Media statement by Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, 13^th July 2011: 

I will wear yellow every Saturday until...

Beginning this weekend, I will wear yellow every Saturday until:

1. the PSM6 namely Sungai Siput MP Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj, PSM deputy chairperson M Saraswathy, central committee members Choo Chon Kai and M Sukumaran, Sungai Siput branch secretary A Letchumanan, and Youth leader Sarat Babu detained under Emergency Ordinance are released;

2. The ban on Bersih lifted;

3. Barisan Nasional government’s xanthophobia (fear of yellow) ended; and

4. The eight Bersih 2.0 demands for electoral reforms implemented. The eight Bersih 2.0 demands are:

• Clean electoral roll;

• Reform postal ballot;

• Use indelible ink;

• Minimum 21-day campaign period;

• Free and fair media access;

• Strengthen public institutions;

• Stop corruption;

• End dirty politics.

Three days after the disastrous mishandling of the peaceful and legitimate Bersih 2.0 rally calling for free and fair elections, which has given the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razaki’s 1Malaysia administration a national and international black-eye, there are no signs that the powers-that-be have learnt anything at all, as illustrated by the following:

• The refusal to release the PSM6 detained under Emergency Ordinance on trumped-up charge;

• the refusal of the Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussin and the police to admit that while there were exemplary cops on duty on 709, there had been police excesses, violence and brutality during the Bersih 2.0 rally, as in causing the death of Baharuddin Ahmad; the criminal police landrover ramming of PAS Deputy President Mat Sabu on motor-bike; and the wanton and reckless firing of tear gas and water cannons into Tung Shin Hospital and directly at Bersih and Pakatan Rakyat leaders at KL Sentral tunnel;

• the continued harassment and arrests of Malaysians for wearing the yellow Bersih T-shirt.

The irresponsible, irrational and wild charge by Utusan Malaysia today accusing Selangor Pakatan Rakyat (PR) and Bersih leaders of treason for allegedly disobeying both the Yang di Pertuan Agong and Selangor Sultan in going ahead with the 709 Bersih 2.0 rally is significant as proof that the powers-that-be are incorritible and cannot learn anything, that they are trapped in a “time warp” and cannot reconnect with the Bersih 1Malaysia generation which came of age on Saturday - comprising Malaysians regardless of race, religion, region, age or gender.

Utusan Malaysia is the voice of the Umno leadership. Is Utusan and the Umno leadership seriously suggesting that the 50,000 Malaysians who braved police threats, mass arrests, tear gas and water cannons to peacefully gather in support of Bersih 2.0 call for free and fair elections, and the millions of Malaysians all over the country and in foreign countries who supported and prayed for the peaceful success of 709, are disloyal and traitors to king and country?

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 – as they are trying to turn the majority of Malaysians regardless of race, religion, region, age or gender against the king and country.

Because Utusan and the Utusan Malaysia are in a “time warp”, they can never understand or empathise with the many touching and heart-wrenching Bersih stories in social media testifying to their highest love and loyalty to the country which motivated ordinary Malaysians to act in an extraordinary manner on 709!

From Utusan’s wild, reckless and irrational allegations today, it is clear that the advice of the University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) social anthropologist Professor Datuk Shamsul Amri Baharuddin that the Najib administration should discard its “Cold War” mindset and to modernize its concepts to address internal security and national issues has fallen on deaf ears.

Shamsul had reminded the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition just after 709 that the “enemy” was no longer armed communists battling a jungle war but a civilian movement consisting of politically awakened middle class that is wired to the global community and moved by fully legitimate issues based on the Malaysian Constitution such as free and fair elections; human rights of freedom of assembly and association; integrity, good, clean and incorruptible governance!

A close confidante and strategist of the former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, had in fact pronounced the BN’s 709 “War of Intimidation” as having “backfired” as “Malaysians no longer fear the sight of armed security forces, the threat of racial riots and or the Communist bogey.”

He admitted that “It is indeed ironic that the ‘1Malaysia’ slogan of the Prime Minister was reflected more in the ranks of the Bersih 2.0 campaign on 9th July 2011 than in the ranks of political opportunist and upstart Khairy Jamaluddin’s miniscule band of ‘Red Shirts’ provocateurs”.

He said Najib’s highly-paid experts and strategists were expensive failures despite RM billions of expenditure, as their “Blue Ocean Strategy”, the essence of which is to “make the competition irrelevant and creating uncontested market place” has ended up in the 709 “fiasco” where “the Opposition has become more relevant than ever and has captured and occupied more effectively – physically and mentally – both the uncontested and contested ‘political market place’”.

He even wagered his “reputation as the former political secretary to the fourth Prime Minister” that if election is held this year, “the Barisan Nasional will never be able to reclaim the 2/3rd majority in Parliament as well as the four state governments controlled by the Opposition coalition” and that “The Prime Minister will be ousted within six months from date of the election”.

Whether Utusan Malaysia is the foremost practitioner of such Najib “Blue Ocean strategy”, 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.

Let the Bersih 1Malaysia generation of all races, religions, regions, age and gender demonstrate their love, loyalty and patriotism for the country every Saturday with a national demonstration countrywide of yellow – which not only signifies their determination and commitment to create a Clean Malaysia in elections, political system and national governance but also love and loyalty to King and the system of constitutional monarchy as yellow is also royal colour.

*Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary Leader & MP for Ipoh Timor