A Government Brought Down by BLoggers

A Government brought down by Bloggers.

This hasn’t happen yet, not anywhere in the world, yet.

Researching from recent history, a Government that is not popular, ie not supported by the people, would not last long.
With exceptions:
Burma – The ruling military junta has ruled Burma for over 50 years. Then again the Burmese are Buddhists, and Buddhists are generally peaceful people. They don’t normally fight back.
North Korea – Cant say anything much here can we? Even though the people were starved to death in the 90s, and made to work and behave like slaves and robots, still there is no popular uprising that managed to topple the Government.
Cambodia under Pol Pot – Over a million of their citizens killed and tortured, yet their Asean neighbours just look on and preaching non interference, until Vietnam had enough of it and run them over. Thanks Vietnam!
Zimbabwe – The process is long and systematic, Zimbabwe was a rich country run to the ground by a crazy despot called Robert Mugabe. Yet because of their same black skinned, their neighbours keep making excuses and this and that reason for not interfering. Pity the people of Zimbabwe, abandoned by their neighbours, oppressed by their dictator.

Here are examples of Government brought down free media. The lesson here is to take control of the media, newspaper, television, radio, anything.

Spain, before 2004 Madrid train bombing was in the midst of election. Jose Maria Aznar was popular; his party was leading the opinion polls by a huge margin. Zapatero didn’t get much chance.
Then came the Madrid train bombing.
Zapatero won the Spanish election of 2004 by a landslide. What happen was that Aznar lied to the people that the train bombing was the work of ETA when it was AlQaeda linked.
What is the difference between us in Malaysia and Spain? Media in Spain is free. Ours in Malaysia is controlled by the ruling party. UMNO control some (Media Prima), MCA, MIC and Gerakan control others, ie Chinese, Tamil and English language papers. Is it the same in Sabah and Sarawak?

Look at Pakistan now. Eight years ago, Musharraf took power in Pakistan in a military coup, with the promise of cleaning up the systemic corruption and dismantling the ruling clique. Eight years on, he still clinging to power, so the people had enough. Look what happen today, Musharraf had a run in with the judiciary and the people took to the street demanding that he step down and hold free election. How many has the Pakistani military arrested in the past month? Just a few days ago Musharraf is saying he will step down in a month. (To get things in order and hold elections I suppose)

Fiji Military took over the Government in a coup d etat in December 2006, also with the promise of creating a free and fair system and getting rid of corrupt old men enriching themselves and impoverishing the country. One year on the job still not done and the military actions is more brutal towards its critics.

True that Malaysians had enough of the current Government but the Opposition has no history of ruling the country. So the majority of people would keep on voting the incumbent, especially with the political tactics of BN. Race and ethnicity would still be used as a tool.

The night before the BERSIH rally I was talking to a Malaysian on holiday here.

Life is difficult for average Malaysians, he said. The current monthly wage for factory worker is still around RM600 a month. Cost of living in cities is high. Most people couldn’t make end meet, let alone saving for their future. Inflation is high, every day food prices has risen sharply. Now the Govt is talking about removing the fuel subsidy. This was reported in Malaysiakini and m2day.org just before the BERSIH rally.

For our average Malaysian workers, life is already difficult; they are working 50-60 hours a week yet could hardly make RM1000 a month even with lots of overtime. Their jobs are taken over by foreign workers who are made to work like slaves of a pittance.

For a country that sent a man to space we have people living in tents because their houses were razed by authorities. Whwere would you see these kind of reports? Malaysiakini and Malaysia-today of course. Not in the Govt muzzled media!


The big winners in the past economic expansions since 1970’s have always been the ruling elites, sharing with well connected businesspeople. The ruling UMNO, by virtue of their political power, hand out contracts and licenses to their coterie of well connected businesspeople (Chinese, Indians and Malays) who in turn would give kickbacks to their political masters. The cost of public works skyrocket, unnecessary and white elephant projects were built thus burdening the average Malaysians with more costs for generations in the future.

See this new book by a former aide to Mahathir Mohamad and Tun Abdul Razak, which basically exposed how things were done. Please read the full story here.

Don’t you think you have enough of these gerrymandering, corrupt practices and robbing the general public to enrich the connected elites?

BERSIH has sent a Memo to Agong, and that is a start.

As Ustaz Hasrizal says in www.saifulislam.com article entry #1000 that we all have responsibility, not just amal maaruf but nahi munkar as well.