GOOD INDICATION OF POPULAR DISGUST WITH CORRUPT UMNO IN BERSIH 3- BUT UMNO STILL HAS THE UPPER HAND
We can be extremely exhilarated with the turnout of Bersih 3 numbers. This is encouraging in that more people are casting aside their fears of UMNO repression (whether using police violence or later official revenge….) to come out in show of united popular force.
But we might sit up and take notice of how UMNO had toned down on its anti-Bersih hysteria compared to its previous stance and the lessened police attacks on demonstrators.
This restrain is an adjustment of tactics. While UMNO is extremely rotten with corruption it has the British designed anti-popular uprising machinery and strategies to dilute and diffuse the Bersih 3 movement.
Don’t forget it diffused the revolutionary CPM and CPNK time bombs by using strategies and out maneuvered the 2 guerrilla wars in Malaya and Sarawak over 50 years. At the same time UMNO was able to conduct a corrupt and dictatorial rule of Malaya and the Sabah and Sarawak colonies. It clearly used isolation tactics and broke down the resistance.
It is a question this time of whether UMNO has the time and space to out maneuver the growing and spreading opposition to its rule.
We need to be realistic about our political position. When we have made that assessment we need to adjust out tactics too.
The main task for all concerned parties is how to unite the many to defeat what is essentially a few cliques of the ruling elites? Without their armed backing they are nothing.