How about wearing Yellow every Saturday? 黄色星期六？

Great men think alike!

Many ‘Yellow Walkers’ have suggested to me that we should be wearing yellow once a week, everyday or on a certain day of the month to mark the huge success of the Yellow Wave on Saturday.

I am more inclined to adopt Yellow Saturday every week. I will raise the idea in the coming BERSIH’s meeting.

What do you think, my dear Yellow Walkers and readers of colour-blind?

The yellow wave and its durian effect

Azly Rahman Nov 12, 07 11:25am Malaysiakini

DR AZLY RAHMAN is a transcultural philosopher rooted in the tradition of Critical and Chaos Theory. Born in Singapore, raised in Johor Baru, he was a child of Malaysia’s experiment in humanistic education: Maktab Rendah Sains MARA Kuantan.A member of The International Honor Society in Education, Azly holds a Doctorate in International Education Development from Columbia University, New York City, and Masters in four areas: International Affairs, Education, Communication, and Peace Studies.He has taught in Malaysia and the United States in a multitude of settings and in diverse fields such as Politics/International Relations, Education, American Studies, Philosophy/ Humanities/Cultural Studies, and History/Foundations of Civilizations.His interest lies in deconstructing ‘hegemony and totalitarianism’ and to explore the possibilities of creating one’s personal republic that will challenge and transform the postmodern state.He can be reached at: aar26@columbia.edu “Bersih, Cekap, Amanah” – old political slogan “Cemerlang, Gemilang, Terbilang” – new political slogan “B.e.r.s.i.h” – slogan to get from the new slogan to the old. I quote the first few paragraphs of the 1776 American Declaration of Independence: “… When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. … We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.-That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” Those are the words penned primarily by Thomas Jefferson, philosopher and statesman; words that became the document of American democracy that is still evolving. Evolve we must Evolve we must as a nation of multicultural poor yearning to break free from the shackles of poverty, alienation, massive corruption, and the tiredness of seeing power being abused and absolute power being abused absolutely. Evolve we must by way of the slogans that have been fed to us religiously. By “we” we mean both the ruler and the ruled, the governor and the governed, the rakyat and the kerajaan (government). Essentially the process of “cleaning up” our act is both the desire of the ruling party and those who are protesting against it. We are a nation in need of therapy. We are one, essentially – our subjectivity and objectivity is being deconstructed and destroyed. If we are to live with the truth and the power of the slogans we create, we must surrender to the will of the people who put us into power and wishes to see justice being served and a clean, transparent, and trustworthy government being put in place. We have arrived at a juncture in our own brand of Civil Rights movement. We now need our own Magna Carta to teach our citizens the inalienable rights we have vis-a-vis the aristocrats; those that transformed themselves from the commoners to power-elites – through the huge machinery of money, media, and mental maneuverings and meanderings of the messages we created as the medium. We are made to live in a world of “managed perception”. Don’t Pakistanize ourselves Let us pray that we shall not have to Pakistanize ourselves in our struggle to exercise free speech and freedom of assembly. Unless we are like a nation at war with itself with us plunged as characters in the epic movie Lord of The Rings in which Humanity battles Humanoids in the war for natural justice set in antiquity. The events that led to the declaration of emergency in Islamabad may as well foreshadow the nature and shape of things to come by the time campaigning and Election Day arrives. Will the yellow fever, like the River HuangHe does, bring sorrow to the current regime? Is the nation seeing the seeds of destruction germinating? Will the Krakatau of the Malaysian rumbling and grumbling finally erupt? I don’t know. You and I can only make informed guesses. Man proposes, God disposes. We can only predict and plan for the translation of theory into practice. That’s what praxis is – the marriage of idealism and action to produce “cultural action for freedom”, as Latin liberation theologians such as Gustavo Gutierrez, Denis Goulet, and Paulo Freire would say. Or like what the brave heart Che Guevara would embody. Being a student of social revolutions in which I have closely looked at the anatomy of peaceful and violent revolutions such as those of The American, The French, Cuban, Iranian, Nicaraguan, Indonesian and also the Computer and the Internet, I believe there are interesting elements one can extract from the Nov 10 march. Unlike the French Revolution, the march did not begin in a tennis court but from many angles but denied the final congregation in front of Freedom/Independence/Merdeka Square. Nor it deposed a grandson of the Sun King, but rather seeks refuge in the Malay Supreme Ruler. Unlike the Cuban Revolution in which a law doctoral graduate Fidel Castro had to use extra-legal means to gain power and return it to the people, the November march began with a legal application that was denied and was preceded by the Lawyer’s Walk that sent memorandum to stop a judiciary rot. Unlike the Iranian Revolution in which a million people waited for Imam Khomeini, the Nov 10 march was a freedom march whose leadership is collaborative in nature. Unlike the Nicaraguan Revolution in which Daniel Ortega had to go underground to fight a guerilla war, Nov 10 saw not a single shot being fired nor Mat Rempits being hired. Unlike the American Revolution in which the French was General Washington’s ally, Nov 10 was purely a people’s protest devoid of outside influence. Unlike the most Indonesian Revolution in which Jakarta was burning, Nov 10 saw instead alleged chemical laced- water being sprayed on a rainy day. Parallels and non-parallels there are. But like the Computer Revolution that spread like wildfire and transformed millions into informed citizens Nov 10 was preceded by a good sense of informational war, with Malaysia-Today and a few other blogs hacked – the power of the Internet reigns supreme in spreading the yellow fever. There is a durian dimension to the Nov 10 march of grievance. The durian effect The durian is a yellow fruit – an exquisite and truly “world-class” Malaysian fruit. It has a Marxist contradiction built in. It is pungent, banned in hotels and airplanes, tastes like vomit to some, feels like eating ice-cream in a Malaysian toilet to many, yet is has one of the most heavenly taste that even the most glorious of Malaysian statesmen and Supreme Rulers would not resist it over a pot of thick Malaccan coffee. In the yellowness of it lies heaven and hell. In it lies the joys and sorrow of tasting. It is a bitter fruit of freedom. Like the fruit in the song “Strange Fruit” rendered beautifully by the grand diva of jazz, Nina Simone; a fruit that tells America the story of lynching down South. The yellowness of the durian is a metaphor of the yellow wave of change. It’s only the beginning of a peaceful revolt against the might of the machine. Indeed the next wave will be met with even more machines from the regime. Like in the movie Lord of the Rings. Like in the movie the Matrix in which things will multiply as Humanity battles with Humanoids conditioned by totalitarianism. The photos of the rally tell us a lot about the nature of our peaceful marches – thanks to the leaders and the marshals. Thanks to the wisdom of the leaders who are in tune and in syn with the gentleness of the people. But the faces of the protesters read like Chairil Anwar’s poems and WS Rendra’s plays. We have evolved into brave souls with brave hearts. But with finesse and patience must we revolt. If we can have the masses to continue to wear yellow (like the Irish with their St. Patrick greens) as a memory of Nov 10, we will continue with the message right till Election Day. Revolutions need martyrs, reformations need signs and symbols and significations – etched in the memory of even the little child near Pasar Seni pepper-sprayed by the Mighty Machine trying with paranoia to crush those voices no longer in the wilderness. This is why we have the yellow fever. Clean, Efficient, Trustworthy – a good old slogan to arrive at. But clean up we must. With lots of shower. Not with ones with chemically-laced water though. We must evolve – collectively.

