Police arrest PKR's Thanggam in bid to pin Bersih blame on Azmin and Anwar
It looks like Umno is finalizing its trap to nail Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim and his deputy Azmin Ali for the enormously successful Bersih 3.0 rally for free and fair elections.
PKR Rasah division leader Thanggam Raju, who is now in the police lockup at the Balai Polis Jinjang, is due to be remanded. No details are available yet.
Thanggam is the 'Indian man' that Umno bloggers have accused of opening the barricade gates after receiving instructions from Azmin and Anwar.
"They are linking him with the breaking of the barricade and using him to get to Azmin," PKR vice president N Surendran told Malaysia Chronicle.
"Thanggam's arrest is a propaganda move by the BN to portray Pakatan Rakyat as the agressors at the Bersih 3.0 rally. I expect they may be more such unlawful propaganda arrests.
But why haven't the police been made accountable and punished?
If true, then this is the umpteenth time Prime Minister Najib Razak and his administration have resorted to unscrupulous and strong-arm tactics to blame the Pakatan.
After all, whoever it was who opened the barricade's gate, it still does not absolve the police from their excessive, dangerous and overly brutal response.
In the July 9 Bersih 2.0 rally of 2011, there was a similar pattern of denial and obstruction. A classic case was the police firing tear gas into the grounds of the Tung Shin Hospital, but refusing to admit it.
MCA deputy president Liow Tiong Lai, who also the Health minister, and Chua Soi Lek, the MCA president, were roped in to help in the charade to defend the police. Eventually, Liow was forced to apologize but the police were unpunished.
It looks like history is now repeating itself, with the drama and noise turned to the maximum to direct blame at Anwar and Azmin, while delecting attention that nearly 300,000 Malaysians had spoken up against Najib's rule.
"Why has no policeman been arrested for the criminal attacks upon the public on April 28. Why no action on the arrests ad assaults of journalists. BN is acting like the Nazis," said Surendran.
Making use of the press and City Hall
At their post-Bersih press conference held on Monday, Anwar and Azmin had condemned the police violence and rebutted accusations that they were the ones who gave the signal for the crowd to breach a police barricade.
One of the journalist present, however, stood up and said he heard Azmin say, “Dataran Merdeka…can enter..can enter”.
“Lies”, Azmin immediately refuted the allegation.
Some have called the current finger-pointing a 'blame game' but that might be a bit too naive.
During the height of the Datuk T sex DVD scandal against Anwar, it was found that top editors of the mainstream media were not only briefed about the scandal, but they had actually helped Najib's media advisers concoct the conspiracy aimed to destroy Anwar's credibility.
But the plot failed and Anwar and his Pakatan Rakyat coalition is now rated as being poised to wrest the federal government. As such, the likelihood is high that Najib has once again made full use of the mainstream media and its staff to pursue his political ambitions.
Indeed, just a day ago, Surendran revealed that Najib's cousin - Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein - had called a meeting of top editors, waring them not to report on the police violence.
Nonetheless, Hisham's order could not stop furious rally participants from bombarding You Tube and the Internet with thousands of photos and video clips that showed the police did really over-react. In many instances, the police were caught going after their quarry in groups of 7 to 8 - often versus only a solitary and unarmed victim.
Deflecting attention that 300,000 came to protest Najib's rule
The press was also warned to downplay the size of the Bersih 3.0 turnout as this could affect voter confidence in Najib's BN coalition, which is still trying to hold snap polls as early as possible. More than 250,000 people - i.e. hundreds of thousands - had come to the main rally centre in Dataran, five other states in the country, and 71 cities in 29 countries.
Yet, the national news agency reported only 25,000 had turned out, another news portal reported 50,000 while others conceded that 'tens of thousands came' which carries the implication that the turnout was less than 100,000.
In defending the police violence, Najib has insisted it was due to a group of overzealous participants breaking through a barricade that prompted the severe lash back. He accused Anwar, Azmin and PKR MP for Batu Tian Chua of giving the signal to the group and instigating the people to defy the police.
However, Najib was panned for his over-simplistic explanation that does not answer why then, was the violence not limited to that spot or section of the vast rally? There are news reports and hundreds of eye-witness that police had inexplicably chased participants for several kilometers all over Chinatown, creating some panic and confusion.
Najib was also ridiculed for his explanation that City Hall had refused to allow the rally to be held in the Dataran because it feared a long-term Occupy Wall Street-type of situation. But throughout the weeks of negotiation with Bersih's Ambiga Sreenevasan and Samad Said, not once did Najib or City Hall mention this reason. Moreover, if long-term occupation was part of the Bersih 3.0 plan, their supporters could have sat and occupied the roads nearby to the Dataran instead. But the crowd dispersed and went home.
Preplanned attack: Demand for liberation heard loud and clear
In the aftermath of the police violence, the 58-year-old Najib has been fishing for excuses to wriggle out from a nasty and sensitive political situation. The police have always been subservient to his Umno party, and he cannot be seen to punish them without losing their support eventually.
Signs are indeed emerging his administration had pre-planned the police attack with the intention to turn the tables on Anwar and Pakatan even though such a ruthless move would have to come at the expense of public safety. True or not, Najib also received a helping hand from the Kuala Lumpur City Hall and the mainstream media.
However, against startling and horrific video and photographic evidence, public opinion is still with the Bersih 3.0 organizers, Anwar and the Pakatan Rakyat.
While addicted to politics, Malaysians have tended to be timid, hardly daring to speak out against the establishment. But the April 28 rally appears to be a key turning point in the nation's history, with Malaysians finally breaking out from their shell. If anything, they are now raring for more. Anwar himself has noticed this and said so.
"The rakyat (people) will commemorate 28 April 2012 as the day Malaysia woke up and marched for liberation in one voice," said Anwar in a statement out on Monday.
"We shall not be intimidated by continuous lies spawned by the state media. We have a much potent and effective media in our hands as the 300,000 rakyat carry the messages of Bersih 3.0 and liberation to every corner of the nation."
Boomeranging, Najib's headache set to become a migraine
At the end of the day, it is hard to believe Najib expects Malaysians to believe in his 'version' of who and what instigated the reprehensible police crackdown.
Right from the moment Hisham said that Bersih was not a threat to national security, to City Hall immediately banning the use of the Dataran, suspicion had swirled. The 11th hour strong-arm tactics of getting a court order that effectively legitimizes police action if the crowd tried to get into the Dataran was taken as further confirmation that bad faith was in the air.
According to Tian, the attack was pre-planned. It was manipulated with the aim of smearing Anwar and Pakatan, and there was also conspiracy between Najib's advisers, the City Hall, the police and the BN-linked media, the PKR vice president said
True or not, it is already boomeranging. Bersih supporters who were there are already gathering visual and audio evidence that prove there was indeed a heinous plot to create public disorder - the purpose of which appears to be to discredit Anwar and the Pakatan.
If Najib succeeds in capitalising on the police attack to whittle down the Opposition Leader's credibility, some say he might immediately dissolve Parliament and call for snap polls.
Pundits have warned, the longer Najib waits, the more likely he is to create even more blunders. Hence, it might be prudent to have the GE-13 sooner rather later while the BN can still hope to garner a simple if slim victory.
However, even that might be too late. Already, a video put out by the Najib administration claiming that it was Anwar who gave the green light has been found to have been 'edited' for the purpose of intentionally creating a false picture.
Additionally, as more whistle-blowers emerge, Najib will soon find his Bersih 3.0 headache becoming a roaring migraine.
But if he did indeed endanger the safety of people for his own vested interests, then he more than deserves it!