Malaysians Are Living In Macabre Times

These days good news are hard to come by. In fact for Malaysians these days, good news means no news because we are daily bombarded with lies, half truths, spins, desperate and irresponsible utterances and outright threats.

Starting with the PM himself who had at a gathering of youths on World Youth Day, called on youths to defend Putrajaya. This had led Malaysians to wonder whether Putrajaya, Malaysia's administrative center, was under attack and by whom.

The PM himself had also told his own party UMNO to defend Putrajaya at all costs even if it involved crushed bodies. Coming from the Prime Minister himself this was macabre if not downright scary.

The times are such that Malaysia's favourite punching bag (and for good reasons), Ibrahim Ali, the president of Perkasa, a right wing Malay NGO, dared to issue a veiled threat of bloodshed ala May 13 telling the Chinese to stock up on food.

These days if you are not pro government or seen to be so, some parties will try to brand you as anti-Muslim or anti-Malay so as to try to stir the ire of the Malays and Muslims against you. The chairperson of the Bersih 2 rally, Ambiga Sreenevasan, who has also received a death threat for organising the rally, is the latest victim .

It is strange that certain quarters and the Barisan coalition government are so scared of the Bersih2 rally scheduled for the 9th of July that they are trying to do all they can, including preventive arrests and the threat of using the dreaded ISA, to stop the rally from proceeding that it makes one wonder if they are in fact against free and fair elections for they know that if elections here were free and fair they wouldn't be occupying Putrajaya?

The times are such that it is considered right to try to smear your enemies or perceived enemies by all means fair and foul through clumsy and laughable attempts where the perpetrators get away with only a slap on their wrists and the victim gets vilified in court.