Desi was privileged to hear from the horse's mouth last Saturday at BUM2011 Forum about the massive rally planned by BERSIH 2.0 for July 9, 2011.
Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, current BERSIH chairperson, was being teased by Desi who questioned whether she would have compromised her official position by accepting the Datukship award while serving some years back as Bar Council president. I was asking in the context of noting that many -- or all -- of the group editors of the MSM/mainstream media, were awarded the Datuk title, and it was my opinion that they would then feel obligated to toe -- or even promote -- the Government's line in all key "policies", right or wrong. I had earlier also recalled former PM Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad having said at two public fora that the government of the day (at least speaking of his 22 years at the BN Government's helm) did not instruct the MSM editors on how to run their (political) stories. It was the editors themselves who tried to read their political masters' or press owners' mind and then "spin" the stories to please their masters (No, mistresses are not involved here/hear!).
Ambiga assured that she accepted the royal award based on her stewardship of the national law practitioners'body and that she would continue to serve professionally in whatever organisation she chose to be involved in, including the now-hot-in-the-news BERSIH, which stands for a coalition of NGOs promoting clean and fair elections.
Desi assured her he had no doubt about her integrity to professional conduct once she chose to wear the captain's hat at BERSIH, even assured her he would bring some Kentucky Fried Chicken for her if she became a guest at the famous/notorious Kamunting! Ambiga quickly revealed she's a "vegetarian". So now Desi must be prepared like a girl guide to look for brinjals, cucumber,lettuce and ladies' fingers to steal in his neighbourhood gardens. Emcee Dr Mave Yeoh -- you grow some men's fingers at thy Koala Lumpuh garden?
Okay, enough digression, which I as BUM organising committee chair have been promoting as among the privileges to freely abuse for anyone joining the Bloggers' bandwagon -- B2B anywan? -- back to that rally on July 9.
Ambiga said it would be a peaceful march for fair, clean elections in the conduct of the forthcoming 13Th General Elections, and also promoting transparency and anti-corruption culture in public governance, and that all parties,including from the Barisan Nasional components and the Pakatan Rakyat, are welcomed to join.
To Desi, this July 9 walk for NegaraKu,is clearly a citizens' effort which can only benefit the country by moving it forward to a greater democratic nation, so there is no need for any third party to protest or organise a counter-rally.
As a blogger, let me tax my ER (esteemedreaders') indulgence a little to a point which Ambiga elaborated on at the BUM Forum which I felt full empathy with. So I shall now "paraphrase" with some of my own addition which I had no opportunity to add on too that night, so "minta maaf" if I digress or even wrongly postulate again!
The "talkative" MC that evening had noted earlier whether there was any solidarity among the bloggers themselves -- what more they were ambitious of showing solidarity with the Press (MSM)? In fact that was the reason for ending the forum theme "Bloggers' Solidarity with the Press?" with a question mark, not a fullstop. Mave noted in a frank post that bloggers had gone off into (at least three) different groups, and so he concluded it was too much to in fact expect solidarity.
Ambiga then expanded on the point of solidarity in the sense that bloggers can empathise with the Press/ print media when they agree on common grounds involving good media practice,including the commitment to truth, fair and honest reporting and blogging. Desi couldn't agree more, and I would even add that I would join my "rival" bloggers from Blog House Malaysia or Malaysian Civil Liberies Movement (MCLM) by putting aside our personal differences, and walking in solidarity with BERSIH2.0 cometh July 9.
So I assure my BUMmers and fellow bloggers and B2B based in Kuala Lumpur that Desi will round up a few Serembanknights to make up the numbers from diverse and different groups from the whole country to march in solidarity. For common ideals of free assembly and promoting clean and fair elections so essential a desideratum for a developed nation status -- nine yaers away is quite a near horizon, and every citizen must rise up to the occasion, YES!
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