Sunday, November 11, 2007

Of being challenged, media manupulation, BERSIH ...



10th November will go down in Malaysian history book as the day when the people signals to the Government of Malaysia that they wanted a fair and clean election.

Despite the statement made by the PM that he does not like to be challenged, made during the closing of the UMNO general assembly, the people next day responded by streaming into the capital in thousands to deliver their memorandum to the King.

Against the tight security net set up by the Police starting from the perimeters of Malaysia, people of all race, religion, age defy the odds to converge into the meeting points before marching to the palace to hand over the memorandum.

Roadblocks in Sg Besi, Gombak, Setapak, Federal highway, diverting traffics from entering directly into KL, mass transit system opting not to stopat the meeting points do not deter the people from braving their way in the heavy rains to converge at Central market, SOGO, Masjid Jamek, Masjid Negara.

Bloggers Raja Petra provided the space for others to voice their actions and unofficially pave the chronology of the events whilst Harakahdaily.net provided the scenario from the scene.

Al jazeera broke the news at 3.00 pm at interviewed jeff ooi of screenshot on the BERSIH's demands for a fair and free election whilst Minister of Information did has his share in the al jazeera interview.

For some, this is a historic events as they come not because of their political believe but a common cause unites them all i.e. to see a fair and free election.

For some, their trip is laced with souvenirs from the police in the likes of tear gas, water canon etc when they are non-confrontational. Yet the police claims the crowd is unruly.

Not only that, the IGP states that only 4,000 attended the illegal assembly. True or false when al jazeera says tens of thousands indicating that there are more than 10,000 people in the Masjid Jamek area alone.

Independent sources claims that approximately 40,000 manage to converge to the palace whilst the other half were being chased around by the police. Buses from other states were blocked from joining the crowd and diverted elsewhere.

All in all, the people has manage to out their message across - enough is enough...provide a fair and free election. The irony of the matter is that the mainstream newspaper and TV downplay the significance of the event which isolated the rural people from knowing the truth about the assembly.

All said and done, this is the beginning and maybe more to come.

Till then...G'nite M'sia...wherever u are... Read More

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Of General assembly, peaceful gathering and ...


The rhetorics seem few notches lower than the past year as PM deliver his key speech in the annual UMNO general assembly. Mentioning that the party is receptive to collective ideas, PM is seeding the assembly with coated speech to win the hearts of non-Malays.

Gone are the "Go, if u don't like" challenge, PM is trying his best to provides the prelude of the coming delegates speeches. True to the core, most of the delegates tend to be concilatory in nature and potrays the need of their people, as if they are the true fighters and represents the rakyat.

Apart from the PM's address, the Youth wing has re-define the reasoning behind the kris unsheathing. From the words of defending the Malay rights to the last spill of blood, now the rhetoric talks about protecting all, as the umbrella.

The questions that raised through my mind is how can they defend the rights of a common Malaysian when the UMNO youth brigade (PUTRA) enjoys supporting the mat rempits, those king of the road comes Saturday nights?

Come 10th November when the UMNO general assembly is over, there will be another kind of assembly. This time the assembly is not held in the air cond halls of PWTC but under the blue skies of Malaysia where thousands of people is expected to gather for a clean and fair election whilst voicing their support to the Rulers of Malaysia.

Whether the 10th November gathering manage to gather 1o, 100, 1000, 10000, 100000, 1000000 people is not important. What is important is that there is a decent voice for a cleaner and fair election procedures as well as a solid support to YDPA.

It is not politically motivated and UMNO should use this opportunity to prove that they are also citizens who support the YDPA.

As I see it, if UMNO could not activate their members to join in the peaceful gathering, then it is clear who is the arrogant party - the one who feels that they own the country and can rundown normal citizenss without care...

Till then...G'nite M'sia...wherever u are... Read More