Perdana Menteri Malaysia dalam keadaan yang tidak selesa

July 29, 2011

Perdana Menteri Malaysia dalam keadaan yang tidak selesa

rencana oleh Mohd Rashidi Hassan

Rakyat menyambut kepulangan Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Razak dari lawatan ke tiga buah negara Eropah 22hb. Julai 2011, dengan tekad untuk meneruskan reformasi yang digerakkan melalui Perhimpunan Bersih 2.0, 9hb. Julai lepas.

Walaupun keberangkatan Najib ke luar negara mendapat liputan hebat daripada media arus perdana, hakikatnya Najib sendiri berada dalam keadaan yang amat tidak selesa.

Najib menyambut ulangtahun kelahirannya yang ke-58 pada 23hb. Julai lepas dalam keadaan yang tidak selesa kerana populariti yang cuba dibinanya, selepas mengambil alih jawatan PM daripada Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi pada 4hb. April 2009, semakin jatuh merudum.

Najib ternyata gagal mendapatkan sokongan rakyat, apabila banyak slogan dan dasar yang dijajanya tidak mendapat sambutan.

Malah, Najib semakin kehilangan sokongan dari dalam UMNO, kerana banyak tindak tanduknya dilihat tidak membantu memulihkan UMNO yang terjejas teruk sejak Pilihan Raya Umum Mac 2008.

Yang paling teruk ialah apabila media dalam dan luar negara membuat kritikan yang amat keras terhadap Najib kerana cara kerajaan UMNO-BN pimpinannya mengendalikan pra dan pasca Perhimpunan Bersih 2.0 dianggap yang paling buruk dalam sejarah demokrasi Malaysia moden.

Sehingga sebelum Najib berangkat menemui Ratu Elizabeth dan PM British, David Cameron, akhbar-akhbar di negara berkenaan melabelkan beliau sama seperti diktator Mesir, bekas Presiden Hosni Mubarak.

Malah akhbar Guardian yang berpengaruh di United Kingdom memaparkan rencana bertajuk Mubarak Model, apabila merujuk kepada cara polis Malaysia yang bertindak ganas ke atas ! peserta demonstrasi Bersih 2.0.

Dalam satu tulisan, mereka menggesa PM Malaysia dengan mengatakan Malaysias Najib Must Abandon The Mubarak Model. Akhbar tersebut juga memberi amaran kepada Najib, bahawa beliau akan menghadapi tekanan dan kritikan global, kerana cara beliau mengendalikan Bersih 2.0 bertentangan dengan norma kebebasan hak asasi yang diterima pakai oleh Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu.

Seorang kolumnis akhbar harian di UK, Simon Tisdall membelasan Najib dan memberi amaran kepada beliau bahawa di bawah kepimpinannya Malaysia sudah mengambil pendekatan diktator seperti Hosni Mubarak.

Malah akhbar-akhbar di UK juga menggesa PM mereka supaya mengambil kira rekod buruk Najib yang tidak langsung menghormati hak asasi kemanusiaan, sebelum berunding mengenai hubungan dua hala serta perdagangan.

Najib dikritik keras oleh Amnesty International, yang menjadi saksi ramai peserta demonstrasi yang cedera, mengalami pendarahan akibat dipukul oleh polis.

Bantahan dan tekanan terhadap kerakusan pihak polis tidak akan terhenti selagi pihak yang bertanggungjawab tidak diheret ke muka pengadilan. Najib berada dalam keadaan serba tak kena kerana beliau akan terus menerima tekanan dari dalam dan luar negara, akibat kesilapan kerajaan menangani tuntutan rakyat.

Najib barangkali lupa bahawa beliau berhadapan dengan kuasa rakyat. Iaitu kuasa rakyat yang tidak mempercayai sistem pilihan raya di Malaysia bebas dan demokratik, rakyat yang sangsi dengan system kehakiman dan rakyat yang tidak boleh menerima tindakan ganas Polis terhadap mereka.

Najib jumpa, bahawa ini adalah perhimpunan rakyat yang tulen, bukannya perhimpunan yang diangkut dengan bas-bas, dijamu dengan nasi bungkus dan sebagainya, seperti yang dilakukan dalam perhimpunan tajaan UMNO-BN.

Rakyat akan terus membu! at tuntu tan, rakyat akan terus tegakkan keadilan. Tiada istilah berundur pada hati dan jiwa rakyat.

Rakyat tidak akan berhenti dan tidak akan berpuashati selagi Najib tidak diundurkan, selagi UMNO-BN tidak diturunkan dari tampuk pemerintahan. harakahdaily.net

Malaysias Najib must abandon the Mubarak Model

by Simon Tisdall@ guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 13 July 2011 19.30 BST

As Najib comes touting for UK trade, Cameron has a chance to show him strong-arm tactics against protesters are unacceptable.

