Nothing like letting off some steam
Saturday’s anti-Icerd rally proved a few things, good and bad. But we are ‘good’ again. For now.
KERFUFFLE. To me, that best describes the commotion the nation went through the last several weeks that climaxed on Saturday.
This was the street gathering organised by Umno and PAS that was initially to protest the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, now famously known as Icerd among Malaysians. But after the government backed down on its intention to ratify this 1965 UN convention, the rally was touted as a celebration of Malay rights.
And the organisers claimed 500,000 to even a million Malays would fill the streets of Kuala Lumpur.
With such numbers, there was high anxiety as to how such a mammoth rally would turn out. The tension was further raised when it was revealed that the Human Rights Commission ( Suhakam) had planned an event on the same day in neighbouring Petaling Jaya to mark World Human Rights Day on Dec 10.
Indeed, it was the police who sounded the alarm and the end result was that Suhakam’s do had to be postponed because the police said there would be “serious security risks” arising out of the events that bordered on national security.
That got everyone’s attention. Serious security risks? That sounded like potential violence and damage to property. It was scary enough for Singapore’s Foreign Ministry to issue an advisory to its citizens to avoid going to KL.
Perhaps the police were spooked by the Nov 26 fracas over the relocation of the Sri Maha Mariamman temple in USJ 25, Subang Jaya, which resulted in serious injury to a fireman and the torching of 18 cars and two motorcycles.
Two major rallies taking opposing stands on a contentious issue would surely stretch police resources and their ability to maintain peace and security.
But for the Suhakam rally to be called off carried the unspoken inference that trouble was more likely to happen in Petaling Jaya if it was allowed.
The question then: Who would have incited or sparked violence that could affect national security at this event? After all, in post-GE14 Malaysia, with Umno out of power, the likes of Datuk Seri Jamal Yunos and his Red Shirt gang that used to enjoy harassing and threatening Bersih activists and events, have been muzzled.
While many people are upset that the police stopped the Suhakam rally, seeing it as yet another blow to human rights in the country, I think it was a wise decision.
Because the reality was that there was no way the police could have called off the anti-Icerd event because in all likelihood, Umno and PAS would have defied the order, which meant the police would have had to act against them, and that wouldn’t have been pretty.
Where Icerd is concerned, the Pakatan Harapan government has only itself to blame for completely misreading Malay fears and insecurity that were deeply implanted by the previous government.
It should not have raised the intention of ratification when it had not done enough to fully explain what the convention was really about to the people, especially the Malays. As a result, Pakatan was caught off-guard when the opposition raised the issue in Parliament.
Even though Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad quickly saw the danger signs and rejected the ratification, it was too late and Umno and PAS leaders, being the seasoned politicians they are, were quick to use it as yet another excuse to defend Malay rights and Islam.
Who knows how many of the people who came out for the protest, celebration, whatever, really understood or cared what Icerd is about? But even if the turnout wasn’t half a million, it achieved the organisers’ true aim: a show of force to remind all and sundry that this is “Tanah Melayu” and cast further doubt on Pakatan’s ability to protect Malay rights.
If there is anything we should be grateful for, it is that they did it in an orderly, peaceful manner, and borrowing from Bersih’s playbook, the Saturday protesters behaved quite admirably by collecting their rubbish and leaving the streets apparently cleaner than before the rally.
In that respect, it is true this can be seen as part of New Malaysia. We can demonstrate responsibly and the police, who deployed a huge number of personnel and parked water cannon trucks at the ready, responded with watchful waiting.
Unfortunately for Suhakam, its rally on Sunday didn’t register a blip on the public radar after losing much of its spark when its celebrity guest Dr Mahathir decided he couldn’t be part of it since the commission supports Icerd.
Again that brought a big sigh of disappointment from “liberal” Malaysians, but did he have a choice? It’s better to retreat and live to fight another day.
Now that some of the Malays have had their outing and their say on what they feel strongly about, some of the pent-up emotions and frustrations would have been released.
And so we go back to “normal” mode. The protesters have gone home, although some, especially from Kelantan and Terengganu, might have gone shopping and enjoyed the Christmas decorations Malaysian malls are famous for.
That’s Malaysia for you. We are “good” again. For now.
We had a kerfuffle, which is defined by vocabulary.com as “a humorous-sounding word for a mostly non-humorous situation: some kind of disturbance, scandal or mess”.
The portal goes on to say, which I find most apt: “However, a kerfuffle usually isn’t 100% serious. People talking loudly in public could be making a kerfuffle. If a politician says something embarrassing by accident, it could cause a kerfuffle. Often, people use this word when they think people are making too big a deal of something, as in ‘What’s the kerfuffle all about?’.”
Aunty thinks the mammoth crowd that gathered to buy tickets for yesterday’s first leg of the AFF Suzuki Cup final between Malaysia and Vietnam showed that sports does a better job at uniting the nation than politics.