YOURSAY ‘The rally is all about Najib under the guise of protecting Malay dignity.’

The mysterious red shirt rally continues to mystify

SemoLina: Just like former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad, I too have little or no inkling what the rally was all about. But for sure, it did not live up to its official theme nor was it to show open support for PM Najib Razak (sorry, it was not about you).

Did it restore Malay dignity or some crap like that? It certainly did not and, as a matter of fact, did the opposite.

Was it an anti-Chinese affair? Well, sort of but it was more anti-DAP I would say. Did the rally come about because of envy of the success of Bersih 4? I would have to say, yes, it looked much like it.

All in all the gathering was not much of a success given that, unlike Bersih 4, it was funded by Umno and was more a rent-a-crowd affair.

Did Umno benefit from the rally? If it did, they certainly did not get their money's worth. Now, can anyone out there tell me what the rally was truly all about just to satisfy my curiosity?

Justine Gow: This is 2015. But some Malaysian politicians still think that they can play the race card like in the last century and their followers (which are diminishing in numbers now, as I like to believe) still have a feudalistic mindset that a leader is someone who can do no wrong and is to be worshipped.

Bijan: The red shirt rally is a great failure for Umno. Assuming we trust Umno’s claim of 300,000 people at the rally, it only represent 1.67 of the total Malay population in Malaysia. What about the rest? Not supporting Umno?

One needs to remember, all these people were paid allowances, free T-shirts and food plus free transport.

While Bersih also attracted a big turnout, all expenses were paid from the rally-goer’s own pocket, plus donation to Bersih to the tune of millions of ringgit.

Umno was really humiliated this time.

Ferdtan: The rally is all about Najib under the guise of protecting Malay dignity. Najib may have seen to have won with this red shirt protest, but overall Umno loses.

This is the extent of how far Najib will go using the party for his purpose. Malaysians, including Umno members, would be turned off by this event whereby open racist displays were the order of the day.

Due to this pro-Najib mildly unruly rally, the job of his party opponents would be easier. It looked like it was not too well taken by many Malays (judging by Utusan Malaysia’s response in accusing the alternative media for badmouthing the event), Mahathir and former DPM Muhyiddin Yassin would certainly make use of this apparent failed protest to turn around the thinking of Umno members.

The only way to force Najib to step down is to convince the Umno rank-and-file, including Najib’s loyalists, that he is a liability to the party.

With more scandalous exposures expected against Najib, it is hard for him to defend his position. The hole is getting too big for him to cover.

Starwars: Wednesday's rally cannot under any circumstances be dubbed as a Malay rally. It's actually an Umno rally. The red theme of the rally is Umno’s colour.

The hate speech is actually against DAP, Lim Kit Siang and Lim Guan Eng, both political figures.

The majority of the non-political Malays and the Malays in the opposition side were not part of the rally. Only the organisers are trying to make it as though it was a Malay rally.

Kepala Pusing: I had expected a turnout of one million. The actual turnout was 40,000 despite making the rally legal, the huge publicity and the free handouts. Yes, Umno is doomed.

Anonymous_1421806811: I think rally spokesperson Jamal Md Yunos is hopping mad because his one million participants did not materialise despite the huge publicity and busing in tens of thousands of supporters.

What is the result of this red shirt rally? It shows there are two Malaysians - one peace loving, hopeful of good governance and tolerant of other races, the other uses religion to justify his or her causes in strange ways, has no respect for rule of law and has no qualms about supporting a regime that is corrupted to the core.

Malaccan: Jamal's speech indicates that there could have been original intent to breach into Petaling Street from the beginning despite the agreement with the police not to.

The leaders of the rally cannot disassociate themselves much like they wanted to hold Bersih 2.0 responsible for every infraction by individual protesters.

Only in this case, the organisers should have taken action or be seen to control their crowd as the face-off with police took place over many hours.

There seemed to be an expectation of mischief and creating havoc among some quarters. The breach cannot have been to emulate the losses to Malay traders during Bersih 4 as that didn't happen, and the Petaling Street traders had taken the day off anyway.

Interestingly, if there was intent to create havoc and violence, those innocents including women and children who were part of that mob could have been unwitting pawns and sacrifices happily laid on the altar by the organisers.

Michael Corleone: Dear writer Aidila Razak, I'm from the kampong Malay heartland. Red rally? Doesn’t mean a thing to me. The reality is, of the thousands who attend, there are thousands who are opposed.

Quiet we may be, but we do know how to differentiate between right and wrong. To be racial doesn’t put food on the table. Hard work does.

Yes, Malays need to defend themselves - from Umno

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