The Real Reason for the Crackdown - 2013

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The Real Reason for the Crackdown

31 May 2013 | Bolehland | Posted by Ong Kar Jin

Ong Kar Jin believes theres more to what meets the eye in this round of policecrackdowns.

Adam Adli. Tian Chua. Haris Ibrahim. Tamrin Ghafar. Safwan Anang. And now

Hishammuddin Rais. One by one, these politicians and activists have been hauled up bythe authorities in a crackdown reminiscent of 1988s Operation Lalang.

The real question of course, is why.

Now this may seem like an obvious answer to you; after all, they all probably have

played a part in calling on people to go to street rallies, or have had a hand or two inorganising them. The simple logic now is that the authorities are simply clamping down

to ensure no more rallies will take place.

I must disagree. Let us take the rally reason at face value. Tamrin Ghafar, Hishammuddin

Rais and Tian Chua have had very little to do with organising rallies. In terms of callingon people to rise and take to the streets to protest, they are only part of a growing chorus

of NGO activists, politicians and ordinary citizens. In any case, rallies have gone on for a

very long time now, from BERSIH in 2007 all the way to the recent Suara Rakyat 505Padang Amcorp rally. Barisan Nasional (BN) has managed to largely ignore them with

the administration going on as normal, and have learnt valuable lessons that any

crackdowns can only result in a terrible political backlash.

And if indeed there was to be a crackdown to prevent rallies, why the selective

persecution? Why not hit out at the big players? Blogger Chegubard has made his stanceand involvement in the Amcorp Mall rally very clear by his presence on the stage, yet has

not been arrested.

Yet a crackdown still happened. And is still happening. Why? Has the government

simply not learned? Have they grown a sudden fear to rallies?

I believe the situation needs a closer examination. Not all arrested so far called upon the

rakyat to rise and take the fight to the streets. Not all were involved in organizing rallies.Yet the Home Ministry went right ahead knowing full well there would be a huge

political backlash in arresting the above names. Again, the crucial question is why?

All those arrested thus far do, however, have something in common: they all spoke out

against racism at a May 13 forum at the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall. Adam Adli

called the May 13 riots a result of sedition by UMNO members and said they were usedas an excuse to hold on to power in the aftermath of the devastating 1969 election results.


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Tian Chua boldly stated that unity has never been a real problem in Malaysia, but

disunity is actively caused by UMNO itself. Again, he labeled May 13 as a means to hold

onto power, calling it a toyol to scare people. Most revealing is Tamrin Ghafarsspeech, where he revealed in his capacity as an ex-UMNO insider that the May 13 riots

were part of a coup dtat to overthrow Tunku Abdul Rahman. He even implicated

Mahathir Mohammad as one of the key players. Similar exhortations to relook at historywere made by Haris Ibrahim and Safwan Anang.

I believe it is not rallies UMNO fears but a growing trend of historical revisionism.

Should the spectre of May 13 be torn apart as an UMNO-orchestrated plot, Barisan

Nasional would lose its status as a bringer of stability and a preserver of delicate racerelations. Previously such thoughts were restricted to the minds of academics such as

Kua Kia Soong, but recently such reflections upon history have gained traction in popular

imagination.

As George Orwell once said: He who controls the present, controls the past. And he who

controls the past, controls the future.

The real fear of UMNO is not rallies. They have dealt with them aplenty before, from1988s protests, 1998s Reformasi to 2007s BERSIH. The real fear of UMNO is the

revision of the gospel truth they have taught people as the history of the nation. Once

the May 13 spectre loses ground, what would happen to the older voters who previouslymay have feared a change in government based on concerns over racial clashes? What

would it say about BNs smear campaign on Lim Kit Siang, who was not even in the

Peninsula at the time of the riots?


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And what other hidden histories will be revealed? Perhaps the next issue to catchpeoples attention will be the struggle of the left-wing parties under PUTERA-AMCJA

against the British (see Fahmi Redzas documentary Sepuluh Tahun Sebelum Merdeka),

which would then portray UMNO not as independence fighters but as British sycophantsand collaborators. With such a huge blow to BNs prestige as the Fathers of

Independence, what sort of impact might that have on Malaysians?

No doubt such thoughts are haunting the minds of the authorities. As another quote from

George Orwell goes: In times of universal deceit, the telling of the truth is a

revolutionary act.

To put it simply, UMNO fears the truth.

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The Real Reason for the Crackdown - 2013