by Lucius Goon
The Malaysian Insider
Jul 31, 2011

JULY 31 — I have watched from afar how the prime minister and his administration have squirmed and twisted and justified their handling of Bersih 2.0 and shown their reluctance to discuss meaningful electoral reform.

Very little has surprised me about an administration that is bereft of principle and function on the basis of spin and half-truths. It is quite obvious that the government believed that it could kill off Bersih by tough action and threats of intimidation.

When this did not happen, Najib tried a different tack: that the government was reasonable but Bersih was bent on causing havoc on the streets. His administration also spread the word that if the electoral system was skewed, there is no way the Opposition could have snared five states.

Today, while speaking to student leaders, Najib added to the spin, saying that if the government really controlled the Election Commission, it could have easily won Kelantan in 2004 where a few seats were lost by a few votes.

I think we should end this lie now. In 2004, the PM was Abdullah Badawi, not the smartest man around and definitely a major disappointment but not a cheat. He would not have thought of stuffing the ballot box. In addition, the Umno guys did not know that Abdullah would lead BN to a strong win across the country.

Their showing in Kelantan was probably a surprise. But in all likelihood, Abdullah would have frowned on cheating.

In 2008, nobody, not BN, not Abdullah and certainly not Pakatan Rakyat, believed that the Malaysian public would punish the incumbents so severely.

Umno was caught unawares. Given that scenario, they did not feel the need to change the postal vote rules as they have done so recently. In addition, it is unlikely that as a God-fearing man, Abdullah would have agreed to wide-scale cheating.

But times have changed and the people at the top these days are facing much more pressure than Abdullah did: there is more racial strife; personal issues like the Scorpene deal which refuse to go away; a disillusioned non-Malay/Muslim electorate; a gaping budget deficit and a less gullible electorate.

More than anything else, there is also belief within Umno circles that this could be the end, and this fatalism is reflected by the grabbing and get rich mood currently prevalent among the BN elite and their cronies.

With this background, it is not surprising that Najib played hardball over the Bersih rally. Within Umno, they actually gave the Bersih people more power and credit than they deserved.

There is no way that Umno will agree to the transparency of electoral reform because the party leadership believes that control of the Election Commission is the last trump card it holds.

Coming back to Najib today. All this stout defence about offering Shah Alam Stadium is an afterthought. As the days roll along, the administration will embellish this story, aided and abetted by the lamestream media.

Depending on the audience, sometimes the justification for the government crackdown on Bersih will be to protect the majority against tyranny of the minority or that it is illegal to deal with an illegal organisation or something along those lines.

Temberanglah. Notice all talk of communism and a Christian takeover has suddenly disappeared.