Late after midnight… on the wall of one of the buildings along Jalan Tun Perak previously filled with protesters in yellow.
In solidarity with the balloon girl…
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 31 — Police have charged a woman who was detained earlier today for distributing Bersih 4 balloons at an upscale shopping mall here for allegedly attempting to stir some trouble, according to the suspect’s lawyer.
It is understood that Bilqis Hijjas, the daughter of prominent architect Hijjas Kasturi, has been charged under Section 504 of the Penal Code for ”provoking a breach of peace” by distributing the balloons at the Pavilion shopping mall in Bukit Bintang during the DiverseCity International Art Festival which Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had attended. [Malay Mail. ”˜Balloon girl’ charged for handing out Bersih balloons. August 31 2015]
…here are the balloons of Bersih?
My favorite balloon is this big white fatso.
I am sorry for the up close and personal shot violating the balloon, but I was on my zoom lens and I thought I did not have enough time to switch to a more appropriate one. But it turned out okay.
And Tweety!!!
You see those normal yellow balloons? Yea, somebody got arrested for that.
And this one is a bit aggressive in a confusing way. A smiling bear with a potty mouth in need of a big soap.
I could not make up what it said, but bodoh is stupid in Malay. And Jibby is, well, Najib, our affectionate nickname for the Prime Minister.
And as the balloon bear danced in the wind, it turned around and… haha
Yea, angry bear. Too bad there were no angry birds.
Anyway, yea, you have to have these…
I have no more balloon picture, but if you do read up on Malaysian social media, you will know how magical this moment was, just 10 minutes before midnight:
One of the things I like about protests are the signs.
This refers to the Home Ministry’s petty law gazetted on Friday to ban all yellow t-shirts with the word Bersih 4 on it. Walking around KL, or if you used the public transport over the weekends, you would see the level of civil disobedience. This also reminds of me V for Vendetta: “Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof.”
Remember, civil disobedience is a hallmark of democracy. “Donation,” probably less so.
And yes, protests require stamina, especially for Bersih-style protests. Mentally, we had to prepare for tear gas. A lot of running. And of course, strong arms to hold up the signs. See the sign next to the yellow one? Have some sympathy for him please!
Others are… well. Snarky.
Bersih is not about toppling the government, although no doubt many if not the majority wants the corrupt man to step down and face a proper court of justice. We ain’t seeking a revolution kid, but we want change nonetheless. So, the “Bye Najib” sign is a hilarious interpretation of that sentiment.
The tildes add to the effect. Hahaha.
Some are more direct in their anger.
For the man of doublespeak, this needs no description at all.
There were signs with coarse language. I could not point my camera fast enough to shoot it. The streets were packed with people, filled with vuvuzela noise courtesy of the South African World Cup and I had to watch where I was going.
Make no mistake, this was a peaceful protest (I hate the word rally. I am a purist and I will use the exact word to describe this: it was a protest). But, those here on the streets were angry.
The shimmering anger makes a hand-off police attitude a must. Any intervention will lead to chaos. This is true for all past Bersih protests. Hell came down only after the first tear gas was shot. I have been teared gas before. It hurts. It irritates the skin, it feels like chili in your eyes, you will have trouble breathing. It weakens you. If your mind loses control over your senses, panic will strike soon after. But, it also turns you into a hulk as soon as you recover. It is scary the first time but the next time, you are prepared for it.
Remember, this is a protest led by the middle class. The first time might be a nightmare for naive men and women on the streets. But the next time, the confrontation tactics will be more sophisticated. We are not sheep to the wolves.
But I am going off the rail.
Back to the signs!
For king of U-turns and for the king of changing stories.
I have to explain this a little bit. Gostan is a funny Malay word originating from English. Apparently, it is a corruption of “go astern” (who on earth would tell a driver to go astern I have no idea).
Here is for the I love PM crowd.
While most signs are for the register of protest, others are more utilitarian.
Bersih organizers were recruiting volunteers to pick up the trash left behind, and demanding participants to be responsible. Do not be a litterbug. We want a clean government and a clean street. You there! What are you doing? Pick up your trash!
Also, it will be very instructive to observe the level cleanliness during Bersih and that during the August 31 celebration. I write so because detractors say Bersih would leave behind trash, but the truth is, they do not really care and making issues out of nothing. They would not care about the trash left behind during other government-sanctioned major events.
