Merah itu Umno, please own it!

During Bersih 4.0, ‘somebody’ was stuffed into a cage and paraded around – see photo below. The cage signified a jail cell and the effigy a disgraced criminal.

This ‘criminal’ was also strung upside down like a slaughtered chicken – see photo below.

The Chinese took firm ownership of Bersih to showcase their political agenda.

Not only were they unapologetic, they were very much in-your-face.

Malays really need to grow some balls

While the Chinese were unapologetic about their behaviour during Bersih, the Malays were self-deprecatory about their Sept 16 rally. Pardon them for living.

Instead of taking ownership of Merah – yes, use just one word ‘MERAH’ – the self-effacing Malays preferred to wrap their rally with such euphemisms as Himpunan Rakyat Bersatu / Himpunan Maruah Melayu.

In future, I suggest that they just call themselves Merah, unequivocally. Make the branding clear-cut.

BELOW: ‘Najib’ as the punching bag getting kicked

Expletives are their standard vocabulary

One of the foul-mouthed RBAs who regularly stalks my blog called a red-shirted rally goer, “Nothing but a piece of shit Melayu” and teeming his insult with an abundance of ‘F’ words. See comment @ 2015/09/18 at 10:21 am.

I dare the Anon RBA to repeat what he commented in my blog to the targeted Red Shirt (pix below) direct to his face.

I wouldn’t bat an eyelid if this garang Malay man (left) with the Bring-It-On challenge were to sock the DAP cybertrooper straight between the eyes for being so kurang ajar, and deservedly.

Kepala Melayu pun dah penyek dah kerana asyik jer dipijak

Education Minister Mahdzir Khalid was just being truthful when he said that the Merah rally erupted because Malays felt their back had been pushed to the wall.

That’s one way of putting it. The slogan “DAP jangan pijak kepala Melayu” displayed in the placard below similarly captured the mood.

Patience on the verge of snapping

The expressed purpose of Himpunan Merah was to redeem Malay dignity but ironically, the maruah of the rally goers was brushed off by detractors with the dismissive putdown “rent-a-mob”.

The label denotes that those present at Padang Merbok last Wednesday were merely hired hands or rented bean counters.

Lim Kit Siang even scoffed that the Malays only managed to last a short four hours under the sun (and haze) compared to the Chinese’s 34-hour marathon during the Bersih overnighter.

Rather than tamping down the sizzling racial temperatures, the insufferable Dapsters in cahoots with their evangelista handlers are choosing instead to daily escalate the provocation.

Evangelical Christians and their persecution complex

Decades-old stereotypes and race prejudices reemerged on Sept 16 where those wearing the red T-shirts were derided as stupid kampung folks.

At the same time, the party representing rural voters – that would be Umno (see chart above) – is portrayed as tyrant who oppresses the urban Chinese and Christian minorities.

What is the scorecard for both rallies? Well, supporters of Bersih are the more sophisticated crowd; Marina Mahathir attended Global Bersih 4.0 in London (pix).

Bersih was better planned and executed. Its participants are more public relations savvy and able to utilize the social media with greater efficiency and expertise.

Meanwhile the organization of the red rally was in disarray.

BELOW: The underprivileged, persecuted and oppressed Malaysians attending Bersih in KL had their coffee in Starbucks and sandwiches in Subway

Himpunan merah was a qualified success

Bersih had the advantage of easier mobilization of the Klang Valley urban crowd compared to Himpunan Merah which had to bus in the bulk of its rural participants from out of state.

Furthermore, many self-conscious Malays on a guilt trip had kept away from Himpunan Merah for fear of being cast as racists, bigots and the Ku Klux Klan’s KL chapter.

Yet unexpectedly and quite surprisingly, Merah managed somehow to deliver a sizeable turnout enough to give Bersih a run for their money.

My guess is that the colour red appropriately symbolized the simmering anger which drove the Malays to take part even though there was little Umno leadership to galvanize the movement.

Who will lead Merah 2.0 in Penang?

The Reds had shown up in great numbers despite the black propaganda blitz to demoralize and demonize the rally prior to the event, during its live media coverage and subsequent postmortem.

Umno’s ambivalent top leaders must now decide whether they support Merah and its future editions.

The most prominent Umno figure in Merah was the badass Jamal Sekinchan (above, holding mic) – a party division chief.

Other speakers like Ali Rustam and Annuar Musa are not sitting cabinet ministers nor heads of any state government. Himpunan Merah is bereft of high-level leadership. It is a real grassroots groundswell.

Reason Najib should go for it

To help Umno decide on whether it wants to openly involve itself with Merah, below is a quote from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar:

“There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.”

Umno should follow the advice above and sail with the wind. Take this red tide at the flood.

I’ve blogged that for Najib to regain Malay votes, he will need to be a war general. Any war general will require ground troops but foot soldiers are what Najib is sorely lacking.

The Red Shirts are a sea of people looking to find a leader. Najib is a leader without a cause looking to find real followers.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Najib should seize the moment, carpe diem!