Tomorrow is D-Day or should I say B-Day for Bersih2.!Because of constant harassment from the authorities, including police arrests of those seen wearing yellow Bersih2 t-shirts, the organisers of the march finally agreed after an audience with the king, to hold the rally inside a stadium.
PM Najib then said that Bersih2 could hold the rally in a stadium of their choice and shout for the whole day if they wanted to.
Now it seems that Najib is being intransigent, saying that the organisers have to apply to the police for a permit. No wonder the organisers of Bersih2 are having problems booking Stadium Merdeka.
And now the police have told the organisers to hold their rally outside of K.L city center, which effectively means that Bersih2 can't hold their rally in a stadium of their choice.
At this point of writing, Malaysians really do not know where the rally will eventually be held or not at all. But many Malaysians are getting more angry that the government is being so intransigent and doing all it can to frustrate the march for free and fair elections.
To pile pressure on the organisers, the police had announced several days ago, that they had found a cache of weapons hidden at some spots near the popular Sogo shopping mall in K.L city. Actually it wasn't even a cache, just two or three parangs (long slashing knives) and two or three molotov cocktails. I don't remember the exact figures now, but you get the idea.
But the public are not buying into this idea that the Bersih2 participants are trying to cause chaos and mayhem for an ulterior purpose and that this justifies tough police actions.
They are wondering why Bersih2 supporters or participants would be so stupid as to hide the weapons near a busy shopping mall and, apparently, in an easy place to be found! Further, if the police theory is correct, why not a real cache of weapons instead of two or three parangs and two or three molotov cocktails? After all, about a million people are expected to attend the rally. What can you do with a few weapons?
The Malaysian public in fact see the police announcement of the discovery of a cache of weapons as an attempt to up the ante on Bersih2. and to justify tough actions.
Well, I do not know and I do not wish to speculate.
All I know is that PM Najib is heading off to the Vatican for an audience with the pope.
I forgot to mention that the police had also allegedly found some Bersih2 t-shirts together with the cache of weapons. The Malaysian public are wondering why the Bersih guys would so stupid as to leave behind such a convenient and incriminating evidence.
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