Hell, do these people clean their treys and table when they eat at McDonald’s? They would leave their rubbish behind.
This one is for the police.
It is an appeal for the police not to use force against the protesters, arguing that a clean government is for the family of these men and women in blues too.
And… do you hear the people sing?
Well, not really, but you know.
This one asks, where is democracy?
At least I think so. That is a non-standard Malay, likely more Iban or Sarawak-based. Actually, I am not sure whether my translation is correct.
There were multiple guerrilla-style notification posters. These two informed protesters where to gather and who to call in times of troubles.
I need to go. So I will end this with a vandalism unlikely done by Bersih participants.
Keep our city clean.
As I walked from Brickfields to Dataran Merdeka, weaving through Central Market, Tun Perak and Dataran Maybank, I spotted curious immigrants watching Malaysians marching down the streets, witnessing democracy in action.
Some of them stood by the entrance to whatever shops that were opened. Others climbed up the roof to see the vastness of protesters filling Kuala Lumpur up.
This was on Jalan Tun Perak.
When I think of the terms “coup d’tat”, “overthrow”, “topple” and the like, I would think of a violent change in government. The revolutions in Egypt and Ukraine would come to my mind. Closer to home, having tanks rolling through the streets of Bangkok is another excellent example.
In contrast, when I think of the case of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi — backstabbed by his UMNO colleagues and pressured to resign what seems ages ago — the whole episode falls under the realm of peaceful power transfer.
It lacks the violence or coerciveness that colors the words “coup d’tat”, “overthrow” and “topple” so thickly. The events in 2008-2009 were messy but democracy is always unruly. It is never as clean as an autocrat dressed in a democrat costume would like. These autocrats think modern democracy is about having regular elections only while ignoring other prerequisites that are just as important.
I do not think the definition of “topple” I have outlined exists only in my mind. The violent undertone it brings falls within the everyday understanding of the word. If “topple” had been used to describe the end of the Abdullah-led administration, then I would think the term has been abused grossly.
And so I frown when Najib Razak’s supporters and the police chief especially throw around that word to describe attempts at removing the prime minister from power through a vote of no confidence in Parliament. So insecure they are that even calling for his resignation is a go at coup d’tat.
But perhaps after so much power and institutional corruption committed by UMNO and their BN allies in government, it is only natural for the same side to corrupt the language we use every day.
I would think they know they are twisting these words beyond their intended meaning. It is a purposeful exaggeration to meet their selfish political end, which is to stay in power even at the expense of the country.
The bigger problem is when the intended recipients of the political message, mostly men and women on the streets, accept the word subversion without critical examination and then blindly reuse it in that unnatural way.
To understand why this is an issue worth highlighting, we have to understand that language has the power to shape our opinion. Language is not merely a neutral medium of exchange but it also influences how we perceive information, and from there on shapes our views.
Since “topple” comes with the violent connotation, applying it in the context of peaceful power change would likely cause the uncritical message recipients to balk and recoil from any call for change. They would hesitate from supporting change out of fear, merely because the words used.
That is the purpose of word subversion. It tries to pollute the legitimate peaceful means of change with the created image of smoke, fire and death. It is done to instill fear in us, make us feel hopeless and convince us to do nothing even in the face of injustice. It is to discourage the case for peaceful power change.
The sages of old told us not to judge a book by its cover. But let us face it. We almost always act on the first impression. We read the headline and prejudge without reading the whole article. We live in the too-long, didn’t-read culture.
In the same line of reasoning, most of us do not think too much of how “topple” has been used. I have spotted too many innocent men and women reusing the word in the corrupted context without realizing it, thus perpetuating fear and serving the pro-Najib camp.
I am sure I am guilty of the same sin I warn of here in other cases elsewhere. It is truly tiring trying to be critical about every single word uttered, read and written all the time with a thick dictionary by my side.
But during this chaotic dishonest period when words are abused frequently, meanings are not so straight forward and outright doubletalk is the norm, we must stand guard for the tabula rasa that still exists in the corners of our mind. We just cannot afford to be the uncritical blind consumers of language waiting to be exploited in these deplorable days full of deceits.
