YOURSAY ‘There's nothing mystifying (about red shirt rally). For Umno, it is 1969 in perpetual loop.’

The mysterious red shirt rally continues to mystify

Kim Quek: When you see the contrast of the red shirt rally and the Bersih 4 rally, you know that Umno’s days are numbered.

One is a purposeful and disciplined massive gathering, aspiring to save the country from the brink of a failed state; the other, a farce of sound and fury with little substance, organised by a morally bankrupt regime to prop up its shaky leader.

Just as Bersih 4 rally has done, the red shirt rally, too, has altered the political landscape.

It has perhaps moved the Malay middle ground further away from Umno, much more than it ever imagined, thus resulting in a punishing net loss of electoral support for the latter - yet another glaring failure of Najib Abdul Razak as leader of the party.

Basically: There's nothing mystifying about the rally at all. For Umno, it is 1969 in perpetual loop.

Just look at their slogans and posters. The difference is, Malaysia has moved on but they are stuck in time.

On the contrary, the rally was a huge success in showing Umno's true face.

They are right, the Malays need to defend themselves, but not from the Chinese. They have been under threat from Umno all along, whose greed and excesses have brought the country to its knees, and they can only save their skin by blaming the Chinese.

They couldn’t even get one thing right - they lied about the rally not being about ‘maruah Melayu’ but still wore the very same T-shirts to the rally.

This is how Umno rules the country, by shallow deception that they can't even keep up in practice.

RCZ: You are right, writer Aidila Razak. There is no sense or reason or object in what the red shirts did or spoke or wish to do.

The red shirt Malays are blur and ignorant. Umno made them that way. Lucky you escaped Umno’s brainwashing.

To me, the red shirts sound like sour grapes and bully boys. But our leaders and the PM love these types of sycophants and brainless Malays. These Malays keep the leaders and the PM in power to further rape and plunder the country.

We hope that one day they will wake up. The rest of the country has.

Just a Malaysian: To an outsider watching the rally, they would have thought the government, military, sultans, bureaucracy are all in the hand of the Chinese and thus the red shirt protest.

It is so strange, for the Malays control almost everything and yet they are shouting they are ‘victims’.

Swipenter: No one has yet the guts to come out and declared himself as the organiser of the red shirt rally, unlike Bersih 4.

Why hide behind someone's pants? The Bersih 4 organisers had nothing to hide about what Bersih 4 was all about.

The Umno government talks big about street rallies being not our culture, yet their fingerprints are all over the red shirt rally. Even this is obvious to the blind.

The red shirt rally is not mysterious neither is it mystifying. It was organised as a show of ‘Malay nationalism’ with all its ugly connotations.

In Bersih 4, nearly all the street vendors are Malays selling T-shirts, drinks, packaged food and paraphernalia complementing the Malay stalls and eateries around Masjid Jamek, Masjid India and the surrounding areas.

What losses did the Malay traders suffer? They did roaring business on those two days. And there was no show of violence, racism and racial provocation.

We are all Malaysians wanting a better tomorrow for us, our children and the country.

Sali Tambap: Like as I mentioned to a friend, this red shirt rally is actually a testing of the water to see the support for the Umno and BN government, especially in the light of the plummeting popularity of Najib himself as a person due to the effect of the 1MDB scandal.

Obviously, those who came were Umno members. It mattered little whether they were paid or not; in reality, they were still Umno members who would vote for BN.

From what we can see, if I were Najib, there is little to be happy about, judging from the response of the rally.

Many Malays who did not agree with the rally were either embarrassed by its narrow sectarian message or they simply thought it was just plain wrong to go for a rally for a cause which was vague and against a provocation which was non-existent.

More importantly for most Malays, it is seen as a support for Najib in the midst of the 1MDB controversy, and they were smart enough to know that has got nothing to do with the threat to Malay race and religion.

That is why they do not support this red shirt rally.

Astounded: There is a pattern to the Umno mob as can be seen from past experience when they go about harassing opposition figures.

They think they are above the law (and with good reason, too, seeing how lightly they are treated by the police).

They also think the world owes them a living. So they demand what comes to mind, whether or not it is logical or reasonable. Sekinchan ikan bakar, anyone?

Anonymous #40538199: Aidila, please don't mix-up the normal Malays with Umno Malays. Then you will not be confused. I think they are different. Just like not all Chinese are DAP Chinese.

Red shirt rally - Umno the biggest losers

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