Buzz Sociopolitics Malaysia: Post BERSIH3.0: A Time for Healing

Post BERSIH3.0: A Time for Healing

May 7, 2012

www.themalaysianinsider.com

"It is time for recovering the wounds of the increasingly polarised as well as fractured society. Only afterwards can the forces of disharmony as well as disruption be defeated. Only afterwards can you take comfort in the believe which the GE thirteen will not usually be giveaway as well as fair, though giveaway of misunderstanding as well as dispute."Dato' Azlina Aziz

Post BERSIH3.0: A Time for Healing

by Dato' Azlina Aziz

On the night before of BERSIH3.0, my father Nazir as well as you visited the vicinity of Dataran Merdeka to see for ourselves preparations for the rally. Although it was usually 10.30pm on Friday night, the large throng of protestors was fast building up, with Police officers backing up around Dataran. We were shocked, to contend the least, by the area of spiny handle surrounding the square. The prophesy of protestors on the single side as well as the Police on the other, separated by barricades as well as sharp steel, seems to symbolize division, confrontation, aggression. We both went home which dusk with the low sense of foreboding as well as unease.

The events which unfolded the subsequent day have been as well informed now to recount. But whether you attended the convene or celebrated from the sidelines; whether you upheld the means or condemned it; whether you countenanced open assemblies or disapproved of them altogether; you consider it's fair to contend which most of us have been deeply uneasy by the events which played out in the capital which Saturday. The scenes of mayhem attacks on Police engine vehicles, protestors confronting rip gas, the pistol allegedly being drawn in the crowded area, physical assaults on members of the public, Police force as well as press have been not ones informed nor savoury to us Malaysians who value security as well as order.

It is the sad state of affairs when the a! ctions o f the couple of who review to assault as well as charge result in suffering as well as mishap for scores of people, as well as the aftershocks of the eventuality continue to hurl on. In coffee shops, offices, newspapers, web forums as well as blogs have been exhilarated debates on the "rights" as well as "wrongs" as well as repercussions of what happened which day.

Many have been angry. Some have been fearful, as well as anger mostly goes palm in palm with fear. Others have been fervent to find someone to censure for the turn of events. The assault as well as fight which played out which day have intensified the cove as well as fissures in the society. A prophesy of togetherness for Malaysia seems serve divided than ever. Sadly, recent open statements by social as well as domestic leaders have usually accentuated multiplication as well as dissent.

In the censure diversion as well as recriminations which have followed, you adhere to the idea that maintaining togetherness contingency be inaugural on the minds, as the most in effect counter to disruptive elements of assault as well as chaos.

To do this, you contingency begin by recovering the gaping wound which opened up which day as well as it is my goal which dual major concerns will be addressed.

Firstly, assault cannot as well as will not be tolerated in the courteous society. All those who resorted to assault on which day contingency be brought to probity whoever they are, as well as yes or no side of the order they stand on. The chairman of BERSIH has condemned the actions of aroused protestors as "wholly unacceptable". The IGP has done the rare appeal for help from members of the open in identifying rogue Police officers.

For the sake of togetherness as well as promoting the recovering proces! s, is it as well most to ask for the authorities, open as well as organisers of the convene to set aside their differences as well as work together in identifying as well as behaving against the couple of who resorted to violence?

Secondly, you fervently goal which the authorities will rivet with the most thousands who turned out en masse which fatal Saturday, the fair number of whom were ordinary Malaysians who felt constrained to give physical participation to their concerns on the accumulation of issues, of which electoral remodel is just one. Grievances as well as resentments should not be authorised to fester. Those which have been some-more perception than being need better rendezvous as well as explanation. Those which have been concrete need attention as well as action.

Healing the wounds of BERSIH 3.0 is imperative before you enter on upon what will presumably be the country's defining domestic eventuality in decades to come: the GE 13. Public certainty in the electoral routine is essential if you have been to avoid an aftermath of anger, gainsay as well as commotion which the maturation of BERSIH 3.0 seems to suggest.

As it stands, the stage is set for the formula of GE thirteen to be contested even before the single opinion is cast. It is the sleazy slope thereafter, the single which you have witnessed in alternative countries, with hugely unpropitious goods on the social fabric as well as economy.

Much has been pronounced about the progress of the Parliamentary Select Committee as well as the officials of the EC, as well as you will not touch on this here. But certainly the discerning as well as in effect step to improve open certainty would be the appointment of the couple of upstanding Malaysians, who authority the apply oneself of all parties, to be entrusted with overseeing the general election.

BERSIH 3.0 was the dire eventuality for Malaysia. you goal you can strike the mishap as well as learn from the mistakes. you goal you can come together in togetherness as well as contend "No" to assault in whatever figure or form. It is time for engagement, for listening, for cutting the invisible spiny wires which apart "them" as well as "us" as well as extending the palm over the order to those who might remonstrate with your views though have as most of the interest as well as future in the nation as you do.

It is time for recovering the wounds of the increasingly polarised as well as fractured society. Only afterwards can the forces of disharmony as well as disruption be defeated. Only afterwards can you take comfort in the believe which the GE thirteen will not usually be giveaway as well as fair, though giveaway of misunderstanding as well as dispute.

*Dato Azlina Aziz was formerly employed as Associate Director of Barings Securities Research obliged for attention research as well as domestic commentary. She binds the master's grade in women's studies from Oxford University. She lives in Kuala Lumpur with her dual children as well as father Datuk Seri Nazir Razak.