The lawful and the awful — The Malaysian Insider

MAY 8 — “FLASH — Ipoh restaurant owners refuse to close shop. Police give up and instead start buying drinks.” said The Malaysian Insider's Twitter yesterday that was retweeted immediately.

In exactly 100 characters, the tweet summed up how the situation in Perak has turned from a show of force into a farce. From the lawful to the awful.

(For those new to Twitter, think of it as a chain of text messages being forwarded to more people. Go check www.twitter.com or follow www.twitter.com/tm_insider)

One of the shop owners who refused to follow police orders and shutter down his restaurant was Saharudin Abdul Rahman.

"How can they ask me to close down my shop? I know my rights. I have children to feed. Who is going to pay for my losses?" he indignantly told The Malaysian Insider today, saying the police could have given prior warning as they knew of the protests.

"I am just scared that Polis di-Raja will become Polis Raja,” said Saharudin, whose restaurant is a stone's throw away from the state secretariat and was doing roaring business catering to black-clad protesters and riot police in full gear before the state assembly sitting yesterday.

While the police and protesters sat and drank while watching each other warily, the situation inside the state assembly sitting turned chaotic and pandemonium broke out as Pakatan Rakyat and Barisan Nasional lawmakers brawled and wrestled for the speaker's chair and microphones.

And ultimately power in Perak.

Like a wise bartender, Saharudin stressed that the people are no longer stupid and have changed, saying democracy is for the people but "why do the people only have the power during elections and not after?"

“If you ask people around here, they are not anti-Barisan Nasional or anti-Umno but they are against how things were done. Let us conduct properly according to the law. Please don’t be biased and play favourites," he said.

"What happened yesterday was unacceptable, they are supposed to help the people but they only gave problems to the people. I am scared the situation will become like Thailand. People are still patient but what if one day they decide to fight back? I do not think there will be enough policemen to stop the rakyat.”

But he stood up to the police. And they relented, perhaps wiser than the politicians who have taken the people's support for granted. And not able to differ from the lawful and unlawful when they ignored procedures and forced Speaker V. Sivakumar from the House.

Legal and legislative opinions will differ whether the Perak state assembly proceedings were legal yesterday. But that won't matter to people like Saharudin.

"For me, they all are the same. They are only crazy about power and money but what about the rest of us?” he asked.

Something that those who claim to speak on our behalf have to think about. Because they definitely made it 1 Black Malaysia yesterday.