COMMENT I have been following the allegations that certain groups are out to topple the government, the latest being the 48-hour ‘turnaround’ by Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

In my opinion, this is nothing but a red herring attempt to suppress the voices of dissent within Umno in the same way that others have been accused of carrying out activities which are ‘detrimental to parliamentary democracy’.

Wong Piang Yow ( photo ) of Tindak Malaysia, for example, was investigated by Bukit Aman a few years ago for several hours based on the same allegation. Those of us who know Tindak Malaysia or Wong personally will know this is one of the most preposterous of allegations made against Wong, who was pushing for clean and fair elections.

Even Ambiga Sreeneevasan, who is hailed by my fellow Malaysians as a heroine of parliamentary democracy, was recently being investigated (or rather, harassed) for activities ‘detrimental to parliamentary secretary’.

For this same reason, the Bersih 2.0 steering committee has apparently adopted a counter-statement in their push to ‘strengthen parliamentary democracy’. I cannot think of any group that is working to enhance further parliamentary democracy in this country than people like Maria Chin, Ambiga and A Samad Said (Pak Samad).

A number of demonstrators who recently urged that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak be arrested were also nabbed by the police. They, too, are being accused of trying to topple the government.

Men and women, including Annie Ooi (popularly known as Auntie Bersih, photo ) are hailed as pro-democracy heroes and heroines. They did not carry weapons during the last peaceful democracy; therefore, how could they be capable of toppling the government?

It is not as though Najib will remain as prime minister for life. If he claims to be elected by the people - a mere 47 percent of the country’s total voters - Najib should listen to the voice of the other 52 percent if he wants to remain in Putrajaya. Instead, all sorts of allegations have been made against those who are seeking for more democratic spaces and those who are fighting against the use of race and religion in politics.

I will not be surprised that even the coordinator of Group of 25, Noor Farida Ariffin, or even Muhyiddin Yassin (after they remove him as deputy president of Umno) would be investigated as well for collaborative efforts to topple Najib and the government.

Zahid’s attempt

The latest is Zahid’s revelation that a certain Umno leader has been going around to collect statutory declarations (SDs) from other Members of Parliament (MPs) who want Najib to resign.

This did not come as a shock to many of us who are following Umno’s political developments. Zahid did not disclose the name of the Umno leader; instead he followed up with the conclusion to his own story almost the next day.

According to Zahid, the Umno leader has since ‘repented’ , saying that the said leader realised it was wrong. In the first place, if the Umno leader had repented, why did Zahid have to brood over it? Just tell us that the Umno leader had given up on his pursuit.

If the Umno leader had ‘repented’ within the last 24 hours, then how sure is Zahid that this same person or others would not be going around to garner support for a no-confidence vote against Najib?

Frankly, what is more morally wrong is to send a letter to support an alleged illegal betting kingpin to the Federal Bureau of Investigation that even the Royal Malaysian Police were unaware of, rather than collecting SDs from Members of Parliament who want to remove the sitting prime minister through a show of no-confidence?

Or, for Barisan Nasional back in 2009 to take over the Perak state government when the then-elected Pakatan state government collapsed after three state assemblypersons, Hee Yit Foong ( photo ), Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi and Osman Jailu, defected? Most people still remember these three state assemblypersons.

In the current development, we are talking about letting BN continue with its daily affairs at Putrajaya, minus Najib. I think most people would be more receptive if Umno veteran Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and current Umno deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin take over the administration, and clean up the cabinet of apple-polishers.

If the so-called Umno leader is working towards this objective, I do not see how it is morally wrong. I would personally applaud him for going all out and shoulder the responsibility upon himself. The SD is a legal tool that is recognised by the courts. In fact, it is the next best thing for Umno to at least do some justice to the nation.

We are concerned

Most of us are very concerned that Malaysia will become another rogue nation, when the wrong people are allowed to stay in power.

It is for this reason, I believe many Malaysians from across the country, both young and old alike, will show their expression of support to the forthcoming Bersih 4 rally.

Most of us are not even ‘kaki demo’. We are professionals, and well-educated, but most of us have taken on the responsibility for our future and our children’s future, especially after former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was thrown into jail.

Previously, people left it to Anwar to shoulder the entire responsibility; but now, this responsibility is shared amongst by ordinary citizens of this country. Since the exposes by The Wall Street Journal, Sarawak Report and the Edge , most people have shaken their heads when the name Najib or the infamous 1MDB is mentioned.

The level of cynicism of my fellow Malaysians has risen so high that I dread to think what will become of Barisan Nasional, after it has been voted out of Putrajaya by the next general election, if this ‘teenage nation’ in its adolescent age is being treated roughly or with contempt.

Most of us who want to see a two-party system would not like to see BN being utterly rejected by the people, to such an extent that we cannot have an equally strong opposition after a new Pakatan 2.0 government takes over Putrajaya.

Such hype as never seen before

Strangely this time around, those who chose to abstain from other rallies have started talking about going down to the streets. Many of them are, in fact, company senior executive officers and at least two of them are millionaires.

Even G25’s Noor Farida ( photo ) was at the launch of Bersih 4. I could not make it that night when I met her at a talk on ‘rising extremism’, and when I asked when we could meet her again, she surprised me, “Why? At Bersih 4 tonight of course!”

Noor Farida was nowhere to be seen during the Bersih 3 rally, but even now, she is personally throwing her support behind the peaceful rally. This, I believe, is her personal stand, but I hope others in her group would lend their support, too.

Would the same police brutality used against Bersih 3 rally goers be used against senior civil servants like Noor Farida? Or my millionaire friends?

Never have I seen such strong support than this, compared to even the last Bersih 3 rally which was also held in major cities around the country and worldwide. Within such a short period of time, Bersih has garnered so much hype.

Will the authorities call this another attempt to topple the government? Yes, they can, and they will, but it is a question of who will listen and believe them now.

Inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar has called Bersih organisers “selfish” because they disrupt the business people in Kuala Lumpur, but all my rich business people are already saying, “Why not we go for lunch in the city to show that Bersih 4 has indeed brought more business than any other events to these restaurateurs?”

At the end of the day, the politicians who are corrupted have to be removed. This is for the good of the nation for many generations to come. I dread to think that, if we allow corruption to continue, we will be crash against the iceberg and sink like the great Titanic from the last century.

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.