Malaysia's youth flood Blackout 505 rally, demanding new elections

It happened in Indonesia, it happened in Thailand. It is now happening in Malaysia. And Singapore, try as it may, will sooner or later have to deal with the same issue of youth-led change.

For too long have the authoritarian governments - some say semi dictatorships - of Southeast Asia had it easy. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak should have smelled the wind of change blowing near but ensconced in plush, expensively-carpeted corridors of power, he dismissed it. He continued to rule in the tradition of his elitist Umno-BN coalition, setting off a few 'racial' firecrackers now and then, here and there, to keep the 'masses' in check.

But Gen Y is a different force altogether. An online generation fed on literature where Good triumped over Evil against all odds, they are smarter, much more articulate and conscientious than let's say the 'Flower children' of the 1960s.

And in eyes of Malaysia's Gen Y now, Good is Anwar Ibrahim and Pakatan Rakyat. They are the Gandalfs and Bilbos to Malaysia's youth. Clearly on the opposite side are Najib and Umno-BN. They are the Saurons and the evil Orcs.

This then is the situation in Malaysia. And this cannot be manifested more clearly than in Saturday's Blackout 505 rally to protest electoral fraud in Malaysia's 13th general election and to demand new elections.

By 6.30pm, some 15,000 youths had already 'camped' out on the field in Padang Timur, Petaling Jaya. Dressed in the black T-shirts to symbolise 'death of democracy' in the May 5 election, they showed no shyness or fear in calling for Najib to quit and for Umno-BN to be toppled. Waving flags, banners and blowing vuvuzuelas, they shouted expressions of frustration against the ruling regime's notorious corruption and ham-fisted rule.

The youth-led uprising has caught Najib and his administration in a bind. Wavering between the usual threats to jail 'provocative' youth leaders and Opposition rivals and fear that he might trigger a wave of public fight-back unprecedented in Malaysia, Najib has been conspicuoulsy silent. This has made him appear even weaker and politically clueless as to where and how to take Malaysia forward.. MC