Pro-Malay gathering turns into anti-Mahathir rally 
Susan Loone

10:20am, Wed: Those who thought that the recent "Malays shall not perish from this earth" gathering organised by the pro-tem committee of the Malay Action Front would turn racist in nature were indeed pleasantly surprised. 

Before last Sunday, Barisan Alternatif leaders lodged a police report citing the rally as "inciting racial tensions". In the same breath, Umno leaders, including Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, warned its members not to attend the gathering. 

The police were cautious. Instead of allowing the rally to go on at the original venue at Sulaiman Club, Kampung Baru and risk being branded "biased and unprofessional", they shifted the event to Putra World Trade Centre at the eleventh hour and warned that any gathering elsewhere would result in the organisers being dealt with sternly. Police also warned that there were groups out to "buat kacau (disturb)" the rally. 

As it turned out, by masquerading under a "Malay Solidarity (Hidup Melayu)" banner, the closed-door rally held last Sunday at PWTC was more of a strategy by veteran Umno leaders and budding Malay politicians to send a warning to Mahathir and his administration. "We want to tell him to shape up or ship out," said one participant at the rally. 

Many who attended the rally came by chartered buses. A large group of college students spotting navy blue T-shirts with Universiti Teknologi Mara "Perindu" logos made their way in droves to Dewan Merdeka by 1.30pm. The youthful boys were accompanied by many young girls and an equal number of elderly men and women. Some couples brought along their little children. 

By 2pm, the hall slowly filled up, to an estimated 3,000, leaving the impression that the turn-out was not so good. The initial attendance was expected to be about 10,000 people. Two days before the rally, the organisers said they only expected between 3,000 to 5,000 supporters. A day before the event, the organisers declined to comment on the number of participants expected. 

Later, Deputy Information Minister Khalid Yunus explained the reason for the lower than expected turn-out. 

"We were supposed to meet at Kampung Baru's Sultan Sulaiman Club. But the ‘rogues (penyangak)’ disturbed us. When they gather we do not disturb them. Why disturb us? Do you think we are afraid of you, Muka sembong (arrogant face)?" he raged. 

Journalists could not clarify who the "rogues" were. But Khalid said that MAF was only given a few hours to relocate their rally and that must have affected the turn-out. "If we had gathered at Kampung Baru, I am sure there would be more people," said Khalid. 

‘Umi is here’ 

By 2.35pm, the organisers cleared the red velvet chairs in the hall and requested participants to sit on the floor or to stand. Before the speeches started journalists were excitedly telling each other "Umi Halfida is here" and some scurried off to take photos of her. Malay dramatist-actor Ebby Saiful, who often played legendary hero Hang Tuah, was also seen among the crowd. 

Many people lingered outside the hall. Halfway through the "blood-curdling" speeches, some participants were seen leaving the venue. To stem the outflow, the organisers quickly announced that there would be something special at the end of the event. However, that "something special" was cancelled later. 

It would be a pointless attempt to hoodwink observers into thinking that this was a non-political event when the line-up of politicians present like former deputy prime minister Ghafar Baba, former deputy minister in the prime minister’s department Ibrahim Ali, former Selangor Mentri Besar Harun Idris, Deputy Information Minister Khalid Yunus, former home minister Ghazali Shafie, Malacca Umno veteran Aziz Tapa and former Kampung Baru MP Sulaiman Mohamed, was a clear political statement: these were either Semangat 46 supporters or the "anti-Mahathir" faction presently in Umno. 

All the speeches rendered that day were political in nature although MAF chairperson Mazlan Harun clarified that "We are only political in nature because we want to influence policies and power. Where there is weakness we will criticise. We hope leaders are not angry. We are politically aware and not ashamed to speak openly." 

Great emphasis was placed on the historical aspect of Malay solidarity in the 1946 pre-independence era. 

Speakers like Sulaiman and Khalid reminded participants of the gathering held at the Sultan Sulaiman Club in Kampung Baru 54 years ago. The same kind of gathering was held there in 1969 before the May 13 riots and 1987 Operasi Lallang. In all those events, the Malays felt that their sovereignty was challenged either by the British, communist guerillas or the opposition parties. 

Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat 

It was interesting to note two things that seemed to be the order of that day's event. One, the emphasis on "Semangat tahun 1946 (the 1946 spirit)" and second, the analogy of the kris-fighting between legendary heroes Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat of the Malacca Sultanate. 

These two references could only mean that the Malays present there rejected their present political master and his "soldiers" for they want the situation to go back to the times when there was no Mahathir and no reformasi. 

They also see the battle now for Malay solidarity to be between two Malay factions (as in Hang Tuah versus Hang Jebat) and not so much a battle between themselves with the other races. The Malays believed if they were united, if would be impossible for outside elements to seep into their fold and tear them apart. 

