Unfounded Fear?

Touted as the next May the 13th, it ended up rather anticlimactic in the end. It was mainly a peaceful march, and to a certain extend, the Police manage to nip the problem at the bud with the lock-down of the capital. There were aggravation of course, but on the whole, emotion were kept in check.

Rather than focusing on the organizers, nor the Opposition's push for change, I want to focus on our boys in Blue, the Police. Forget about their leaders and top brass. Forget about the YouTube videos of them kicking the protectors. Forget about the water cannon, and the gas canisters. On the whole, judging from the first-hand report on twitter and Facebook, they were courteous and were just plainly performing their duties.

At the end of the day, they were only human and given the amount of aggravation they were facing, they may snap. And that applies to the protestors as well. There would be clashes when groups of emotional human beings came together like so. But believe me, the situation could been handled much worst.

Another element that helped was the fact that the group dispersed at 4 pm as agreed by A Samad Said and Agong the other day. This definitely prevented further tension. And the manner of which the protestor left should also be applauded. The Police basically let them go their ways - minus those who were picked up for questioning earlier of course. The photographs of the protestors shaking hands with the Police on their way home warmed my heart. Forget about Kamarudin Mape's on TV3 claiming that they dispersed because they lost their leadership - "hilang punca" was his exact words - it was preplanned.

Why don't we focus on the positives and move forward. The lesson which could be learned here was peaceful demonstration can happen in this country if both the demonstrator and Police were clear of their endgame scenario. There were even glimpse of 1Malaysia at work here with all the races going hand in hand.

The sorry tale here must have been the fighting words of KJ and Ibrahim Ali on the days leading up to 9th July. They sounded as if Ambiga was about to single handedly bring the country down. Maybe they have a thing or two to learn from A Samad Said. And he is not even a Politician.

To the boys in blue who did their job yesterday with responsibility and compassion, I salute you. The plaudits and Datukships would go to your superior we hid behind the mikes and whose only challenge for the day would be how to appear smart in front of the reporters - for which they had failed big time, look at the misinformed IGP's press conference yesterday. The once on the ground were the ones should be applauded. There would be photos. videos and claims of brutality, but to claim that all of you were responsible is just plain irresponsible on our part. You were the ones being provoked and cojoled, and on the whole, you passed the test in flying colours.

Time Will Tell

There was a famous saying that only the victor will be remembered as they were the ones writing the history. One day we would look back to 9th July to learn if it was a wise decision to overreact and lock down the capital city, or was it a necessary action. Certainly the rally has disrupted my plans for the weekends. However, to claim that it would be a loss to me would be selfish. The rally that day might shape the future of the country, and for that, I would rather sacrifice the cancelled meeting and wedding reception.

My wife's cousin, who also happened used to be the Dean of the UM Medical School until recently, was planning the akad and reception for her daughter on the very same day - 9th July. The akad would be in the morning, a private ceremony at his house, while the reception would be smack in the middle of town. That was postponed to Sunday, when hopefully, all the excitement of the rally would have died down. On the Sunday as well, there was a planned symposium at one of the hotel in town, during which I was scheduled to give a brief talk. That was put back to later in the month as well.

In its own way, the Bersih rally has affected my plan for the weekend, and I would be keeping a close look at the twittefeed to catch up on the eye-witness account of the event as they took place. Hopefully, I would be able to as plenty of us were expecting a media black-out. And that would include disruption of the Internet service and possibly the cellular network. If that was the case - the Internet being cut - then it would be safe to assume that something ugly might have happened. And nobody would want that. Here is hoping that no blood would be shed in what was hoped to be a peaceful rally at the start.

Bracing myself

It was kind of difficult to ignore the forces around you. And what would be around the corner, a couple of weekends from now may be a turning point for the country. I almost never talk about politics specially on my blog but those who knew me personally probably knew that i have my own take about the local politics.

All I wished for on the day would be a peaceful outcome and the story of the day would be portrayed in a fair perspective as the events would not go down as just another nuisance that happened similar to rallies in the past. I can almost predict what the headline was going to be, and it would be definitely a couple of different versions, one in the local mass media, and another on the international news outlet - BBC, CNN and Aljazeera.

The other major difference between the coking rally and those in the past was the advent of social media. In the last six months, we have seen the power of social media - twitter and Facebook - been demonstrated in weakening oppressive regimes. How information was disseminated. And how reporting of events have changed. Like all informations sources, there would be room for manipulation. But the sheer volume of information and news would help the readers to be in a better position to make judgement of the actual happenings. Social media also offer direct interaction with the source, making clarification more transparent. Censorship would also be difficult, and the only viable solution for that would be a total media blackout - close down the Internet, like what happened to Egypt and Libya. The sheer fact that Malaysia would be mentioned on the same breath with the two country really demonstrated the gravity of the coming event.

I must say that the development leading up to the coming rally had been interesting to say the least, and it was mainly on how the information was disseminated. Here's to a peaceful rally. And here's hoping that Yorais would not take the decision to cut off the Internet on the day .....