An eerie calm is hanging over Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur (KL) tonight. Traffic is light on the streets and the distant din of police sirens is nearly constant. Is it the proverbial calm before the storm?
Tomorrow, Saturday afternoon at 2pm here near central KL, a group banned by the government, a group known as ‘Bersih‘ (‘Clean’), is promising to assemble en masse. No one has any idea how many may show up. Perhaps 30,000, perhaps 100,000. The throng is expected to rally for clean and fair elections, and also, not to put too fine of a point on it, to protest against the entrenched ruling party’s increasingly authoritarian brand of government.
The Muslim government is doing everything in its power to prevent the rally and disrupt the organization behind it. All the supposed guarantees of civil liberties in the Malaysian Constitution have been swept away in the name of ‘harmony’ and ‘national security’. The police are at this moment cordoning off the downtown area, major thoroughfares, and all possible rally venues. Mass transit systems are being shut down, bus stations closed and buses rerouted to distant suburbs. Any and all public gatherings are forbidden and authorities promise instant arrest to anyone who does not disperse as ordered. Even the characteristic yellow ‘Bersih’ t-shirts are banned — anyone wearing one in public faces immediate arrest.
The last week has seen increasing tension as Bersih and the government have maneuvered for advantage and favorable public sentiment. When the government offered to put the group’s rally into one of KL’s stadiums in exchange for canceling the street rally, Bersih gracefully accepted, only to have the government renege on its offer. The latest word is that the rally is still ‘on’.
This is all well and good, you might be thinking, but what does any of this have to do with Islam, or Islamic supremacism? The Malaysian media wouldn’t think of it, let alone hear of it, but in my view, this looming confrontation on the streets has everything to do with the ideology that shall not be named.
The reality is this. While ‘Bersih’ is a multiracial organization, with members coming from all of Malaysia’s ethnic groups, the majority of this group’s membership is non Muslim. Bersih’s members are universally disgusted with this increasingly unjust government that has ruled this country uninterrupted since 1957, longer than any other political party on the planet has run a nation state. Interestingly enough, Malaysia’s pro Sharia and pro Jihad political party known as PAS has sided with Bersih, no doubt hoping to use the group as an opportunistic means to advance their own agenda.
PAS notwithstanding, most Malays, and therefore most Muslims, believe Bersih and its upcoming demonstration are a threat to peace and public order, no matter how reasonable Bersih’s agenda may sound. Therefore the majority of Malays can be expected to faithfully back the Muslim-controlled government, no matter how draconian its crackdowns may prove to be. You can probably see where this is going, and it is not going to end well for the non Muslims. Not when the Muslims have all the guns.
Normally, the ‘dhimmis’ of Malaysia are well cowed and compliant, but the Muslim overlords of Malaysia have ruled this land with an iron hand for so long, that it appears that the ‘infidels’ have finally lost their patience. The list of injustices and grievances of this government, which has Islamic supremacy AKA ‘Malay supremacy’ at the heart of its dark agenda, has grown so high and emanates a stench so vile that even Malaysia’s reticent dhimmis have belatedly woken from their slumber, at least for a short while.
Bersih may possess the moral high ground, but in practical terms is totally outgunned and therefore has no chance of achieving its core demand of ‘clean and fair elections.’ And even, if by some miracle, Bersih got its way, then it would be for naught. No election, no matter how clean or fair, can make a meaningful difference in a land dominated by Islam. Lands dominated by Islam are, by definition, lands without liberty. Elections, and by extension democracy, mean little without guarantees of personal liberty. America’s prolific and wasteful expenditures of both blood and treasure in Iraq and Afghanistan have proven this beyond all reasonable doubt.
Bersih’s protest is doomed to go down in history as a noble, if futile, gesture against the increasing Islamization of this country; as long as there are Muslims in Malaysia, there is no chance that they will not rule political affairs. However, if there is anything that the outside world should learn from this latest episode of repression in this ‘moderate’ land, let the world be reminded anew, that civil liberties and Islam decidedly do not mix.
UPDATE: Thousands entered the downtown area for the rally and to send the Malaysian government a firm message that their corruption and dirty tricks are unacceptable. This happened despite the massive police presence and sweeping ‘preventative measures’. Exact numbers of protesters who came are impossible to obtain at the moment. Most of the Bersih leadership, along with leading figures from opposition political parties (DAP, PKR, PAS) have been arrested. 600-700 others, perhaps more, have been arrested or ‘detained’. The throngs seem to be finally dispersing now, albeit slowly. I’ve been listening to sirens and police helicopters hovering overhead for hours. The protest and the resulting government crackdown is major news in the international mainstream media.