国会反对党领袖兼民主行动党怡保东区国会议员林吉祥於2007年11月11日（星期一）

在国会发表的记者会声明：

阿都拉对乾净与公平选举联盟在11月10日向国家元首提呈选举改革备忘录的万人

大集会之回应，已经严峻的考验他是否已经撕毁其4年来的听真话承诺，而暴露出

他充耳不闻人民心声的真面目。

乾净与公平选举联盟（公选盟－BERSIH）在周六举行万人大集会向国家元首提呈选举改革的备忘录，以确保选举在乾净、自由与公平情况下举行，而政府领袖们作出的消极与不负责任回应，虽然不出乎意料，却令人大失所望。

首相拿督斯里阿都拉说，公选盟的集会与请愿”形同将皇室及国家元首卷入政治”。

这是亳无根据的指责，完全不应出自一名首相之口，因为它不符事实。

国家元首是大马公正泉源的象徵，而且失去所有争取公正管道的大马人民，可以要求国家元首施予援手是符合宪法精神的，首相及内阁有义务严正考虑这种向国家元首提呈的请愿，而非以极为嚣张、傲慢与不民主的态度加以否定。

向国家元首请愿的个案尤其重要，因为政府对改革选举，确保所有竞选者具有平等的平台，使大马的选举在乾净、自由与公平的情况下举行之广泛与正当性呼声充耳不闻。

因此，我在国会问答时间指政府应维护国家元首为公正泉源的象徵，而正视上述的备忘录，否则政府将对君主立宪制度不公。

周三的内阁会议应优先关注上述的请愿，并主动的成立一个机制，确保来届大选能真正的
乾净、自由与公平。

其实，它还涉及更大的得失攸关。阿都拉对公选盟在11月10日向国家元首提呈选举改革备忘录的万人大集会之回应，也已经严峻的考验他是否已经撕毁其4年来的听真话承诺，而暴露出他充耳不闻人民心声的真面目。

不幸的是，实际情况的确如此，我今早在国会提出附加询问，想知道政府是否将对上述的请愿作出积极的反应时，首相署部长拿督斯里纳兹里以粗野的口吻作答。纳兹里不理性的回答询问，而展开狂暴的政治攻击。

