Yesterday’s opposition rally in downtown Kuala Lumpur is now history, and in the aftermath is being frantically spun by both sides as maneuvering continues in the court of public opinion. The rally has been proclaimed as a ‘victory’ by both. The opposition and Bersih managed to get its message of electoral reform a significant amount of publicity, both here and abroad, as well as successfully assemble a large number of protesters in the downtown area (most sources say about 20,000) despite a massive police presence.
On the other hand, the government is spinning this as a victory, having successfully made mass arrests (1600+), arrested major opposition figures, and having kept the thousands who did show up from being able to organize as they had planned. The government is also stressing the disruption, damage, and economic losses taken by downtown merchants who lost an entire day’s worth of business on what should normally have been a lucrative day on a weekend.
Now that Prime Minister Najib is back from his European tour and his visit with the pope, which was all about looking ‘moderate’ to the dhimmis back home, he’s back to playing up to his base here in Malaysia. Namely, his not-so-moderate, decidedly Islamic base. “Najib ridicules Bersih, says Umno not afraid of fair elections”, from The Malaysian Insider, 10 July 2011:
KUALA LUMPUR, July 10 “” Datuk Seri Najib Razak ridiculed and
dismissed the impact of yesterday”s Bersih rally, declaring today that
Umno was not afraid of fair elections.
In a fiery speech in front of 6,000 Umno members, NGOs and martial
arts (silat) groups, the prime minister mocked the turnout of
yesterday”s rally, claiming that Umno would have outnumbered Bersih if
they had wanted to protest on the streets.
“Don’t doubt our strength. Umno has three million members. If we
gather one million members, it is more than enough. We can conquer Kuala
Lumpur.
“If we want to create chaos, we can. But we uphold the laws of
Malaysia, we like peace,” Najib said to a roaring crowd of Umno members
and supporters.
‘Conquer’ sounds so ‘1Malaysia’, doesn’t it? And Najib and company surely ‘love peace’, provided that they are able to maintain their (i.e. Muslim) domination of it. Otherwise, they’re ready to go violent “…at the drop of a hat”, which keeps in perfect tune with the Islamist playbook.
During his speech, Najib thanked everyone who attended the “Majlis
Penerangan Perdana” event, saying that the NGOs present, including silat
organisations [martial arts organisations], were waiting to defend the country at a drop of a hat.
“If you mention or question Islam, they will rise up,” he said.
Wait an infidel minute, who questioned Islam here? Bersih is very narrowly focused on holding fair and clean elections and has been careful to never attack or criticize Islam. But no matter. In Malaysian politics, the quickest way to discredit and marginalize anyone is to put yourself on the side of ‘good’ (i.e. Islam) and to make your opponents as apostates, or worse, kufr (i.e. dirty unbelievers).
Consequently, Malaysian government newspapers are busy spinning Bersih as infidels versus Muslims and Islam. One Malay (Islamic) newspaper called Utusan Malaysia has estimated that 70% of those who attended the recent launch of the ‘Bersih 2.0’ movement were non Muslim. Additionally, Bersih is being reported by the same paper as being funded by unnamed foreign Christian organizations and furthermore, Bersih is inherently against Islam. See! Proof positive that non Muslim Malaysians are plotting war against Islam!
To be a Muslim, in Malaysia or anywhere else, means to see conspiracies and plots behind every rock and tree. Every infidel is suspected, and probably guilty, of plotting corruption in the land, of plotting war against Islam. Conspiracy theories and rampant paranoia are inherent in the DNA of Islam and explain, to a large degree, the intellectual barrenness and stagnation of the Islamic world. It is why Najib can come back from smiles and handshakes with the pope, and then threaten rhetorical fire and brimstone against his own people, and be immensely popular with the Muslim-Malays as a result.
Bersih means well but has made a serious mistake if they think that they can deal with this government in good faith. As it turns out, hardly to my surprise, Najib has just declared war on them. Remember this, the next time a deluded or deceiving talking head goes on about how ‘pluralistic and moderate’ Islam is. Najib and his Islamic ilk amply demonstrate how Muslims cannot stand criticism, rational or otherwise, no matter how well intentioned it may be.