COMMENT I saw, I was sickened and I was unimpressed.

That might well be the similar state of revulsion felt by many who saw video reports of the 'red shirts' happening on their national day of shame instead of a national day of unity.

What a stark contrast to the carnival mood of the Bersih 4 event and a show of true and uncontrived Malaysian solidarity.

One gathering was for good and the other for evil.

The Malaysiakini report "Provocation, racial slurs mar 'red shirts' rally" confirms what the public already knew and why even former Umno leaders opposed the event, which many criticised as a conspiracy to manipulate the Malays for a hidden agenda.

Is that agenda to detract the focus on wrongdoings involving government leaders, principally the incumbent prime minister Najib Abdul Razak, that have not been properly investigated and resolved?

Is it to paint a false picture of racial tension in the country to justify subsequent strong-arm measures? Is the real agenda to topple the rule of law and parliamentary democracy?

It was anything but what the organisers claimed and it was unnecessary, counter-productive and out of touch with the reality. And the failure of the gathering to get the huge number it boasted is undeniable proof.

There were no winners only losers who think opposing a positive movement like Bersih 4 with its noble aims to make their country a fairer and more democratic place is helping their race and religion. How?

What is wrong with fair elections that anyone has to rally against and oppose?

Thank God the world saw and heard the minority voice of the Malays, much less than the audience of a Michael Jackson pop concert and the number of Malays that attended the Bersih 4 walk. A sign of desperation was when 100 homeless street people were given free food and red shirts and told to wear them and go for a walkabout, according to a media report.

Whither integrity when boosting the numbers by hook or by crook is to camouflage the true number of diehard 'red shirts'? I have no doubts some of the participants may have genuine grouses but they were misguided to blame the Chinese or DAP who did not want the GST or higher food prices either and they are not the government responsible.

Chanting racist slogans, holding incendiary banners

Shame on those who try to divide Malaysians because a million Malays chanting racist slogans and holding incendiary banners and insulting me a Chinese will not stop me loving my Malay friends, the friendly Malay folks I buy my fruits from or eating at my favourite Malay roti canai restaurant or Malay strangers.

This 'Chinaman' and 'babi' loves the Malays and no red shirt or a million of them will change his mind.

I welcome the Malays and will go out of my way to help any who may need help. I welcome any 'red shirt' to tell me why he has anything to fear from the Chinese and I will tell him why he has been hoodwinked by scoundrels who manipulate him to hate the Chinese and the DAP for their own evil agenda.

I will tell him to go and read his Koran and tell me where it teaches a Muslim to hurl insults and abuses at the Chinese or commit slander, a grievous sin in Islam and take part in a gathering and lend their presence to it to threaten others from a different race.

And I will show him why if he creates trouble in the country and more and more Chinese run away, how the country will suffer and why the Indonesians have learned their lesson after a mad orgy of killing, raping and driving the Chinese away.

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohammed ( photo ) a critic of the rally says he is "still clueless about the 'red shirts' rally's aims". In the Malaysiakini report he asked, "What is their objective? Even I don't know. How am I supposed to comment?"

Too right. I doubt many at the gathering had any inkling either but free food and free tours to the city is always willingly received.

What many Malaysians do know is who are the hidden hands behind the charade.

They know who orchestrated the shameful display of naked aggression, downright insulting, and acts of provocation that if any Bersih 4 participant had engaged in would have landed them in hot soup with the police.

Let's see what the hard-talking police will do and if they come down hard on those who threaten internal security.

The tacit endorsement, the secret sponsorship, the speech-givers and even the defacto leaders - who are they? Which political party do they belong to? The DAP? PKR? MCA? MIC? Umno? You don't need to be a genius or even have to guess to pick the right answer.

No need to guess who betrayed their country on its national day.

They were not the acts of peaceful protest and legitimate people concerns but meaningless rebel-rousing and rebels without a real reason. They misrepresent the true Malays who are not that uncivil as the rowdy ones who hector at imaginary foes.

If the 'red shirts rally' was meant to divide the nation or intimidate, it failed.

In fact it only proved how racist propaganda has succeeded in brainwashing the impressionable. It is further testimony of the government's failed education policies.

It is further evidence the alleged racist syllabus of the government's national training programmes has succeeded in poisoning many Malay minds.

Failure of government to build a nation

It is time hypocritical leaders stop playing a double game and stop manipulating the masses for their own hidden and selfish personal agendas. This is politics below the sewerage.

Will the police be studying all the news footage and their own and making arrests and charging the culprits including the lunatic who threw a plastic traffic cone into the crowd and injured a red shirt participant and others who hurled similar objects at the police?

It was a national day of shame because it was the day the world saw the failure of the government to build a nation.

After 58 years of having unbridled and unbroken power since independence to do as they like the Umno-led Barisan Nasional government has clearly failed to build a nation, a nation of mutual acceptance and common national destiny.

You don't need better proof than the 'red shirts' rally on Saturday. The ugly display of unwarranted racism and blind rage brought shame upon the heads of those who unfairly and in a sinful, unIslamic manner insulted the Chinese.

No one hijacked the gathering. It went according to the script, the insults and threats and lies and all.

Instead of the immoral scapegoating of the Chinese, former Umno finance minister Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah ( photo ) was quick to remind the Malays that "other Malaysians had contributed more than their fair share for the country". It was an honest admission by a fair-minded Malay.

“We choose to forget that there were other Malaysians who had accepted the Malay hierarchical stacking order with the ruler at the apex, and that this harmony convinced the British that we were ready for independence,” he said.

It is a joke for any to claim the Malays are under threat because they control everything - the government, the police, the military, the public money, and even the nasi lemak stall in my local coffee shop.

Malays, to the Gua Musang MP, are still short on confidence and this makes them a scared lot especially in their relationship and interaction with other Malaysians.

This, he said has become a marked characteristic of the Malay psyche, and this unfortunately found its way into politics.

And so we have noticed and deplore the unprincipled and unscrupulous manipulators of the Malays who would not have participated in such an event on their own if no one had instigated them.

In contrast I was pleased to read a report on Marina Mahathir who spent the day in a picnic outside on the grounds of the KLCC with her friends. What a contrast. What a civilisation. What a role model for the Malays and others.

There is hope for Malaysia because it proved the majority of Malays are fair, even-tempered, educated, confident, capable, feel good about others and cannot be manipulated to participate in anything that betrays the ideals of their nation.

I salute the Sultan of Johore ( photo ) who asked that racists to leave his state. What a blow for evil racism. What an inspiration for good governance.

Imagine what racism will do to the state and the country which depends on Chinese money?

Indeed there is hope because good will triumph over evil and there are many good Malaysians of all races than the racists. The 'red shirts' rally proved it.

STEVE OH is the author of the novel ‘Tiger King of the Golden Jungle’ and composer of the musical of the same title. He believes in good governance and morally upright leaders.

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