While many
Singaporeans spent their weekends complaining about the irritating haze and the
missed opportunities to go out there to have their fun, the minorities in
Malaysia heaved a sigh of relief. The harrowing experience of May 13 almost
descended on them and many feared that they would end up as carnage on the
streets bathed with blood, and their homes and shops razed to the ground like
before. It was fear everywhere that prompted the MCA chief to call on Najib to
put a stop to the Saturday’s second Red Shirt Rally in Chinatown. And in
desperation, the Chinese Ambassador was invited to visit Chinatown to make a
statement that what the Red Shirts were planning was unacceptable.
The Police acted and
arrested Jamal, the UMNO NGO head who was associated with the Sep 16 rally and
the planned Saturday rally into Chinatown.
With Jamal out of the picture, and with increasing pressure and international
spotlight on the grave acts waiting to happen, reasons and wisdom took over and
the rally was called off. It was unimaginable should the Red Shirts be let lose
to do what they intended to do in Chinatown and to the ethnic Chinese
community. How the situation could escalate to such a level in modern and
supposedly moderate Malaysia only showed that beneath the façade of calm, all
is not well. A little provocation and instigation and the primordial instinct
of mob behaviour would surface. In the 21st Century, the thought of political
leaders tapping on racial hostility and to exploit it to create mob violence
for personal interests is scary and unforgiveable.
The Malaysian Chinese
from now on would appreciate better the presence of a powerful China to fall
back on to avoid being massacred freely like in the past. Those were the days
when China
was hapless and could only watch in vain, too weak to do anything, and many
ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia were easy
meat to be slaughtered with impunity by the natives. Hopefully those days would
never happen again because of a powerful China that could intervene to prevent
further bloodshed, but more as a result of enlightenment, civilisation and
progress among the people in the region, to move away from the old tribal ways
when life was short and brutal.
Countries and
societies should be governed by the rule of law, not raw naked primitive power.
Malaysia
is still in transformation, from bad to good and some from good to bad. The
power brokers in Malaysia
are changing sides. The forces of progress have degenerated while the forces of
extremism have turned moderates. In the midst of trouble times, a beckon of
light appears from a forgotten royalty that was ostracized by the politicians
for the very same reasons the politicians are guilty of today. And the
royalties have returned to be a force of moderation, modernization and wisdom,
to put the politicians in their rightful place, not to abuse the power bestowed
on them by the rakyat. A badly behaved political fiefdom would now have to
reckon with the royalties to stand up for the rakyat, to assume their rightful
place as rulers and protectors of the rakyat, and to put the usurpers back to
where they are.
An unusual calm has
returned to Malaysia,
but life is still far from normal. There could still be fireworks when Najib
returns from the UN. Or would he be retained by the Americans for his vices and
remove the source of all the problems during this critical time?
