Yellow Yellow Dirty Fellow

Everybody was a winner and loser at the Bersih rally in Kuala Lumpur on November 10, 2007.

The crowd. The political parties. The police. All winners and losers, according to the Siber Party of Malaysia (M) analysis of events in the yellow Saturday.

First, the rally and gathering showed the organisational network and acumen of the Parti Islam Se-Malaysia in mobilising its members and marshals on the ground, the Parti Keadilan Rakyat cunning in planning and hijacking the event and Democratic Action Party plus activists in riding along for the action.

But while they won on that score and sent the memorandum to the National Palace, they lost on garnering a larger crowd from Kuala Lumpur. Most of the crowd were hard-core Parti Islam Se-Malaysia supporters who were left stranded when the police cordoned off Merdeka Square.

But Keadilan Rakyat and the Demoractic Action Party failed to bring in the crowd - a reflection of their skills and network. Their vaunted media communication skills were also left wanting as activists involved in the rally were not disciplined enough to send out reports through all channels, leaving bloggers and others to rely on foreign news agencies for updates.

That move revealed the police's successful single-minded strategy to keep Merdeka Square free of demonstrators notwithstanding that their initial charge using water cannons and tear gas forced the crowd to outflank them and still head for the National Palace.

While the Campbell area police kept their patch defended, their moves left the Brickfields area police under pressure to contain the crowd. Cooler heads and a lack of personnel facilitated the crowd to move towards the National Palace.

So both sides came out winners and losers.

But Malaysia lost the day! The four-point Bersih memorandum, to clean up the electoral rolls, use indelible ink, abolish postal votes and further access to the media did not have the single most important reform of all in the country.

And that would be a one man, one vote system!

After all, aren't we supposed to be equal in all aspects. Perhaps the existing political parties are still engrossed in their quotas and horse-trading for seats around the nation to figure out the simple steps to move Malaysia forward.

Perhaps Bersih and the politicians behind them were more interested in scoring points to prove their relevance but we think not! We in the Siber Party of Malaysia expect more than the simple points given by Bersih.

That is just their excuse for a show of force. Especially by Anwar Ibrahim in forging an alliance with Parti Islam Se-Malaysia and the Democratic Action Party to show his relevance and importance in national politics.

But he looks like the dirty fellow, hijacking the event here and overseas to shower glory on himself. Time will tell if he has cleaned up his act.

As for the others, were they riding together or being taken on a ride? Your guess is as good as ours but we would say don't fall for the hype from yellow Saturday. Time will tell.