YOURSAY ‘Pakatan’s post-election rallies have a celebratory air while BN appears subdued and bitter, threatening retribution to those who did not support them.’

60,000 defy police warning, attend 'thanksgiving' rally

Mohican: Bravo Pakatan. The way forward is to show people power through peaceful and democratic means.

The police don’t have to be alarmed when a Malaysian in his own country wants to gripe against the government. It is not seditious. It is about plain democracy and human rights.

It is seditious only when one wants to throw a legally elected government out through brute force. The underlining philosophy here is "a legally elected government." Get that please, you men in blue.

Anonymous_4031: Are the police stupid? What is wrong in celebrating victories? Can only BN have dinners and not Pakatan? Use your brain, please. Think straight!

Unspin: If one just came back from Mars, one could not be faulted to think that Pakatan won GE13 instead of BN. To the uninitiated, PR’s post-election rallies sure looked like celebration rallies with loud vuvuzelas and boisterous crowds.

BN, in contrast, appears subdued and bitter, blaming its “defeat” on other races and threatening retribution to those who did not support them. It is funny because only in Malaysia do we get sore winners and jubilant losers.

Ksn: Freedom of assembly is one of the fundamental rights of the citizens enshrined in our constitution, to be exercised peacefully.

In spite of the police declaring the assembly illegal, 60,000 attended peacefully, sending a deafening message to Home Minister Zahid Hamidi, the police and the Umno Baru government that the people have woken up, they know their rights and that they will exercise them responsibly.

Of course, the new home minister has asked those who do not accept the election results to leave Malaysia. This is a seditious call. Now we have to wait for the police with a new IGP to see how it reacts to that message of Malaysians.

Then, we will wait for Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to air his views on that message. Will the government react with the same old, outdated approach of attempting to intimidate the nation, that led to only 48 percent voting for them?

Psycho: It's high time the Internal Revenue Department targets all Chinese business entities like hawkers, businessmen, traders and coffee shop owners in Penang. Police must go after all illegal massage parlours, pirate DVD sellers and nightclubs without licences. It’s payback time.

Better My: What will Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim/Pakatan do if fraud evidence petitions are presented to biased courts and rejected? Is there a more forceful but also peaceful Plan B after the rejection?

TehTarik: Recourse on election fraud will not work as the courts are anything but independent. It will be a waste of time.

The hearings will go on for months, with little or no cooperation from the Election Commission (EC). Don't be surprised if the EC has destroyed or changed much of the incriminatory evidence.

The final say is with the Attorney-General’s Chambers. The findings may be finally released in 2018, ie, just in time for the next election. Instead of reforming, the EC might conjure new ways of cheating in GE 14.

Green Mutant: I hope the Black 505 rallies end soon because we need to refocus energy to challenge the results through the court, even though we know that the judiciary does not seem to be impartial at times.

Mushiro: Kudos and congratulations to the brothers and sisters in Penang. This huge second gathering in about 10 days will frighten Najib. The police will be used to intimidate the rakyat from attending such rallies. Let us be steadfast and supportive for our rights.

JMC: Let's start the campaign now to bring down the illegitimate BN government soon by lawful and peaceful means. Compile all the evidence of fraud and let the people and the world know.

Let's not cooperate with the illegitimate government, give them a hard time so they will see the wisdom of quitting. Let's fight racism, the main weapon they use against us, by promoting unity. The people want change and they are ready, so let's not give up. The future is ours.

Do the Right Thing: Ministers have to decide whether they want to be ministers for the rakyat. If so, they should listen to the complaints of the Malaysian majority and investigate and prosecute people involved in crimes of cheating, corruption, etc.

If the ministers want to be ministers for BN, then they should continue to ignore complaints of the rakyat and persecute Pakatan and the Malaysian majority.

The Malaysian majority will vote decisively in the next election for the ministers they want to serve them. So, they must decide whether they want to be ministers for BN or ministers for the country.

A Selangor Voter: Actually, the 52 percent figure of those voting for Pakatan would have been larger if there was a free press, no double postal voting, no coercion of government servant to vote for BN, no coercion of staff of GLCs to vote for BN and no fear to vote for BN in the Felda settlements.

Maybe 60 percent would have been the figure that voted Pakatan. BN is truly a minority government and Pakatan the majority opposition.

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