Malaysiakini :: Letters

Najib, nothing to be proud of in handling Bersih

Posted: 19 Jul 2011 03:34 AM PDT

This is a message to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and inspector-general of police Ismail Omar.

The progress or collapse of a government is very much dependent on its leadership. Leaders are not born leaders, but leaders are made leaders. Sometimes a leader has to be elected among the limited choice of candidates that the rakyat has.

Elected leaders must be ethical. Ethical in every sense, even if they have to make decisions against their own will. Ethical leaders should be honest in making every decision responsibly, for each and every decision they made, power to implement the correct and right decision and loyalty responsible entrust to them by rakyat.

Leaders should have the ability to make moral judgments that are sensitive, and pro-active. Leaders should not be dictators. History shows not even a single country in the world has progressed with a dictatorial leadership in the long run.

Najib should not feel proud of himself thinking his decisions were right and the best, when there is a negligible sign of improvement in our country under his leadership.

Remember, the negligible improvement that can be seen is due to how low we had sunk under the dismal leadership of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and you have struggled just to raise us from being at the worst levels, to bad.

Regarding the July 9 Bersih rally, what the rakyat want is just honest and transparent elections. Why are you so scared to fulfill that demand? You might say there are many other channels to discuss the matter instead of carrying out street demonstrations.

If so, why has nothing been done on Bersih's demands for electoral reform since 2007, after Bersih's first street demonstration? What else can the rakyat do if the government simply ignores this fair and reasonable demand?

Please bear in mind that even with a month of BN and the police's detailed and comprehensive planning, topped off with the government's threats and the fear instilled in the rakyat through the government-controlled media, thousands of rakyat still gathered and marched on 9 July.

This shows the rakyat are not satisfied with the current electoral process. The police force took your instructions and behaved like gangsters using water cannons, tear gas and violence to disperse the crowd. Do you think by doing this you have made an intelligent decision and acted to solve the problem?

Definitely not; you have only create more hatred among the rakyat towards the government and the police force. Please tell us, even with what police have done to the crowd, did any demonstrator damage any public property or act violently against any policeman (except to protect themselves from police violence)?

Did the demonstrators use parangs, molotov cocktails and other weapons if they had already prepared them as the police had earlier claimed?

The police claim they found hidden Bersih shirts with weapons at a few locations, so have they managed to link these to any Bersih demonstrators? There is no doubt the whole thing was staged by the police to damage Bersih's image.

The police and the BN government had blamed Bersih demonstrators for causing massive traffic jams and inconvenience to the public. But the jams and inconvenience were not caused by the Bersih demonstration but by the police roadblocks and diversions of traffic, the spot checks on every single individual entering KL, by the police units and their trucks and water cannons.

The police might say the whole thing would not have happened if Bersih had followed the suggestion to demonstrate in Shah Alam stadium. Do you think Malaysians are stupid and will listen to your excuse?

Let me ask one thing, Bersih had agreed to change their plan from a street demonstration to Stadium Merdeka, but the police later denied them a permit. Do we believe the police would issue a permit for Shah Alam stadium?

No we don't! The BN government and police would probably have given some other excuse. We already can see the proof: the police had already prepared a letter rejection for Merdeka stadium even before Bersih had applied.

Our Malaysian police must be the most efficient and intelligent police force in the world because they can predict applications before applications are received!

In reality, the whole Bersih rally would have taken place and would have been over peacefully within three hours without any incidents and inconvenience to the public, if Bersih had been allowed to hold it in Stadium Merdeka as they had compromised.

Do you think the public still praises your leadership and would keep you in government in the next general election?

Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price.

Bersih and the comedy of official denials

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 11:53 PM PDT

If you think the way the authority's handling of the July 9 Bersih rally is bad, wait until you see their responses to the rally after it had happened.

Bad is an insufficient word to describe their reactions to the rally and the subsequent allegations of police brutality against the peaceful assembly.

It's obvious that the many statements released by the CPO of Selangor, the IGP, the home minister and the health minister are in direct contradiction to the mounting video and photographic evidence spreading like wildfire on the Internet via YouTube and social networking sites.

By their statements, they have betrayed themselves as liars releasing false information with the intention of covering-up, twisting the truth and spinning stories. They are shooting their own feet on live TV.

It has even started to become comical how these ministers and senior civil servants, when confronted with the mounting evidence, are somehow able to stick to their stories with a straight face.

Many are feeling appalled at the mass denial syndrome displayed. It is as if they still live in the 80s before the days of YouTube, Facebook, and Malaysiakini. The ruling regime and the authorities have not learned their lessons. They have not caught on with the Facebook generation.

Malaysians have largely awakened politically, and the mainstream media no longer hold the monopoly of truth or news reporting. The Facebook generation now has many more channels to access the latest news. Also, much of this information is accessed and captured not via a PC, a laptop, or a camera, but via smartphones and other mobile devices like the Ipad.

Thanks to mobile Internet technology, we no longer live in an era where government officials could get away with issuing false statements to save face and get away with it.

The people have moved into the 21st century, while our government, correction, the ruling regime it seems has not.

In afterthought, It is funny as I have just discovered an 8TV news video clip on YouTube clearly showing the FRU water cannon truck shooting water into the Tung Shin Hospital compound.

What is really ironic is that the scene was played out while the news anchor was quoting Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai's statement that the police did not barge into the hospital to arrest people but were merely sending injured demonstrators into the hospital to get treatment.

Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price.

Kredit: www.malaysiakini.com

Selasa, 19 Julai 2011

Malaysiakini :: Letters

Malaysiakini :: Letters

0 ulasan:

Catat Ulasan