malaysiaAn eerie calm is hanging over Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur (KL) tonight. Traffic is light on the streets and the distant din of police sirens is nearly constant. Is it the proverbial calm before the storm?
Tomorrow, Saturday afternoon at 2pm here near central KL, a group banned by the government, a group known as 'Bersih' ('Clean'), is promising to assemble en masse. No one has any idea how many may show up. Perhaps 30,000, perhaps 100,000. The throng is expected to rally for clean and fair elections, and also, not to put too fine of a point on it, to protest against the entrenched ruling party's increasingly authoritarian brand of government.
The Muslim government is doing everything in its power to prevent the rally and disrupt the organization behind it. All the supposed guarantees of civil liberties in the Malaysian Constitution have been swept away in the name of 'harmony' and 'national security'. The police are at this moment cordoning off the downtown area, major thoroughfares, and all possible rally venues. Mass transit systems are being shut down, bus stations closed and buses rerouted to distant suburbs. Any and all public gatherings are forbidden and authorities promise instant arrest to anyone who does not disperse as ordered. Even the characteristic yellow 'Bersih' t-shirts are banned -- anyone wearing one in public faces immediate arrest.
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