The Success Of Bersih 5 And The Spirit Of The People

The rakyat and yellow shirts are having a good laugh at the powers that be.

Despite all the intimidation and crude assays to scuttle Bersih 5 from proceeding with the Nov 19 rally, including the eleventh hour arrests of Bersih leaders and virtual lockdown of parts of the Federal Capital to rally participants, what Bolehland saw was that the people were no longer afraid to come out and tell the government of the day what they thought of it.

They came out to rally. You can bar their way, you can threaten to throw them in jail. But nobody cares a hoot anymore, because they know that to sit back and allow themselves to be intimidated from exercising their constitutional right of expression is the surest way to destroy democracy and accountable governance.

They laugh at the attempt to equate calling the Pm to step down to activity amounting to destroying parliamentary democracy.

They laugh because it was all so funny this genius juxtaposition.

If democracy means that you cannot criticise a leader or call for him to step down, then that must be 'de-mock-cracy,' a creature as alien to the concept of freedom of speech a democracy advocates or is defined by, as a dictatorship where you can freely criticise the leader (or call for him to step down) and get honoured for your impudence.

Leaders who are corrupt and incompetent hide behind laws of their own making, subverting definitions and conventions and dressing falsehoods and lies in puerile multi-hued garbs that only fool themselves.

Like clowns to the circus of deceit and infamy.