By Yow Hong Chieh
July 13, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, July 13 — Lim Kit Siang today turned the tables on Umno and Utusan Malaysia, which he said were “traitors to the King” for attempting to tar Bersih protesters as turncoats.

The DAP parliamentary leader said such unfounded accusations by the ruling party and its mouthpiece would only serve to turn the sentiments of the majority of patriotic Malaysians against King and country.

“Is Utusan and the Umno leadership seriously suggesting that the 50,000 Malaysians who braved police threats, mass arrests, tear gas and water cannon to peacefully gather in support of Bersih 2.0… are disloyal and traitors to King and country?” he said in a statement today.

“No, it is Utusan and the Umno leadership who are disloyal and traitors to King and country if they are so irresponsible and reckless as to make such wild allegations that tens and hundreds of thousands and even millions of Malaysians are disloyal and traitors for supporting the peaceful 709 Bersih 2.0 rally.”

Lim also said Utusan’s wild claims that Selangor Pakatan Rakyat (PR) and Bersih leaders had betrayed the King by marching on Saturday was proof that Barisan Nasional (BN) is stuck in a time warp and can no longer connect with what he termed the “Bersih 1Malaysia generation”.

He said it was clear that the advice of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) social anthropologist Professor Datuk Shamsul Amri Baharuddin that the Najib administration should discard its Cold War mindset had fallen on death ears.

Shamsul had reminded BN after the Bersih rally that the “enemy” was no longer armed communists battling a jungle war but a civilian movement comprising politically awakened middle class Malaysians who were wired to the global community and acted on legitimate issues based on the Constitution.

Lim added that Matthias Chang, a close confidante and strategist of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, also agreed that BN’s “war of intimidation” had backfired as Malaysians no longer feared armed security forces, the threat of racial riots or the communist bogey.

Chang had said it was ironic that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1 Malaysia slogan was better reflected in the ranks of Bersih marchers than in Umno Youth’s “red shirt provocatuers”.

The trained lawyer predicted that BN would fail to secure a two-thirds majority in Parliament or the four opposition-led states in the next general election and that Najib would be ousted six months after that.

Lim further called on all Malaysians regardless of race, religion, age and gender to “demonstrate their love, loyalty and patriotism for the country” and to show their support for free and fair elections by wearing yellow every Saturday.

“What is clear is that ordinary Malaysians must continue act in extraordinary ways to make their voice heard loud and clear as in the historic 709 Bersih 2.0 rally,” he said.