What the hell are they doing? — Sin Chew Daily

SEPT 15 — August should have been a wonderful month for the country.

Unfortunately, this is not the case this year, as political violence and racism seeping into the civic movement have hijacked the auspicious national day celebrations.

These people have defiled the peaceful assembly of multiracial Malaysians demanding nothing more than a clean government and clean elections, accusing a patriotic act of disrupting social harmony.

They said they wanted an even bigger rally to counter Bersih 4.0 on Malaysia Day.

Well, Bersih 4.0 has set out five demands, and the Sept 16 rally, claiming to counter Bersih 4.0 , must be one that therefore advocates a corrupt government, dirty elections, intolerance to dissident voices and sabotaging the national economy. As if that is not enough, they started to show off some martial art tricks in public and said they did that to safeguard the dignity of their race.

This is nothing humorous at all, but downright absurd and disgusting.

Aspiring rally participants are willing to be manipulated by a small group of irresponsible individuals to attend a Red Shirts party with no distinct objectives. I have no idea how our future scholars are going to assess the government’s insane condonation of the Red Shirts’ violence.

Some of the small fries might have been instigated to take to the streets while others have their animosity easily ignited by the irresponsible quarters. This group of people can be found all across the world, and all we need are caring governments, organizations, scholars and people of great wisdom to deliver them out of ignorant fatuity.

Fortunately we have also seen quite a number of Malay NGOs which have vowed to protect the civilians implicated by the unruly rally this coming Wednesday. Thanks to the provocative propaganda, the Sept 16 rally is now packaged as a fire-playing event targeting specifically the non-bumiputras in this country.

As such, I am more inclined to find out exactly what our leaders may think, say, plan to do and can actually do.

Because they could do nothing to block the Yellow Shirts, they now have to conveniently grant the green light to the Red Shirts, not unlike a mother who fails to control her two mischievous boys. But this is not a question that because they were allowed to do it, so we, too, should be permitted to do the same. It is a question of racist provocation by way of distorting the original intent of the Aug 29 rally by Bersih 2.0, and highlighting the lopsided racial make-up of a supposedly multiracial and diverse crowd of rally goers.

What has gone wrong with our government that menacing anti-Chinese acts by some people have been able to be sustained right after Merdeka celebration through Malaysia Day.

If the Wednesday rally gets out of control, I really can’t imagine what sort of grave consequences will befall our beloved country.

In Indonesia, the theme for this year’s national day celebration is “Ayo Kerja” calling for ordinary citizens to work along with the government for the betterment of this country.

Indeed Indonesia has its share of problems during the course of the past one year: intricacies surrounding the rivalry of vested interests, a depressing economy, the plummeting rupiah and the presence of a small group of racist hooligans with their failed attempt to create some trouble.

But, the Jakarta authorities are reluctant to dance to the tune of these unruly politicians, and the ordinary citizens are equally unwilling to get enticed into joining their folly.

On September 1, the Black Shirts besieged the presidential palace, vowing to get some one million people in the streets to “deal with” the local Chinese. In the end, we only saw a couple of thousand of rowdy rally goers making some noise before retreating in defeat after they were persuaded by several ministers and the provincial governor to go home.

Unfortunately we don’t have this kind of government officials who can do likewise in Malaysia. Our government officials will only tell you they can’t do anything to the Red Shirts because Bersih supporters have done that as well.

At a time the ringgit is falling sharply and the economy is stagnant, those who really love this country should get the masses to join hands to work harder and create more employment opportunities for all, instead of getting a small group of people who have nothing better to do than to show off their martial arts supremacy in public.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.