IF the commies really were returning to destroy our beautiful country I would be the first to advocate a crackdown, involving the activation of Emergency Ordinances, the imposition of ‘black’ areas, food rationing and the deployment of the army. Classical liberals understand that in times of war some freedoms are necessarily temporarily curtailed.
But no such thing is taking place, and the attempt to paint the proposed Bersih 2.0 rally as a revival of the communist movement is nauseating. Firstly the objectives of Bersih 2.0 would not be consistent with a communist system. Secondly, the evidence is exceedingly flimsy: as hideous as t-shirts with communist icons on them are, they are a far cry from the guns and bombs that previous communist terrorists actually smuggled across our country. The wearers of such t-shirts can often be likened to the wearers of t-shirts with Disney princesses on them: both aspire to a fantasy that ultimately cannot come true (the difference is that young girls usually eventually grow up whilst hardcore lefties rarely do).
Thirdly, some of the arguments employed by the accusers are so comical as to be unbelievable – my favourite must be this idea that the communist activity is somehow linked to Christian proselytisation, which I suppose could indicate an appreciation of advanced irony and convoluted conspiracy, but I doubt that was the intention in this case.
However, the overriding reason to be nauseated by the invocation of the communist scapegoat is that it insults those genuine heroes, soldiers and citizens of an earlier generation who actually did risk life and limb fighting communist terrorists. Yet again, because of politics in the present, the past is being defiled.
Still, it is true that last week my parting shot was to dismiss the Bersih 2.0 rally and counter-rallies as a contest of intimidation. This is because the point about electoral reform has become a whisper amidst the shouting and goading that has contaminated the environment with aggressive politics, with the effect that the rally as originally envisioned will be unlikely to further its intended aims.
That is not a reason to abandon the fight for electoral reform of course (and remember that electoral reform is a huge area that encompasses far more than Bersih 2.0’s eight points, of which I take issue with at least one since I do not think political parties should ever be beneficiaries of government funding which ‘proportionate and objective coverage for all political parties’ from state-funded media agencies would necessarily entail), but it is a reason to consider that other methods might be more effective (although I sympathise with those who counter “but there are no other methods!”).
Nor is that a reason to abandon the fight for the right of assembly and to protest. The attitude of the authorities from the beginning has not been the most accommodative. As I often recall, the sight of London Bobbies actually assisting protestors along their marches (disruptive to traffic as they were) strengthened my commitment to democracy. Of course, tangential or even irrelevant groups often hijack popular rallies in order to claim inflated support, and in some cases they turn violent: but that is still not a reason to ban them – rather it is all the more reason for the police to offer protection to the majority of peaceful demonstrators. Indeed it is their job, but until they understand it is their job, going out on the streets knowing they will be hostile is unlikely to convince anyone.
In another episode of authoritarianism the government has seen it fit to impose a new quota supposedly designed to benefit our female citizens. I am glad that several prominent women have joined many other compatriots to oppose this move. Criticisms of quotas from the supposed ‘benefactors’ always have more force than criticism from the outside, but I fear little will change the prevailing belief that invoking the law to benefit one group of people will ensure that group’s electoral loyalty. I fear even more that that belief is actually true.
I suppose the only succour in this confluence of events is the knowledge that, even though as one set of authoritarians fights another set of imagined authoritarians, there are some individuals with the courage to fight authoritarianism by speaking the truth: that the imposition by the state of dreamt-up quotas is always discriminatory, often destructive, inevitably unsustainable (yet politically suicidal to unravel), and a thoroughly bad idea.