Dear PM Abdullah Badawi, Please Dont Follow Musharraf

Dear Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi,

The day after the Hindraf rally, newspaper all over the world splashed pictures of a group of Malaysian 'demonstators' being sprayed with water by police. I read it with concern, that Malaysian authorities are coming down hard on innocent people whose only guilt was being Indian, walking in group and chanting words that might not be pleasant to our ears.

If these group only want to hand in their 'papers' to British High Commission, on a Sunday (which is a rest day), I dont see anything wrong with that, Prime Minister. In any democracy, freedom of speech, expression and gathering is a fundamental component to democracy itself. If your Government would not allow our people to exercise their rights, then the people would not have an avenue to voice their concern and highlight issues.
Worse still, you would silence them because they are not represented in Parliament. Democracy is about representation of majority, and if the minority is not represented, other avenues to voice their rights and needs must be established. In Western democracy, main media are normally free and fair, and these can be the venue for minorities.

Unfortunately, in Malaysia your ruling parties and cliques has a stranglehold on main media, with strict instruction only to disseminate 'propaganda' of the ruling parties and the government. Your government has also controlled entries into media industry my licensing and such draconian laws such as Publications Act, Sedition Act etc. These days savvy Malaysian turn to online media like Malaysiakini and Harakahdaily as well as enthusiastic bloggers instead of Government controlled media.

Prime Minister,
Hindraf maybe racist in its make up, and serves the interest of Hindus only. But you have to let them voice their concern and opinions.
Suing The Queen of England and The British Govt for neglecting the interest of Indians in Malaysia may not make sense, when the culprit who marginalise the Indians in Malaysia is the Malaysian Govt itself for the past 50 years, but we must let them if we want to boast the Malaysia is a free country.

There has been 2 huge gathering of people this month, and none of them was intended to be a demonstration. If your Government let them do what they want to do, ie let BERSIH hand in petition to Agong and Hindraf hand in their lawsuit to British High Commission, the current consternation would not have arise. Your ruling coalition would not be under siege.

Prime Minister,
Pervez Musharraf lose grip of Pakistan because he wanted a firm grip of Pakistan. Musharraf doesnt want to let Nawaz Sharif come back to Pakistan, then he sacked the top judges and thing started to slide from there.
Now Musharraf lost grip of Pakistan, all because he wanted to stay longer as President.

Prime Minister,
Its time to let go. Before thing slide to worse. You can see that Malaysian people take example from Pakistan, that if they organise properly and gather in huge numbers, the police would be overwhelmed.
And you would lose your credibility in the eyes of Malaysians.
Its better that you let go now before things get worse later.
If I were you, I would announce election day sooner rather than later. Let Malaysians concentrate their energy in election rather than gatherings and demonstrations.

Maybe it would be wise if your coalition would deliberately lose this election. I believe Malaysians would yearn for a change.

Yours Truly