the citizens to impart to the
Barisan government the other equally important lesson: cleaning out the
rot in the judiciary. No less than a full Royal Commission with full
powers to subpoena witnesses and grant them immunity should be the
objective. As Fareed Zakaria noted, an impartial and independent
judiciary is the best guarantor of our freedoms and democracy. We must
keep drumming these lessons lest they forget easily.
We must keep mencabar (challenging) Abdullah until he comes to
his senses and realizes the obvious: the job of being a Prime Minister of
our great nation is way above his head. If he does not, others either
within or outside his party should be emboldened enough to tell him so.
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