国阵政府泥足深陷入否认症候群令人非常的遗憾，如政府不承认周六的大集会是阿都拉掌权4年来规模最大的，而且显示出人民热爱和平与致力争取民主。

可悲的是，官方的数据从全国总警长在周六指的4000人，很勉强的增加至副首相拿督斯里纳吉昨天讲的1万人，而所有的目击者、照片及录像可以证明，指参与集会人数高达4至5万人并不夸张。

如果阿都拉能在联合国发言时提到缅甸在9月间由僧侣发动的”袈裟起义”，以及在我国的缅甸籍工人能公开集会，以示支持袈裟起义，大马的首相至少应承认公选盟和平集会表达心声的正常性，并严加考虑改革选举的呼吁，尤其是这项数万人的大集会尽管遭到挑衅及警方过度使用暴力，包括完全不必要地发射摧泪弹及水炮，却仍在和平与秩序井然下举行。

林吉祥

Media Conference Statement by Parliamentary Opposition Leader and DAP MP for Ipoh Timur Lim Kit Siang in Parliament on November 12, 2007:

Abdullah’s response to mammoth peaceful BERSIH gathering on Nov. 10 petitioning Yang di Pertuan Agong for electoral reforms has become the acid test whether it marks the burial of his four-year pledge to hear the truth showing his true colours of refusing to hear and heed the voice of the rakyat

The negative and irresponsible responses of the government and its leaders to Saturday’s mammoth peaceful BERSIH gathering petitioning the Yang di Pertuan Agong for electoral reforms to ensure clean, free and fair elections is most disappointing though not unexpected.

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the BERSIH gathering and petition were “tantamount to dragging the institution of the monarchy, and the king, into politics”.

This is a baseless allegation completely unworthy of the Prime Minister as nothing could be further from the truth.

The Yang di Pertuan Agong symbolizes the fountain of justice in Malaysia, and it is completely within constitutional norms for Malaysians who are shut out from all avenues of redress to seek justice to appeal to the Yang di Pertuan Agong for intervention – and it will be beholden on the Prime Minister and his Cabinet to give such petitions to the Yang di Pertuan Agong serious consideration and not to dismiss them in a most arrogant, cavalier and undemocratic manner.

In this particular case, the mass petition to the Yang di Pertuan Agong is all the more pertinent as the government has turned a deaf ear to widespread and legitimate calls for electoral reforms to ensure that there is a level playing field for all contestants so that clean, free and fair elections could be held in Malaysia.

This is why I said during question time that the government should uphold the important symbol of the King as the fountain of justice by giving serious and positive consideration to the petition to the Yang di Pertuan Agong supported by the mammoth and peaceful BERSIH gathering on Saturday or the government will be doing an injustice to the system of monarchy.

The Cabinet meeting on Wednesday should give top priority to the BERSIH petition to the Yang di Pertuan Agong on electoral reforms and take the initiative to establish a mechanism to ensure that the next general election can be truly clean, free and fair.

In fact, much more is at stake. Abdullah’s response to the mammoth peaceful BERSIH gathering on Nov. 10 petitioning Yang di Pertuan Agong for electoral reforms has also become the acid test whether it marks the burial of his four-year pledge to hear the truth showing and we have the Prime Minister showing his true colours of refusing to hear and heed the voice of the rakyat.

This, unfortunately, appears to be the case, with the truculent reply by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz during question time this morning when I posed the supplementary question whether the government would give a positive response to the BERSIH petition to the Yang di Pertuan Agong for electoral reforms. Instead of a rational reply, Nazri went into a political rampage!

It is most regrettable that the Barisan Nasional government is suffering from a very serious case of denial syndrome, as evidenced by its refusal to concede that Saturday’s mammoth peaceful gathering was the biggest in the four-year premiership of Abdullah and evidence of the people’s love for peace and commitment to democracy.

It is pathetic to see the official figure for the mammoth peaceful BERSIH gathering grudgingly increase from 4,000, according to the Inspector-General of Police on Saturday, to 10,000 according to Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak yesterday, when from all eye-witness, photographic and video accounts, the gathering could be numbered without exaggeration as between 40,000 to 50,000.

If Abdullah can speak in the United Nations to commend the “saffron revolution” of the Burmese monks in Myanmar in September, and Burmese workers in the country could assemble publicly to organize public protests in support of the “saffron revolution”, the least the a responsible Prime Minister of Malaysia  should do is to acknowledge the legitimacy of the grievances of the mammoth peaceful BERSIH gathering and the exemplary conduct of the 40,000 – 50,000 people who conducted themselves in a peaceful and orderly manner despite unnecessary provocations and excessive force by the police in certain instances – including the uncalled-for firing of tear gas and water cannons – and give serious consideration to the calls for electoral reforms.

    Lim Kit Siang