Does Jamal Yunos, Umno’s division head for Sungai Besar, realise how stupid he sounds when he demands obedience of the law from Bersih chief Maria Chin Abdullah while he is free to ignore it?
When Maria announced the date of the Bersih 5 roadshow, Jamal leapt into action, lodged a police report against Maria and said that the Red Shirts would have a counter rally. He said, “Let red and yellow face off. Bersih and gang, wait for us and see what happens.”
Perhaps, Jamal has too much spare time on his hands and can think of nothing better to do. People like him, whose actions are deliberately timed to create unrest, harm our peaceful though fragile co-existence.
The sad thing is that Jamal thinks the supporters of Bersih simply love the idea of protesting and do it for its own sake.
He is aware, but will not admit, that calling for a Red Shirts rally on the day of the Bersih march is likely to cause unrest.
It is doubtful that Jamal understands, or even wants to understand, that he is part of the Umno problem. Some have alleged that he is under orders to cause as much chaos as is possible so that our attention will be redirected from 1MDB. Also, issuing threats of a confrontation will discourage people from participating in the Bersih march. At least that’s what he thinks.
Jamal’s remarks reveal much about his mentality. When he warned Bersih against holding the march, he gave trivial reasons, such as that Malaysians want the ease and freedom to shop or eat at a mamak stall. That is Jamal for you. He considers democracy to be less important than shopping and eating.
No one denies that there will be some disruption, but with proper planning, people should not be too inconvenienced.
Bersih’s detractors have always claimed that shopkeepers suffer during protest rallies. However, many shopkeepers have said that sales, especially of food, drinks and items like T-shirts and umbrellas, were brisk during the previous Bersih rallies.
Moreover, unlike Jamal, many Malaysians are genuinely concerned about the state of the nation. To them, being unable to move freely around KL on the final day of the Bersih roadshow is no big deal.
Jamal’s choice of words shows that he intends to provoke. He referred to Maria as a “circus animal” and accused her of using street protests “to upset parliamentary democracy in Malaysia and bring down PM Najib Abdul Razak.”
Nothing could be further from the truth. The opposition is ineffective. The options available to the rakyat are limited. Jamal can’t understand what democracy means. So how can we expect him to understand the meaning of principles and dignity?
Mariam Mokhtar is an FMT columnist.
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