The last Bersih rally showed that the Red Shirts are becoming a more visible countermovement.
WHEN the Red Shirts and Bersih ended their rallies on Nov 19, the police picked up Umno Youth exco member Armand Azha Abu Hanifah, a Red Shirts’ leader.
The day before, the police rounded up a number of leaders from both movements including Bersih’s chairperson Maria Chin and firebrand Red Shirts leader Datuk Seri Jamal Md Yunos.
So, on the day of the rally, Armand took charge of the Red Shirts and he was detained shortly after. Ironically, Armand was placed in a cell with seven Bersih and opposition personalities.
Going by his account, he seems to have gotten on reasonably well with them.
“I stayed in the same cell as (activist) Hishammuddin Rais, (Pasir Pinji assemblyman) Howard Lee (Chuan How) and (graphic artist) Fahmi Reza. When I was transferred to Jinjang, I was in the same cell with (PKR Batu MP) Tian Chua and (DAP’s) Ronnie Liu.
“There were seven of them and one of me. But we managed to sit down and share our thoughts about the current political situation.
“They said they are against the Red movement. I told them ‘If you say you are fighting for democracy, why can’t you guys wait (for) five years?’
“Umno can wait five years to win back Selangor. Are you telling me that you guys are not strong enough to wait for five years so you have to create ‘false’ issues to sow hatred and get support?”
Armand says both sides talked facts and figures.
“That, to me is political maturity. That we can stay in one cell and talk about national issues, without punching each other in the face!”
Compared to the 10-year-old Bersih, the Red Shirts movement is new.
For Armand, the Red Shirts’ first big success was its Sept 16 (2015) rally.
At that rally , the Red Shirts pledged to uphold the country’s democratic system, support the leadership of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and condemned Bersih’s street rallies.
A number of Umno leaders showed up for that rally including information chief Tan Sri Annuar Musa, former Malacca Chief Minister Tan Sri Mohd Ali Rustam and deputy minister Datuk Ahmad Mazlan.
Armand, however, maintains that the Red Shirts is not part of Umno.
He says that in this regard, the Red Shirts are a bit like Bersih, which has denied that it is an opposition arm, yet many opposition leaders show up at its rallies.
Last year, the Red Shirts’ presence have became more visible. They gather wherever Bersih organised its mini rallies as a build-up to the Nov 19 rally.
“Bersih doesn’t resemble what the word ‘Bersih’ (Clean) at all. They talk about clean and fair elections. We are fine with that. Everyone wants a clean and fair election.
“But when they use the Bersih platform to bantai (whack) the president of our party and ask him to step down as prime minister, that is when the Red Shirts come out.”
“The Red Shirts is an NGO movement of 300 NGOs. It is not from Umno. We have Indians and Chinese Red Shirts,” he says.
For Armand, Bersih should have “by right, just stuck to its five demands” in its Bersih 5 rally.
(Bersih 5’s demands are having clean elections, clean government, strengthen parliamentary democracy, the right to dissent, and empowering Sabah and Sarawak.)
“When we talk about their five demands, I think the government has carried them out. When the Opposition won Selangor and Kelantan, we didn’t protest. But when we won the Federal Government, they protested.
“They are using the Bersih movement to be a political movement. Bersih is getting funding from overseas to create hatred towards the government.”
Denying that the Red Shirts is being funded by Umno, Armand asks: “Can they prove that we get money from Umno? We don’t!”
He says the Red Shirts use their own funds to attend rallies and it doesn’t cost much as people don’t need more than RM10 to RM20 for petrol each time they gather.
But he admits there are two different public perception when it comes to the Red Shirts.
“The urban crowd doesn’t want to engage with the Red Shirts because they see it as “too violent”. But in the semi urban and outskirt areas, the support for the Red Shirts is huge. Our main supporters, who keep us in power, are from these areas.”
He wants to know why the Red Shirts are labelled violent because of a few incidents when Bersih protesters were not labelled as such although they had acted violently in past rallies like throwing objects at the police and even overturning a police car.
