Ambiga galvanises London

For the English, this has been a disappointing summer with only two relatively “hot” days thus far. Malaysians would probably snigger at these “hot” days because the temperature barely reached 30°C.

Today, it was actually raining so heavily so that I got wet despite having umbrella. Nothing could deter the crowd though.

Today London had a very special guest – Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan. She very kindly had consented to attend an afternoon of conversation organised by the Monsoons Book Club.

Ambiga’s credentials were impeccable and it was clear that she was tipped for leadership from the very start.

A former head prefect of the famed Convent Bukit Nanas, she proceeded to read law at Exeter University where she later received an honorary doctorate in law in 2011.

She was the president of the Malaysian Bar and is co-chairman of Bersih. Her awards include the Award for International Women of Courage in 2009.

This was the award she received from Michelle Obama and Hilary Clinton, the picture of which went viral.

Of course, it was not always smooth sailing for Ambiga. The powers that be were not about to roll over and simply surrender their power to the rakyat. Not without a fight anyway.

After Bersih 2, the now famous protest outside Ambiga’s house took place. A group of ex-army men gathered outside her house and performed an exercise routine with obscene gestures.

Their leader, the notorious Ali Tinju who is being investigated for racist instigation during the Low Yat incident recently, led this vulgarity.

He was also present when some NGOs wore Bersih-like T-shirts and poured red paint over an effigy of the current Bersih leader, Maria Chin Abdullah.

Such reprobates continue to pollute our country without fear of prosecution. They are in fact the very instruments of our traitorous government.

Unfortunately for yours truly, Mariam Mokhtar had charged me to play Ambiga’s interrogator and pose her some difficult questions.

This was a task I knew I was doomed to fail from the start. Ambiga coolly took charge of the topics and steered her way to some solid answers. Would that our national leaders had such command!

Ambiga’s basic argument is this: Malaysia is broken. We must make no bones about this fact.

The governance of our nation is so dysfunctional that at present, our very nation is at stake.

Bersih 4 will address this state of disrepair by issuing a bold and audacious call – for the very resignation of the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak himself.

At this juncture, we must ask the question if Najib would actually heed this call? Ambiga is very realistic and did not think so.

After all, despite the ever louder calls for him to even take a leave of absence, he has thus far stonewalled himself.

Even when his own Umno top brass questioned the legitimacy of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), they found themselves dropped from the Cabinet and replaced with ministers whose comments thus far have defied belief in terms of their ludicrousness.

It is not likely that Najib would heed the call of the rakyat. However, this was not target in itself. The target is to come out in great numbers to show our disapproval of Najib’s government.

Seeing our fellow Malaysians come out like this would motivate us to take things to the next step – political reform.

Political reform can happen only with the coalescence of political will. That is, the desire to change must manifest at a parliamentary level. For this to happen, we need some drastic reforms in our electoral system.

Ambiga shared a report by a body of independent observers that the electoral system could not be more in favour of Barisan National if they were to make the area delineations themselves.

Such gerrymandering is obvious and we can recall a former head of the Election Commission saying, if they did not take such measures, Barisan would lose the elections. So much for free and fair elections!

I was also very heartened to hear a student speak up about her difficulties getting by in Malaysia. The rising cost of living has not made it easy for fresh graduates.

This young lady had a far better attitude than Siti Azzahra whose video went viral some months ago. While Zahra had a rather entitled attitude, this young lady sounded far more humble and earnest.

She was at least willing to take part in Bersih 4 to do her bit towards the change.

Essentially, this is what Ambiga is calling for – the participation of the Rakyat. And why should we not participate?

The very soul of the nation is at stake and the ones who will lose everything will be the rakyat themselves. The elites are relatively immune from the reality of living for various reasons.

This is why they can make the callous statements which not and be happy with the status quo. The system is rigged in their favour.

The rakyat on the other hand, are in an extremely tight spot no thanks to the mismanagement by Najib’s government.

It is time we voice our protest. London was galvanised by Ambiga today and next week, Global Bersih will galvanise Malaysians the world over. – August 26, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.