Will BERSIH 2.0 Hurt the Economy?

This is to be a short posting. No doubt in the minds of most people that protests are disruptive, inconvenient and damaging to the country's economy. In fact there are some folks who think that protests do nothing but just a waste of time. Ah hah, before we go that far we should go back to history. I will put forth my argument that protests are not necessarily EVIL in nature.

1. The French Revolution was essentially a people's protest for a radical social and political upheaval. The result was the development of many of today's modern world ideologies. It gave birth to new ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity. American revolution was partially inspired by this French revolution. Since then the world's quality of life has improved tremendously. Point 1.

2. The Vietnam War protests eventually handed down massive pressure on the US government to withdraw from a losing war and also to stop the piling up of national debt. This one was unique in that the protests were staged for a long time (years) and in huge crowds. There were some violence but largely peaceful. America's economic growth at that time did not suffer because of the protests, in fact it continued to grow.

3. The Greek protest because of the introduction of austerity measures and the more recent in Egypt did much damage to the economy because there were not just protests, it was strikes after strikes. This closed lots of stores and factories plus tourists are evacuated because the government finds it difficult to handle the situation properly and correctly. The short terms effects are devastating but in the long run it should bring more benefit.

By examining the facts, one can deduce two things. First, the objective of the protest is the far most important element. Second, violent or harsh intervention of such protest only do more harm than it was never intended. Again I could list many of the world's history for such prove. So now we looked upon BERSIH's rally ahead in Malaysia today and wonder what effects it will place into the economy. My sincere observations:

1/2 day of rally hardly makes a dent on the economy and it is not always true that protests will bring harm to the economy. Protests that are facilitated and kept peaceful by the police will do no harm to the country. Take a look at America and modern day France (who has like union strikes all the time). Hardly any violence and no harm to the economy. The opposite goes when violent or harsh interventions happens. Draconian laws create fear and intimidation. I believed that protest is good if the objective is sincere. I see history was made by people that protested slavery, segregation and apartheid. There are some that say there are other ways..like what??

If you feel you don't have a voice, and your supposed representatives in the ruling government ignore letters and phone calls, then protest is sort of your only option! I don't support violence AT ALL, EVER, but it happens, it is kinda inevitable and it's been known to change things for better or worse. Violent protest that involves the destruction of property and violence is a bad way to get your point across. But a lot of protests aren't violent until the cops start busting heads just like what is beginning to happen in BERSIH 2.0. If this is the case, the short term effect to the economy is not going to hurt much contrary to what officials say (KLCI is already nearly hitting 1600 points). If you look at the long run, it will scare investors plus with the economic fundamentals that Malaysia is lacking (http://aboiwealthpot.blogspot.com/2011/06/lets-talk-about-economics.html) right now there won't be such thing as an easy and simple life in the future if nothing changes. I don't need any economics degree to know that. God bless Malaysia going forward.