It is not in the same league as Arab spring uprisings in Egypt and elsewhere. But Malaysias fancifully named hibiscus revolution has potential, at least, to inflict a winter of discontent on the gormless government of Prime Minister Najib Razak. Thats something David Cameron should bear in mind when Najib comes touting for business in Downing Street on Thursday. Bilateral trade and investment is important. Respect for basic human rights more so.

Najib reacted with characteristic heavy-handedness when tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Kuala Lumpurat the weekend demanding reformasi democratic reform and an end to a defective electoral system that guarantees Najibs party representing the Malay majority, UMNO, stays in power indefinitely. About 1,700 people were arrested and many injured as police used baton charges, watercannon and teargas to break up peaceful protests.

In an echo of Britains Ian Tomlinson affair, one protester, identified as Baharuddin Ahmad, 59, collapsed and later died near the Petronas Towers in central Kuala Lumpur while fleeing teargas. Amnesty International said the Police had beaten many demonstrator! s. It de manded an investigation into claims they failed to provide prompt assistance to Baharuddin and that there was a 90-minute delay before an ambulance arrived.

Prime Minister Najibs government rode roughshod over thousands of Malaysians exercising their right to peaceful protest, Amnesty said. This violent repression flies in the face of international human rights standards and cannot be allowed to continue. David Cameron should tell Prime Minister Najib that these human rights violations are unacceptable.

The protests, the product of rising tensions linked to mooted early elections, spending cuts and political upheavals in neighbouring Thailand and Singapore, echo events across the Muslim world. Many of the participants were reportedly younger-generation Malaysians kicking back against establishment cronyism, curbs on public assembly and debate, and state-imposed censorship considered draconian even by regional standards.

Within hours of the violence, a Facebook petition demanding Najib resign was attracting 300 likes per minute, the (Singapore-based) Straits Times reported. As of this morning, more than 172,000 people had expressed support. I dont understand why the harshness, the beatings, posted Sofie Muhammad. The crowd didnt even throw stones at the shops. Why is the government afraid? All we want is free elections. Videos were also recorded by protesters.

Marimuthu Manogaran of the Democratic Action Party, representing the ethnic Chinese minority, said many of the protesters were first timers. Young people [are] coming out there to demand their rights and I think that is a good sign for Malaysia, he told Luke Hunt of the Diplomat.

Another report, denied by the Police, said a hospital where protesters had taken refuge was attacked by security forces an incident akin to events in Bahrain earlier this year. Appalled by the behaviour of police and federal reserve unit special forces, Bersih 2.0, the opposition coalition for clean and fair elections, called for a royal commission of inquiry and vowed to continue its reformasi campaign, come what may.

Anwar Ibrahim, the veteran opposition leader endlessly persecuted by successive governments on trumped-up sodomy charges (he is due in court again next month), was among those injured. He said later the government had lost the peoples confidence and more street protests were inevitable. We will have to pursue free elections inside and outside of parliament, he warned.

Far from admitting fault, Najib has threatened more strong-arm tactics if the demos continue. Dont doubt our strength. If we want to create chaos, we can. UMNO has 3 million members. If we gather 1 million members, it is more than enough. We can conquer Kuala Lumpur, he said.

Such threats seem ill-advised. When elected in 2009, Najib promised to bridge Malaysias political, ethnic and religious divisions. Now hes in danger of exacerbating them, as his old boss, Malaysias founding father Mahathir Mohammad suggested in a recent interview.

Malaysia is not on the verge of revolution, hibiscus-coloured or otherwise. Relatively speaking, it is more stable, homogenous and prosperous than other Muslim or Arab countries currently experiencing popular turmoil. But it is not politically immune to the international zeitgeist, any more than its economy is immune to global trends. This latter consideration explains why Najib is in London. And it gives Cameron and other Europe! an leade rs leverage should they choose to use it.

Malaysians need only look north to see how Thai voters defied the political-military establishment and voted in a leader of their choice. When Burmas Aung San Suu Kyispeaks of the twin imperatives of freedom and democracy, she speaks for an entire region. And if Malaysians look south to Singapore or east to Hong Kong, they see entrenched ruling elites under determined challenge by activists emboldened by the spirit of change.

Malaysias leaders should wake up and smell the coffee. Led intelligently and openly, Malaysia could be a paradigm for South-East Asia. Led repressively, it could fall apart. Najib must get on the right side of history. The Mubarak model doesnt work.