The Red Shirts Way of Preserving Power

A Kadir Jasin

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ "In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful".

WHEN the Yellow shirts had their demonstrations in Kuala Lumpur on 29 and 30 August, the purpose was to continue their demand for free and fair elections.

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Additionally they wanted to save the country from what they perceived be a bad government under Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Mappadulung Daeng Matti­mung Karaeng Sanrobone) Mohd Najib Abdul Razak.

Then, on Sept 16, almost out of the blue, came the Red shirts, whose purpose was purportedly to save the Malays from being “bangsat” (immigrants) in their own land.

At first Mohd Najib and his panglima Umno (Umno worriors) and srikandi (female warriors) were coy about admitting the party’s affiliation and sympathy with the protestors.

But when it became apparent that the gathering might match or even surpass that of the Yellow Shirts, they started to openly align themselves with the demonstrators. By now Mohd Najib and Umno appear to have conclusively embraced the Red shirts.

There are a few things to consider in the post-Yellow and Red Shirts demonstrations. Among them:

1. That armed with money and political support, the organisers of Red Shirts had been able to corral enough participants in a span of a few days using the Malays greatest fear – being overwhelmed by the non-Malays. They portrayed the Bersih protests as a non-Malay conspiracy to take over the county.

2. This was what Umno had done in the past, albeit more subtly, and that’s what they are likely to do at the next general election. They will use money and political power to garner votes while instilling fears among the Malays that they are in the danger of being swept away by Chinese Tsunami. The latter term was Mohd Najib’s own creation.

3. There are enough people around the Prime Minister who believe that with money and political power, they can continue to marshal enough rural votes in the name of the survival of the bangsa (race) to cling on to power.

4. Mohd Najib’s emotive use of “bangsat” is bound to find currency with many rural Malays. Mohd Najib himself believes that if he could hang on to power until the next GE to lead the Barisan Nasional to victory.

5. So those who think that Mohd Najib will be done away with soon and the BN will be gone in the next GE better think twice. For as long as he can get half of the pak cik, mak cik, the Orang Asli, the rural folk and Felda settlers to side with him, Umno would be returned to power and his position would the be unassailable. He would be vindicated.

6. All that he has to do in the interim is making sure that no criminal action is taken against him and BN legislators are kept in a tight grip to avoid defections and a vote of no confidence.

7. If the red shirt organisers could, within less than two weeks, put up such a show by bussing the people from faraway places that knew neither the rhyme nor the reason for joining the protest, there is nothing to stop them from using the same modus operandi to win the next GE.

8. Mohd Najib’s motto – money is king - sells well with the poor Malays in the villages and Felda settlements. With continued depression in commodity prices and rise in the cost of living due to the fall of the ringgit and the imposition of the GST, the power of money is even stronger among the rural poor. Impoverishing the people has its merit.

9. Mohd Najib does not need the clever Malays and the urbanites. He knows he cannot spook them with his “bangsat” slogan or threaten them into submission by spreading fear that their every move is being watched. The arrest and detention of (Datuk Paduka) Khairuddin Abu Hassan (KAH) and the expulsion of Aninah Saadudin from Umno have the effect of proving that intimidation is now a strategy.

10. But Mohd Najib, Umno and the government are losing on the media front. The mainstream media, the mainstay of their propaganda campaign, is losing grips of the audience and is in dire financial situation. Their integrity and reporting standards have fallen so badly that they lost literally every legal suit brought against them by Mohd Najib’s opponents. Their defence of Mohd Najib, Umno and the government crumbled when they lost these suits.

11. Readers, viewers and listeners are rapidly declining. Take the once mighty Utasan Malaysia newspaper as an example. The official website of Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) Malaysian puts its circulation at 173,000 copies a day when back in 2003 it was selling around 320,000 copies. It peaked in the 1990’s around 350,000 copies. Its publisher, Utusan Melayu Berhad is in dire financial position. Bernama reported that for the 2014 financial year its losses increased four-fold to RM82.64 million. The same trend is seen at Media Prima Berhad and, to a lesser degree, at the Star Publications Berhad.

12. The influence of the independent media like the Malay language Sinar Harian and the Edge is increasing so is that of the media platforms like blog, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Attempts by Mohd Najib and his backers to use these platforms, starting from the 2013 GE, had not been a sterling success. Instead their sites are being used by the people to pour scorn on them. 

13. Having said at that, the immediate concern remains the direction the country is heading. We have lost international respect, our economy is tittering on the brink, welfare of the rakyat is getting worst and the country is becoming less safe.

14. Akhirulkalam, if Khairuddin is a liar and the documents in his possession were fake or doctored, why should the Prime Minister fear him? Being a good friend of the US, he should have faith in the US justice system and allow Khairuddin to provide the FBI with the fake and doctored documents. Let the US arrest and prosecute him for lying. Lying to a US Government agency is a criminal misdemeanour.

Wallahuaklam.