The land is public space that belongs to the people of Malaysia. Unfortunately, for the so-called neutral public service officer, he too collaborated to produce the chaos we saw break out last Saturday.
All they wanted to do was to have a sit-in. Instead they were made to stand, walk and march. And they were beaten up for doing just that.
Who were the irresponsible agents? The mayor is clearly one irresponsible agent. If he had used his brains and decided what was good for all parties concerned, he could have become the hero of Malaysia, but unfortunately that was not to be.
Maybe he too is a closet Umno member, like his other colleagues, as it is now becoming clear.
Maybe, he too like most public servants believes they cannot use their God-given brains and heart to make good and right choices. “Saya mesti ikut perintah walau pun salah.”
Consequently, as promised, some of us decided to join the Bersih sit-in at the Dataran. And since the Dataran was legally closed, our instructions were to get as near as possible and sit wherever we were at 2pm.
So, we drove and parked at the Royal Lake Club where some were members and walked from there to the Royal Selangor Club (RSC), where there were yet other members waiting.
Merely following instructions
We were almost at the RSC at about 1.15pm but were stopped from entering the club by the police on duty there. They were outside their bounds of duty.
We had a cool, calculated and courteous discussion with the police about why we were not allowed to proceed to meet our friends within the RSC. Their only answer was “itu perintah boss saya.”
Then we asked to see the ‘boss.’ A two-star officer came but his storyline was not any more coherent of an answer either. He too was merely following instructions.
We explained that the court order only made the Dataran out of bounds, and explicitly said and allowed the RSC to be non-excluded parameters. Not one officer could be bothered to answer us “intelligently”. I left thinking they were not taught to think for themselves.
I had devised a new term called “idiocrats” for all such non-thinking public servants, individuals who are called to uphold our rule of law. They plead excuses or ignorance to deny the law. But such is not allowed in law.
They refrain from doing the right thing or choose to rule by law and instead rule of law.
There were many idiocratic and robotic police officers present on 28/04; and literally thousands of them were wasting time and money, paid for by the thinking people on the other side who pay their taxes and want to improve our democracy.
In my time, I had taken the PTD students from Intan to the police college for training and they were briefed and lectured by the best that Malaysian police had ever produced.
And, to name but one of the best would be sufficient: CC Too. But, that genre of officers knew how to use their brains and minds. What happened?
In our experience, finally goodwill prevailed when the RSC’s chief security officer (an ex-police officer) gave his undertaking that we would not breach the cordoned area.
They would not however trust the words of three ex-government officers with 100 years of public service experience between them, and a church elder who also happened to be the one of the secretaries of a church organisation.
Therefore, we were finally allowed in and we got to “sit-in” at the RSC, and almost within 10 meters of the cordoned off areas, as directed by the Bersih 3.0 leadership. Mission accomplished but was it all worth it?
What would it have cost the federal government if they had facilitated the sit-in by about 100,000 tax-paying citizens and potential voters if they were not convinced that the general election will be clean and fair, based on all that has been done to date?
Will water guns and gas convince us to change our minds? Actually, only one thing is needed. The truth.
To date this truth of matters related to the election list of voters seems to be somewhat elusive.
No one can come out and speak with clear confidence and promise that the list is 100 percent clean. Why? Surely every unexplained variance cannot be an anomaly, as Khairy (Jamaluddin) had argued.
Therefore, now that the government is aware that about 100,000 demonstrated their willingness to walk and sit-in, can the government agencies agree that for everyone who walked there would know about four others who did not do so for various reasons.
Can they also realise that for every individual in every city overseas that joined the sit-in, there are many families in Malaysia who are now more involved, aware and committed to the same cause?
What does it take to move the government to clean up this list once and for all?
Questions for Umno leadership
And now, if it in fact true that the chairman and deputy chairman are in fact Umno members, it becomes obvious to the citizenry, maybe where the problem really lies. No will to resolve issues.
Therefore, I have this question to the Umno and BN leadership: How can we ever find objective professionalism if the incumbents are already compromised individuals?
I have a further question to the government as an ex-government officer: How many of the most senior appointments within the public service are now being held by Umno members? Can commissions therefore be also be led by Umno members?
Can the sultans of states also become Umno members? If so, how can they protect and preserve the Muslim religion if there is an interpretive difference between the Umno and PAS versions of Islamic jurisprudence?
Moreover, was not our public service modelled after the British one, which explicitly disallows partisan closet membership? Does not such a membership destroy the very concept of neutrality?
Was not that the fundamental problem even with the appointment of Zaki Azmi as the Chief Justice? He was a card carrying member of Umno.
How then can we ever have free and fair elections, if we “harap pagar tapi pagar makan padi?”
Can the federal government come clean please?
Now, it raises another important question in my mind as to why the DGs of Immigration and Registration refused to appear before the parliamentary select committee on integrity, and consequently Bernard Dompok, a cabinet minister, resigned over this non-compliance. Were they also closet Umno members?
How then can we have a clean electoral roll before the next general election or do we need another bigger and better Bersih 4.0?--
KJ JOHN was in public service for 29 years.
SOURCE: http://malaysiakini.com/
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