As I alluded to in my commentary to the events on Saturday, I was a bit miffed when Harakahdaily.net temporarily stated that PAS had managed to get 100,000 people out onto the streets.
This seems to be a bit of a larger problem, where Saturday was seen (by some) as part of an Islamist agenda. See here, for an example. So far refutations of this point of view aren't being accepted by the moderator.
I don't think that this is merely a problem for moderates/ liberals/ non-Muslims. It's a problem for PAS, if they are seen to be unreliable partners in the pro-democracy movement. It is a problem that has been mentioned in connection with the Anti-ISA Movement, that the political parties, PAS in particular, only getting involved in activities if they can control or take credit for them, not if they support the broader aim of ISA repeal. It dampened NGO enthusiasm for working with political parties in the post-Reformasi period. Let's hope this isn't repeated, and that Bersih is seen for what it is - a multi-racial, multi-religious coalition bringing together people from across Malaysian society to campaign for greater democracy, accountability and transparency.
2 comments:
Thanks for saying this out loud Sonia. I think you have articulated whats in the minds of a lot of people.
By the way, there're strong suspicions that the Islamoholic is none other than Mohd Elfie Nieshaem Juferi aka MENJ.
Feel free to have a look at these known MENJ sites and do some comparison :
http://www.menj.org/
http://www.apostleofdoom.com/
http://www.bismikaallahuma.org/
Same difference? ;)
From V Gayathry (via email):
"i tried posting on this site and doubt it will be up:
as far as i am concerned, i don't care of what religion you are or the thousands of people who turned up yesterday are. what i know is that people who believed in democracy and justice came out in full force to express themselves. Even those who were not on the scene, there were many who supported the march because they believe in democracy.
What's with the attack on liberal muslims? what a selfish and self-righteous approach. How can one claim to defend democracy, using the religion as your justification, and have no sense of respect for the equality of all human beings.
The march was our right to claim what is rightfully ours - a free and fair elections, the right to express it and the right to assemble. What brought people together was belief in these values."
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