By John Galt
July 10, 2011
The video only begins to tell the story of another Islamic nation beginning its journey into the Islamist Summer from hell.
The people of Malaysia are not exactly living the life of a truly free nation either and the protests which were supposedly blocked from happening as the roads were sealed off by the military and police turned out to be more of a government story rather than an effective means from preventing a large crowd from turning out in Kuala Lumpur, the nation’s capitol. The video above demonstrates otherwise.
The Straits Times of Singapore highlights the protests and the number arrested in this story:
Turnout shows people want clean elections, says Ambiga
and has a very extensive collection of photos from the protests which you can follow at this link.
The photos used here are just snapshots from the video via TheStar of Malaysia and the news coverage there has converged, apparently on government orders to begin to roll back the Berish 2.0 movement (Berish.org website at this link) which is demanding more reforms to reduce the corruption inherent with the current government and in turn create conditions with election reform for fair and free elections. The protests were smaller than the previous ones due to the roads being obstructed but the wire services are now teaming with the news of the 1,667 arrests and the comparisons to the “Arab Spring” movement are already being asserted in the Western media.
To understand the power of the current leadership in Malaysia, here is a snapshot of stories with the tilt intimating that everyone should shut up, be happy, and understand that this was allowed but will not be tolerated again in the future:
The game is over, time for everybody to move on
-The Star, Malaysia, Sunday July 10, 2011
Rais: Illegal rally to discredit PM’s leadership
-The Edge, Malaysia, Sunday July 10, 2011
Bernama denies sending out SMS on dissolution of Parliament
-The Malay Mail, Malaysia, Sunday July 10, 2011
Bersih’s illegal rally fails to muster support
-The Borneo Post, Malaysia, Sunday July 10, 2011
The arrest of the Malaysian protest leadership and apparent heavy-handed tactics used to break up the protests worked for the time being but does not disperse the discontent felt within Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur learned from the mistakes of the Arab nations by not pressing the issue further and released almost all of the protesters by 11 p.m. local time last night but this only fuels speculation that another even more concentrated series of strikes and protests might be in the offing.
If the government of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has received a minor black eye in the eyes of the international community as a result of this weekend’s protests but analysts fear it could diminish Western ideas that Malaysia does in fact have a fair and legitimate democratic system of government. As the tear gas fades into the difference, remember the most important fact overlooked by the average citizen as to why this nation’s stability is so crucial can be found in the computer being used to read this article or some other electronic device in their home, car, or office.
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