A good article from the...

A good article from the choice:
http://www.thechoice.my/top-stories/63578-failed-anti-lynas-protest-suffers-from-the-curse-of-bersih-8t

Pakatan Rakyat should be hoping Bersih founder Ambiga Sreenevasan doesn't speak up for it too loudly ahead of GE13, because it seems every cause she backs eventually loses public support in spectacular fashion.

Just a day after naming Himpunan Hijau chairman Wong Tack her "person of the year", the NGO's widely publicised rally outside the Lynas plant in Gebeng has turned into a damp squib, attracting just 500 people.

Five hundred people. If that number sounds familiar, it's also how many turned up at Ambiga's Bersih 8T concert in October last year, a failed event widely seen as marking the end of her free and fair elections movement as a mass cause.

And while we're at it, we should mention Ambiga's support for the so-called human rights movement Suaram last year. Shortly after she publicly backed its campaign over the Scorpene submarine deal, it emerged that Suaram's fabled corruption "trial" in France, which was set to call our own Prime Minister to give evidence was just that – a fable. There never was a trial. You would think an experienced barrister like Ambiga would have known that.

The Lynas protest failure comes alongside news that the 100 hour hunger strike orchestrated by Malaysian Youth Against Public Hazards (a group aligned to Himpunan Hijau) was also not what it seemed.

Just 60 hours into the event, pictures began circulating on the internet showing the green shirted protesters sneaking off for a hearty meal. It wasn't that their commitment to the cause was weak, it's that their commitment to nasi lemak was obviously greater.

But the real reason for the failure of these events isn't the rain (an excuse used for the 8T and Lynas non-events) or even a rumbling stomach. It's that people stop supporting such causes when they become irrelevant.

As The Choice has mentioned before, the swathe of voting reforms in this country during 2012 rendered Bersih irrelevant long before the 8T concert in October. This is despite the fact Ambiga to this day stands alone, telling anyone who will listen how unclean GE13 will be. It's nonsense and no one believes her anymore.

The anti-Lynas group know their cause is spent because the plant is now operational, generating jobs and revenue and no, it isn't a nuclear reactor as some opponents said last year.

They also know that to close it now would be an inexcusable waste of public money given the amount of compensation the Australian company would receive if it were to be sent home – upwards of RM2.4 billion.

Not even a Government led by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim would waste that kind of money, despite his promise last year to close down the Gebeng facility should he become PM. What's your position now Anwar, since you claim to be 100 days from power?

The failing support for these causes is a body blow to Pakatan Rakyat, which needs there to be widespread discord in this country for two very selfish reasons. Firstly, every column inch of newspaper type and minute or television and radio time given to cover events like these means other issues are being ignored. You know, the economy, education, all the things policy-free Pakatan Rakyat doesn't want us thinking about.

Secondly, trouble on the streets suits Pakatan narrative of our 'oppressive' Government, given that police are likely to want restore order. And likewise anything that casts doubt on the legitimacy of GE13 will help Pakatan Rakyat with its excuse in the wake of defeat. It will without doubt claim it was robbed at the ballot box by that very same 'oppressive' regime.

It's cynical, but right now these are the sort of things the Opposition is clinging to.













Add comment


Name (required)

E-mail (required, but will not display)