This victory is significant, as in truth, a majority of Malaysians are people of peace and believe in truth, justice and democracy and in the elimination of fascism and racism, says Rakyat Jelata.
One can’t suppress a barking laugh at the fact that even items of clothing can be outlawed in this country.
Unless this country has taken to emulating a tin-pot dictatorship in some remote corner of the world, such a petty and apparently absurd offence has never existed in any nation calling itself civilised or progressive, let alone democratic!
On Friday, 16 September 2015, Ambiga Sreenevasan, Kapar MP G Manivannan and Bukit Lanjan Adun Elizabeth Wong were reportedly questioned by police over the ‘outlawed’ Bersih 4 T-shirts they wore on 29 August. A ban was placed on this apparel on 28 August, a day before the Bersih 4 rally.
The ways in which bans are being bandied about on all sorts of petty and innocuous items by federal authorities and the lengths to which they will go using the heavy hand of the police force to crack a kacang (peanut) with a sledge hammer brings their sanity into question.
- Sign up for Aliran's free daily email updates or weekly newsletters or both
- Make a one-off donation to Persatuan Aliran Kesedaran Negara, CIMB a/c 8004240948
- Make a pledge or schedule an auto donation to Aliran every month or every quarter
- Become an Aliran member
What is more baffling is the banning of a particular coloured clothing and possibly other items of a certain hue. Banning folk from wearing yellow or green at one time or another is complete nonsense. Perhaps, with the recent disruptive and aggressive Red Shirts rally, the authorities should ban the colour red and the red T-shirts with racist words and neo-Nazi type depictions hinting of racism and physical violence as they did the innocuous yellow Bersih 4 T-shirts.
The Red Rally was like a raging bull running wild on public roads and that had to be penned in at Padang Merbok. Again, the sanity of the powers that be must be questioned for supporting this obviously fascist gathering.
The trouble that ensued at the entrance to Petaling Street came as no surprise, since the pent up politically intentional racism that fuelled this fascist gathering was hardly a secret to the public. Even a change of name didn’t serve to hoodwink anyone.
As things get progressively ridiculous in this beloved homeland of ours, where even our clothing can be arbitrarily outlawed or bans put into place on the flimsiest grounds, for no logical reason, the Rakyat stand dumbfounded.
This dumbfounded state, however, seems to be our saving grace. It prevents us from acting rashly and being plunged into an orgy of violence and destruction, resulting in our own downfall. The Rakyat, in their simple way, have overcome the fascist bitter red tide which threatened us on Malaysia Day.
This victory is significant, as in truth, a majority of Malaysians are people of peace and believe in truth, justice, democracy, humanity, and the elimination of fascism, racism and corruption, in all their vile and devious forms. We also reject the criminalising of colours, items of clothing among other things, and the negative symbolism of certain colours.
We want a government that espouses in word and deed those hallowed values that bring true peace, justice, unity, harmony and solidarity to our beloved homeland.
Rakyat berjaya! Hidup Rakyat!
Rakyat Jelata is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to our Thinking Allowed Online section.
AGENDA RAKYAT - Lima perkara utama
- Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
- Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
- Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
- Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
- Lawan rasuah dan kronisme
