Mayday Bersih 3.0 May Day

“Mayday” is originally the maritime call of distress, a cry for help, a cause of alarm, or the serious signal of alert, the International Morse code SOS (three-dits-three-dashes-three-dits run together without spacing) popularly known as Save Our Ship. It has since expanded into the universal call repeated three times to indicate “grave and imminent danger.”

Malaysia’s Bersih 3.0 is a call of distress after a fashion, and it held rallies worldwide last Saturday for “clean” (bersih) elections in Tunku Abdul Razak’s realm, getting KL’s Mayor so rankled that he cordoned Detakan Merdeka (Independence Square) from any public gathering. (Some opponents of Bersih compare it to the historic events at Midan at-Tahrir in Cairo, Liberation Square; the 2006 movement foments similar violence with anti-Malay bent.)

The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Gabungan Pilihanraya Bersih dan Adil) involving 80-some non-government organizations managed to organize Malaysians in 34 locations worldwide to remind the “land of mountains” (Malai) that clean and open elections is critical to the future of the state.

“Bersekutu Bertambah Mutu,” Unity Is Strength, is Malaysia’s national motto but its federated government structure with an elected constitutional monarchy is heavily Malay in a state that celebrates itself as multi-ethnic and multi-cultural.

May Day is the International Workers’ Day, Wo Yi (05-01) in China, one of its prominent holidays that used to involve a weeklong vacation for the workforce. Dubbed as a left-wing and international labor movement day, it is officially celebrated in 80 countries and but unofficially in many parts of the world.

Ironically, the day commemorates the 1886 Haymarket Massacre in Chicago when a dynamite of undetermined origin (widely suspected as being from private company goons) was thrown into restraining police officers, leading to shooting of innocent demonstrators and the felling of officers from friendly fire. The U.S. government used the incident to prosecute and execute known and suspected “anarchists” responsible for organizing and inspiring the largely non-violent general strike of May 1, 1886, in support of the proposed eight-hour work day, and the emerging muscle of labor vis-à-vis company management.

Equally ironic was Ike Eisenhower’s declaring May 1 as Law Day since the travesty on American jurisprudence that followed the prosecution of suspected left-wing leaders on conspiracy is well documented and lamented. In any case, making the Haymarket incident a cause celebre to international socialism made Cleveland shift his support on celebrating Labor Day away from May to the first of September.

OCCUPY talked about organizing a general strike, a mayday on May Day in New York City and other parts of the United States, not totally embraced by those who sit around the roundtable. Non-violent organizations tend to shy away from a possible violent confrontation between concerned citizens exercising their right to public assembly against constituted authority. But it’s an election year, spring frenzy, and the onset of the hot days of summer. Anything is possible.

The workers in China’s economic miracle decade are in a bit of somber mood as the landscape of the boom is strewn with shattered dreams and Disney fantasies. Western media highlights the frenzy in purchasing gold and precious metals as a shield against inflation, and the deriding ones note that China is the growth market for exotic and expensive cars, focusing on ladies who make car choices as fashion accessory!

Local sensitive souls noted that a recent civil service exam to fill 1,400-some positions attracted 600,000 extremely qualified and properly certificated applicants, highlighting the reality that having a bachelor’s degree from the university no longer guarantees secured employment or certain economic future.

The economic boom could very well involve some bursting of bubbles, particularly the over-constructed underutilized real estate one and the numerous delayed public works, and that is where China’s centralized government is challenged to gingerly dance the illusory nature of the world-net financial system that is wreaking havoc in EU, and the American-led globalization, against a hardworking proletariat that wants to hang on to the benefits that comes from productivity. The image of a newly prosperous China has too many wondering why they do not feel being a part of it.

The conservative resurgence represented by Bo Xilai, much-admired former Dalian mayor south of us here in Shenyang, Chongqing CPP head, and a newly suspended member of the National Council, is a signal that rugged individualists may retain great respect for the revolutionary Helmsman but copycats had better be squeaky clean in their personal style and finances. Bo Xilai’s family failed muster and has now become an embarrassing subject of a meteoric rise and fall of a well-pedigreed couple and son.

Hawaii has May Day as Lei Day, and I remember one May day in the ’90s when I almost bought a t-shirt that boldly proclaimed “I was Maui’d and lei’d”, but the smirk on my face is long gone. It is mayday on May Day in China. We shall be chaste in silence as the reformist team of Wen Jia Bao and Hu Jin Tao, et al, deal with a formidable task in the remaining year of their watch.