KoSong: If anything untoward happens on July 9...

How should we judge a government?

In Malaysia, if you don't watch television or read newspapers, you are uninformed; but if you do, you are misinformed!

"If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing." - Malcolm X

Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience - Mark Twain

Why we should be against censorship in a court of law: Publicity is the very soul of justice … it keeps the judge himself, while trying, under trial. - Jeremy Bentham

"Our government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no

responsibility at the other. " - Ronald Reagan

Thursday, June 30, 2011

If anything untoward happens on July 9...

blame it on PM and Home Minister.

For refusing to admit that our electoral system needs major reforms and refusing to allow Bersih a chance to march for two hours, our mainstream media were used to play up the antics of Perkasa and Umno Youth to show that there were others against it. Just imagine how different it would have been up till now, had the Home Minister issued a permit and announced that the police would ensure the marchers are given a chance to march unfettered and warned others that stern action would be taken if they were intent on causing trouble.

Normally Bersih would not get wide publicity and if there were none for the likes of Perkasa and Umno Youth, and if our PM, Home Minister and IGP were for instead of against the march (with daily television coverage intentionally), I am sure the matter would not have blown up to what it is now.

I think our PM and Home Minister are misjudging the situation and going to mess up. By taking tough actions against organizers and supporters of Bersih, it is going to create more resentment among them as well as among the general public who are already having a bad impression of our police. These days, even children do not take to being disciplined, employees too, and now they are dealing with thinking adults who are trying to correct an unfair electoral system.

The fear of a noble aim could only mean admission by the powers that be that the people are going to show up in force. What is going to be obvious to us is on one side, the initiative of those who will take the trouble and expense to be there, and with it being illegal, at the risk of being injured in scuffles with police, and being arrested, while on the other side are those who are paid to be there by BN just to prove there are others against it. If there is going to be open defiance by a huge crowd against the law, I would blame it on the way it has been handled. They could have just given the permit and bear with it for merely two hours. All the publicity about the businessmen and taxi drivers going to lose business on that day only showed their selfishness. The police would seem defeatist in admitting they are unable to control a march for a couple of hours.