OPPOSITION’S INTERPRETATION OF PUBLIC ORDER AND PUBLIC FREEDOM

Public freedom and public order – two different terms and meanings – but to the oppositions, whose aim is to take over Putrajaya, public order is meant  to allow them to stage street protest in the name of public freedom. To the oppositions, particularly Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and PAS, public freedom is staging street protests and writing twisted and slanted articles that created doubts towards the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders.

Articulate and refined in their writings, the issues and allegations they raised and the manner they were presented were thought provoking to the upper class population whose minds are filled with idealism, as propagated by the oppositions. That is public order to the oppositions where street protests reflect democracy practice ignoring the need to care for the feelings and economic beings of others who have different minds than theirs.

Public order to them is for the authorities to allow them to do what they want in public because that is their public freedom, not withstanding to later claim police brutality, complete with videos and photos. The recent Bersih 3.0 rally is a good example of how they managed to mould the public’s minds on who is right and who is wrong…even Suhakam’s inquiry seems to put the blame on the police who, the public acknowledged was very soft in their handling of the situation.

And this is where the pro-BN bloggers fail to compete as they (pro-BN bloggers) lack information to disseminate to counter the allegations. The BN leaders are not co-operative in this sense as knowledge is power and without that, pro-BN bloggers have not much to go with to counter the offensive. Failure to effectively counter the issues raised and allegations made have dampened efforts to ‘turn over or influence’ members of the public whose doubtful minds have been slowly moulded with the so-called ‘idealism’ of public freedom and public order.

One thing the opposition bloggers possess which beats pro-BN bloggers – they have the stamina and drive to continue attacking, at times driving the hammer on the same issues again and again such as scorpene and Altantuya – while pro-BN bloggers are seasonal and always keep deviating from one issue to another. But whatever the ‘cyber war’ is coming to, both side of the political divide seem very determine to fight till the end.