Bersih: Raising The Stakes

With slightly less than 24 hours to go before Saturday's Bersih 3.0 rally, Putrajaya has already flip-flopped. Hishamuddin Hussein, who previously said that Bersih is no threat to security has no declared that cops will be acting against Bersih with the first move being the police are trying to get the court injunction order to stop top Bersih people from reaching Merdeka Square.

This has come in addition to DBKL declaring a lockdown on Merdeka Square from 6 am Friday morning and threaten people under Section 65 Local Government Act 1976. If Hishamuddin acts like this, it means he's not acting alone, but instead acting in concert with other UMNO warlords who are unable to swallow or take pride of what is to come. This also subtly hints that Najib is also facing internal opposition from his people within UMNO itself rather than the public image of opposition coalition attacking him.

The real question is who among the UMNO hawks and warlords that are the ones calling the shots?

The argument by the mayor Ahmad Fuad Ismail that Merdeka Square is merely used for national events do not seem to make it quite sound. To make it worse, the Peaceful Assembly Act bill which comes into effect on Monday seems to not include the right to outright reject something by the authorities and is in violation of assembling in one pre-defined location. In other words, the cops and city council have a mockery of the bill already.

Today, both sides have raised their stakes. Imagine this as a poker game between two people where one tries to call bluff while one has clearly have a better hand in play with the help of the 5 cards on the table. Putrajaya and DBKL are upping the ante by getting court-order to restraing people from coming in tomorrow. The Bersih commitee has responded with a "we will go ahead regardless" response. Occupy Dataran movement has responed with crowding the square tonight at

Sometimes, it can be wonderful how reverse psychology can be. The more pressure applied by authoritarians, the more people will start coming in to the square later on. Therefore, it's not possible to see a ideal half million people gathering there. I can see a 60% probability that DBKL will start bleeding money on that day, as they had to bring in their own personnel in addition to calling

It's a strange thing to see that while other cities outside KL are allowed to hold an event for two hours, I can't see the logic behind a no thing. Anyone who talks about #TKLLogic will also have the same opinion like I do.

To cut the story short: how do you stop on 500,000 potential people swarming in the city tomorrow?