Armand says many thought that if the Red Shirts came out to the city on Nov 19, the same day Bersih was having its rally, there would be clashes and violence “but we proved them wrong.”
“I led the Red Shirts rally that day. We wanted to show what the Red Shirts is about. It is not about violence or kicking people around. It is about upholding the present government and the Constitution.
“We marched from PWTC to Padang Merbok in a very peaceful way. We followed all the instructions from the police. When the police told us no flag sticks, everyone put down their flag sticks. We didn’t want any engagement with Bersih. We obeyed the law and stayed at Padang Merbok until the rally was over.
“But that was not what Bersih did! They went to Masjid Jamek, they moved to Masjid Negara, then they went to KLCC,” he says.
(Because the roads around Masjid Jamek were blocked off by the police, Bersih protestors couldn’t converge at their main meeting point, so they gathered at different parts of the city, until a decision was made in the afternoon, and the crowd headed to KLCC instead.)
Armand says this is the first time Bersih couldn’t get into Dataran Merdeka and it is because of the “fear factor created by the Red Shirts to deter the people from coming out and supporting Bersih.”
(At all five Bersih rallies, the police had in fact cordoned off Dataran Merdeka, so protestors did not get into Dataran Merdeka. During Bersih 4, however, the protestors were able to gather close by, at the intersection of Jalan Tun Perak. Their huge numbers blocked off several roads in the city).
For Armand, Bersih 4 (in 2015) was the worst because protestors converged in the heart of the city for two whole days “crashing” the economy of traders, “causing them to lose so much business” because “millions” stayed away due to the 70,000 Bersih supporters camping out on the streets.
“That is totally wrong. When you talk about democracy, what about the right of the others? What about the right of the traders?
“There is no need to go to the street to demonstrate. Just wait for the next election and cast your vote.”
He says the objective of the Red Shirts is to uphold the country’s constitution, which means respecting the election results and the elected government.
But who actually calls the shots for the Red Shirts?
Jamal is the one in the limelight and he had gotten involved in several stunts including showing up in a towel and a water dipper at the Selangor state secretariat supposedly to take a shower (to protest over the water cut in his area) and more recently, “raiding” illegal gambling dens in Sekinchan, after the local council tore down his resort for operating without a licence.
Armand, however, maintains that there is no one leader. “I got my boys. And Datuk Jamal has his boys. For the Red Shirt movement, we don’t have any solid leaders. It is not owned by me or Datuk Jamal.
“It is owned by the Malaysian people who trust the Constitution.”
There were incidents last year when the Red Shirts showed up at the Selangor secretariat area, shaking the locked gate and throwing pails into the compound; and at the mini Bersih rallies, where the Red Shirts kicked Bersih protestors or hit the cars they were travelling in.
Armand claims that while there may be a lot of noise, there is no violence, or if there are troublemakers, he stops them.
“In Johor, although I was pushed by the police, there was no engagement with the police. I went to see to the police later to apologise.”
“When I am on the ground, the situation is within control. But I don’t want to comment about the others. Every leader has his own way.”
Armand denies that he is riding on Jamal’s “popularity”.
“I don’t go to extremes like carrying a (PKR) Rafizi (Ramli) billboard on my neck to make a statement,” he said, in reference to Jamal walking into the hall at PWTC where the Wanita Umno was having their assembly, wearing a Rafizi cut-out with a text that read he (Rafizi) had defamed Wanita Umno head Tan Sri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.
“For me there is a limit. You don’t overdo it. You don’t oversell.”
At the anti-Bersih rally, a number of Red Shirts protesters were seen with their faces covered by bandanas.
“No! We are not scared to show our faces. (But) it’s not against the law to cover your face! It was a very hot day and our supporters weren’t wearing sunblock. So they covered to protect against the sun and dust.”
Armand, believes the Red Shirts will grow to become an even better movement.
“We are going to show that we are not violent. We have actually already proven that on Nov 19. And we want to focus on positive things such as international issues like the Rohingya.”
He says they are open to dialogue and want the movement to be more multi-racial and more multi-religious.
But they will not forget their purpose.
“Every time Bersih comes out, we will be there.”
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