Ghafar Baba reminded people that the Malays do not want to fight with other races. Instead, they want to salvage the situation in the spirit of cooperation with other races. 

Surprising and rather out of sync with other speakers, he went on to support Suqiu's No. 4 sub-point which called for the abolishment of the distinction between the Bumiputra and non-Bumiputra. 

He said: "Even Suqiu realise there is a distinction ... we are gathered here to say that yes, indeed, we want to get rid of the economic distinction between the Malays and non-Malays ... so that never again will we come here to discuss the backwardness of the Malays." 

Pressing issue 

Ghafar managed a subtle shot at the proposed Malay unity talks between Umno and PAS, saying that while he supported the talks, he felt the more pressing issue was the economic status of the Malays who were far lagging behind other races. 

"There is no point in being united if we are beggars in our own land," he said. 

"The more important struggle would be to set the Malays back in their original position," he added, referring to the 30 percent economic share reserved for the Malays which until now was not fulfilled as desired. 

Ghafar said the New Economic Policy needed review as the 30 percent Malay ownership had not been realised. Instead, he said, the percentage was only 19 percent during the last financial crisis and was threatening to fall further to 15 percent and subsequently to 2-3 percent like it was during the British era. 

The NEP was criticised heavily to the extent that a task force committee to draft a second NEP was proposed. And surprise, surprise ... the names proposed for the task force are people who were either "dropped" from the Mahathir administration or those who were considered "rebels" in the present Umno Supreme Council. The main task of this committee was to ensure that whoever was in government must guarantee that Malays were entitled to the 30 percent stake of the economic pie. 

"I don't think the Chinese would be angry if the Malays want to enhance their position or improve their lot in life," Ghafar told the crowd. 

"We want Malay solidarity in the context of Malaysian solidarity," he said, but no one cheered. "the Malays will live as long as Malaysia lives," he added. 

Journalists present on that day agreed that the slogan shouting "Hidup Melayu" and "Allahu-hu-Akhbar" was rather familiar. The same tone, the same passion were often heard during reformasi gatherings, only the words were different. 

Once in a while, when Suqiu, the Malaysian Chinese Organisations’ Election Appeals, was mentioned or criticised for being Chinese extremists as labelled by Mahathir in his Merdeka Day speech last year, an accusation he repeated in Parliament later, one could hear a lone voice or two shouting "Bunuh Suqiu (Kill Suqiu)" or "Halau mereka keluar (Chase them out)" out of the blue, failing to attract any support from the rest. 

'Mahathir, it is time ...' 

One thing was obvious. There was no "Hidup Mahathir" slogan being voiced. Instead, the crowd was asked to extend a standing ovation to former leaders like Harun Idris, Ghafar Baba, Ghazali Shafie, educationist Awang Had Salleh and Aziz Tapa. 

Mazlan said that although Mahathir was a visionary leader, the time has come for him to listen to the grassroots. He added that present-day leaders must think whether it was worthwhile to bail out businessmen like former MAS chief Tajudin Ramli or spend some RM6 billion to bail out the LRT systems operators (Putra and Star) at the expense of the people. 

"As many Malay students are not entitled to scholarships these days, only loans, what special rights are we talking about?" he asked, adding that Umno leaders were making it difficult for him to relate to the people. 

Umno Youth Perak state leader Tajuddin Abd Rahman went a little further and urged Mahathir to clean up his cabinet. "Clean it up until the cabinet is credible to the rakyat, especially to the Malays." 

"Do we always have to give businesses and contracts to companies like MRCB, DRB, Hicom, Renong, Berjaya and YTL? What about others?" he asked, insinuating practices of cronyism within the ruling coalition. 

Ibrahim Ali, who was also event coordinator, named Mahathir, PAS leader Fadzil Noor and Keadilan chief Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as the main causes of Malay disunity. He warned that “If you leaders continue to make mistakes again, the people would rise up.” 

Former Umno Youth leader and MP Suhaimi Kamaruddin, who is also a lawyer, paid tribute to former prime minister Tun Abdul Razak and Ghazali Shafie for drafting the NEP. He also thanked Harun Idris for the “creation” of the Federal Territory as that was a strategy to ensure the Malays held on to the political power of the nation. 

He said that all efforts to realise Mahathir's Vision 2020 were not profitable to the Malays as Malay supremacy was once again challenged and that the Malays no longer had faith in the Malay leadership. 

Now, if that was not an anti-Mahathir rally, what is? But more than that, this sudden turn of events, resulting in a supposedly Malay solidarity rally seem like the long-awaited reformasi within Umno that some leaders were only dreaming about months ago. 

Or, as one Barisan Alternatif leader puts it: “This might just be another strategy to trick people into believing that Umno is still relevant.”