"When you have someone who refuses to sit down and talk, well, he can be a figurehead and that presents a problem in the leadership."
Yorkie Mitchell, Kitchen Irish
But not in Malaysia. It's just only 300 ordinary citizens wishing to meet with the Prime Minister to hand over roses and wishing him to release the 5 figureheads of HINDRAF out from the detention cell in Taiping. After all, he's the one sending them there under Musa Hassan's bullshit allegation (no proof yet). It was just a gesture of saying 'please' to the man himself. And later on, as at Malaysiakini the man himself lashes out at HINDRAF but he simply does not know why / the whole picture and he refused to sit down and talk with them. He knows nothing. If he had not gone to Kedah and instead meet with them, then there will not be such a similar episode as the last rally in November.
But instead of talking to the people as what a leader should do, what they get in return are BN's cannon fodders - police with their tools of people repelling a.l.a. water cannons and tear gases. And Dollah is refusing to meet them, instead doing a one-day visit to Kedah. In the end? 200 arrested, with all except 9 released at night. One question here: was he influenced by the son-in-law or Wan Farid Salleh not to meet them? The FRUs and the police surely are in the government's payroll and their resources are perceived by some as infinite. But don't forget that it's taxpayer's money, not their own and by doing so, it subtly hints that the police force is not INDEPENDENT at all but instead a 'cannon fodder' of Abdullah Badawi and does show of 'the holier than thou' message. I emphasize here that the police are just puppets of the corrupt. And another thing is that they are looking at the wrong direction instead of doing something that is more important like finding Sharlinie.
Doing so can bring grim results and puts a first dent to the National Front campaign in terms of intending to retain a 2/3 majority. Note that they must win 148 Parliamentary seats to retain 2/3 majority. It seems that the pendulum of vote that they might muster could swing the other way round to Keadilan. And Samy Vellu is again put in hot water again. There were 60 people blocking his motorcade leaving the place of visit there.
November 10 2007:
From BBC:
The BBC and Al-Jazeera managed to cover this event as well and while going through some of the pictures shown up at their site there, I stumbled upon one of the pictures of man arrested that was exactly the person I saw when I took a photo back in the Bersih rally. Again, we see how rough the police dealt with non-armed protesters as if those are hardcore criminals with their violent tactics and intimidation. Perhaps this is why the police is lacking support from the public because of the way they deal with people - against their motto. They are slow, rude and wrong, in the sense that they are not fast in dealing crimes (well under pressure, that's to be understood, but the highlight is being rude and they are now looking at the wrong direction, clamping people down like dogs instead going for a backlog of unsolved cases like Altatunya's murder.)
I just had taken a look at the reporting at Bernama and judging the content gives me the impression that the government is bragging over this thing. Now I understand why the police had to do this: just as like an BN MP, they must toe the official line laid out and if they go according to their conscience or the mandate of their people, then they face the whipping by their own whipping committee, in this case, Musa and Dollah.
With election around the corner, well, it's time to rethink again. All the high hopes of what is to be expected in 2004 are now in shambles. Corruption is still high, crimes rates are still high, price inflation is angering the people and the cronies are still running around wild. In the end, it's just empty promises. Urban people can understand this well but not those rural people and they are the ones that will need some tough talk and convincing to make them aware of the mistakes that the Barisan Nasional committed and swept under the carpet by their main tool: mainstream media. I told some people that I buy newspapers because I want to read sports news and some sections like In Tech or Star 2, but never go through in detail at the local news. So, there could be some punishment served RAW on the 8th. Sins of the father? Correct...correct...correct!
The government perceives citizens as kids that knows nothing except to let them handle. But......The people now are no longer in the dark as before.
But instead of talking to the people as what a leader should do, what they get in return are BN's cannon fodders - police with their tools of people repelling a.l.a. water cannons and tear gases. And Dollah is refusing to meet them, instead doing a one-day visit to Kedah. In the end? 200 arrested, with all except 9 released at night. One question here: was he influenced by the son-in-law or Wan Farid Salleh not to meet them? The FRUs and the police surely are in the government's payroll and their resources are perceived by some as infinite. But don't forget that it's taxpayer's money, not their own and by doing so, it subtly hints that the police force is not INDEPENDENT at all but instead a 'cannon fodder' of Abdullah Badawi and does show of 'the holier than thou' message. I emphasize here that the police are just puppets of the corrupt. And another thing is that they are looking at the wrong direction instead of doing something that is more important like finding Sharlinie.
Doing so can bring grim results and puts a first dent to the National Front campaign in terms of intending to retain a 2/3 majority. Note that they must win 148 Parliamentary seats to retain 2/3 majority. It seems that the pendulum of vote that they might muster could swing the other way round to Keadilan. And Samy Vellu is again put in hot water again. There were 60 people blocking his motorcade leaving the place of visit there.
November 10 2007:
From BBC:
The BBC and Al-Jazeera managed to cover this event as well and while going through some of the pictures shown up at their site there, I stumbled upon one of the pictures of man arrested that was exactly the person I saw when I took a photo back in the Bersih rally. Again, we see how rough the police dealt with non-armed protesters as if those are hardcore criminals with their violent tactics and intimidation. Perhaps this is why the police is lacking support from the public because of the way they deal with people - against their motto. They are slow, rude and wrong, in the sense that they are not fast in dealing crimes (well under pressure, that's to be understood, but the highlight is being rude and they are now looking at the wrong direction, clamping people down like dogs instead going for a backlog of unsolved cases like Altatunya's murder.)
I just had taken a look at the reporting at Bernama and judging the content gives me the impression that the government is bragging over this thing. Now I understand why the police had to do this: just as like an BN MP, they must toe the official line laid out and if they go according to their conscience or the mandate of their people, then they face the whipping by their own whipping committee, in this case, Musa and Dollah.
With election around the corner, well, it's time to rethink again. All the high hopes of what is to be expected in 2004 are now in shambles. Corruption is still high, crimes rates are still high, price inflation is angering the people and the cronies are still running around wild. In the end, it's just empty promises. Urban people can understand this well but not those rural people and they are the ones that will need some tough talk and convincing to make them aware of the mistakes that the Barisan Nasional committed and swept under the carpet by their main tool: mainstream media. I told some people that I buy newspapers because I want to read sports news and some sections like In Tech or Star 2, but never go through in detail at the local news. So, there could be some punishment served RAW on the 8th. Sins of the father? Correct...correct...correct!
The government perceives citizens as kids that knows nothing except to let them handle. But......The people now are no longer in the dark as before.
No comments:
Post a Comment
You are welcome to post in any comments that do not trouble readers of the blog.
Providing an ID is recommended. If some reason you wish to use an Anonymous name, please leave a name below your comments. From now on, comments with no names will not be considered for moderation.