The cat is out of the bag – the mission of irresponsible, dishonest and insidious propagandists in the UMNO/BN camp out to twist facts, distort the truth and even tell outright lies and falsehoods to influence public perceptions and events.
This comes from the admission by the UMNO Secretary-General Tengku Adnan yesterday blaming the UMNO-owned Utusan Malaysia for exacerbating the diplomatic flap involving the Chinese ambassador to Malaysia Huang Huikang who, to quote Adnan, went to Petaling Street with good intentions but Utusan Malaysia took Ronnie Liu and Teresa Kok’s blog and “twisted” them into the headlines, and it became a problem!
There would be no kid-glove treatment of Utusan Malaysia if it is not a UMNO-owned publication or the authorities would have descended on it like a ton of bricks, even suspending or cancelling its publication licence for activities prejudicial to racial harmony and national interests.
This highlights the UMNO/BN administration’s hypocrisy and double-standards especially as this is not the first time that Utusan had been guilty of journalistic excesses, abuses and anti-national activities prejudicial to social peace, racial harmony and national unity.
But of equal concern should be Adnan’s inadvertent admission of a major operations in both the social and print media to instantly rewrite history, as for instance, by misrepresenting the 34-hour Bersih 4 overnight rally as a Chinese-racist DAP-masterminded “show of force” against Malay political power when it was in fact a peaceful non-racial Malaysian human rights carnival demanding good governance and free, fair and clean elections.
It is only by instantly rewriting history and misrepresenting the 34-hour Bersih 4 rally as a Chinese-racist DAP-masterminded “show of force” against Malay political power that the Sept. 16 Red Shirts Malay rally could be justified – with all its racist slurs and high-octane and provocative images of racial conflict and even a racial “bloodbath”.
The 34-hour Bersih 4 human rights carnival for good governance and free, fair, clean elections and the four-hour racially divisive and provocative Sept. 16 Red Shirts Kebangkitan Maruah Melayu rally represent an acid test as to Najib’s sincerity when he proposed at the United Nations General Assembly five years ago for a Global Movement of Moderates (GMM) – to marginalize extremists, reclaim the centre, and shape the agenda towards peace and pragmatism.
This is because the 34-hour Bersih rally represented moderation, tolerance, peace and harmony which GMM should promote while the four-hour Sept. 16 Red Shirts Rally stood for extremism, intolerance, hate and falsehoods – the very vices which GMM should marginalize to reclaim the centre.
This is also why the Cabinet should seriously consider my proposal that the GMM be commissioned to report on who were the extremists and who were the moderates in the events surrounding the 34-hour Bersih 4 rally and the 4-hour Sept. 16 Red Shirts Rally.
The DAP is not in any way involved and associated with the GMM established by Najib, but we believe that the truth will finally prevail and withstand public scrutiny unlike the chicanery and falslehoods of dishonest propagandists and we are prepared to place our trust in the GMM.
Don’t tell me that the Prime Minister who established the GMM has no trust and confidence in the GMM and dare not commission the GMM to report on who were the extremists and who were moderates in the events surrounding the Bersih 4 and Sept. 15 Red Shirt rallies?
Before Bersih 4 rally, I had suggested that Najib should embrace and dialogue with the Bersih 4 organisers and stakeholders as it will be fully in keeping with his GMM initiative to promote moderation, tolerance, peace and harmony so as to marginalise and eradicate all forms of extremism, intolerance and bigotry.
Najib is sounding the death knell for GMM if he is not prepared to uphold moderation as represented by Bersih 4 and marginalize extremism as represented by Sept. 16 Red Shirts Rally.
It is most unfortunate that this critical juncture of the nation’s history, the other Barisan Nasional parties are not playing their role of speaking truth to power, i.e. to the UMNO Big Brother, that the 34-hour Bersih 4 overnight rally had nothing to do with race or politics, but was a genuine grassroots demand by Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region, age, gender or politics for good governance and clean, free, fair elections.
Even worse, there are MCA and Gerakan leaders who had instigated UMNO elements to respond to the Bersih 4 Rally in a racist, chauvinist and extremist manner by giving them cause to believe that DAP had hijacked and masterminded the 34-hour Bersih 4 rally to stage a Chinese “show-of-force” to challenge Malay political authority – when this was a completely baseless supposition.
These MCA and Gerakan leaders like Gerakan Secretary-General Datuk Liang Teck Meng and the MCA religious harmony bureau chairman Datuk Seri Ti Lian Ker are not doing the nation or any community any service, although they are praised sky-high by the UMNO mouthpiece Utusan Malaysia.
Those who think that just because some had rewritten Malaysia’s history of the past, they can also rewrite the history of contemporary events will learn that they cannot be more wrong or misguided.