TURUN’s struggle cuts across racial and religious barriers
This article was earlier published in TheAntDaily.com on 12/1/2014
When the Gerakan Turun Kos Sara Hidup (Turun) decided to take to the streets on New Year’s eve at Dataran Merdeka, they received an immediate negative reaction from several pro-establishment groups and political parties.
Umno leaders were quick to brand the Turun group as a “terrorist” organisation attempting to overthrow the Umno-led Barisan Nasional government by force.
Pro-Umno NGOs and religious extremist groups too immediately branded Turun as a deviant group consisting of “non-Muslims” and “non-Malays” in majority trying to undermine the Malay dominance and Islam in this country. They urged their counterparts to lodge as many police reports as possible nationwide against Turun and the organisers at large.
And then, the police suddenly came up with their full battle gears leaving their respective local stations empty, mobilised their entire force into the city in order to curb what they had claimed earlier, that these Turun participants will be coming to the city with hand grenades and other kinds of weapons.
However, a day after making their overzealous claim, the city’s deputy police chief Datuk Amar Singh decided to tone down their claim on the hand grenade threat. It is lucky for the police that they did not go to the extent that these Turun participants would also come with machine guns, RPGs or rocket launchers. Otherwise, the entire police force would be a laughing stock of the international community which is now observing the entire situation in our country.
The authorities sounded a seemingly alarming situation to the entire nation by claiming that Turun has the numbers to eventually overthrow the BN government in Putrajaya and establish an alternative government. Did that really happen?
Well, as everyone of us is aware, Turun is a loose coalition of NGOs led by Muhamad Azan Safar, a young and devout Malay Muslim. Turun’s objectives are very clear -- to rally the people’s concern over the rising costs of living and high inflation rate, and to fight for the poor and the poorest in this country.
While it is a fact that the majority of those who participated in the protest rally and supported Turun’s struggle are young Malay Muslims, there is no denying that there are also other ethnic communities who extended their utmost support for Turun.
These groups of people who came together to organise and participate in Turun’s protest are mostly ordinary Malaysians affected by the rising costs and inflation. Do they look like a bunch of armed militants or whatever those pro-Umno NGOs called “kumpulan bersenjata”?
Apart from that, Turun’s struggle has nothing to do with religion at all and neither were they attempting to spread any so-called deviant teachings as claimed by some Umno leaders and pro-Umno NGOs.
The Malay-Muslim-dominant Turun’s struggle is indeed for the affected Malaysians at large, whether Malays, Chinese, Indians, Orang Asli or Kadazans. No matter our skin colour or religion, we are all affected by the rising costs and inflation. Unlike what some Umno leaders and NGOs would like us to believe, Turun’s struggle has nothing to do with race and religion.
Why has the cost of living and inflation rate jumped sky high that fast? It is because of the massive corruption, mismanagement and power abuse propagated by the BN administration. And Umno leaders and the pro-Umno NGOs are simply trying to avoid the real issue by making hell of a noise over race and religious issues in order to divert attention and confuse the people.
Umno and its sponsored NGOs will continue to expound racial and religious extremism to say that the Malays and Islam are under threat. The fact of the matter is that it is Umno which is undermining the position of the Malays and Islam by exploiting them for its own political ends. No one else is threatening the Malays and Islam.
