Ethnic Indians go to the street in Malaysia, for the HINDRAF gathering
For all my life, I have referred to myself as Malaysian. When asked for the “race” field, I usually just leave it blank. On 29 September 2007, I registered to be a voter, and for the first time, I was really required to either place “Cina atau India” in the field (Chinese or Indian). This was a request by the worker at POS Malaysia, because apparently, my identity card (IC) lacks such information. I looked stumped for a while, and said, “Indian”.
Today, on Sunday, 25 November 2007, I can proudly say, that I will no longer be referring to myself as Malaysian – I will be now referring to myself as a Malaysian Indian. The idea of Bangsa Malaysia is a farce, and I’m tempted to rip out the Visit Malaysia 2007 sticker from my laptop, which suggests that we’re “Celebrating 50 years of nationhood”. Malaysia, might be Truly Asia, but there’s just a cauldron, brewing hate, in where the contents aren’t happy with the cooks.
Sunday, 25 November 2007, is the day where the second largest protest (ignore the reformasi crap, where even drug addicts were payed to show up for Anwar) has been held, in about ten years (the last, was two weeks ago, at the BERSIH rally). Various news sources are reporting anywhere between 10,000 to 30,000 as the head-count of attendees. I’d take these numbers with a pinch of salt, as 10,000 is the number of choice referred to by The Star (a governmental puppet), and 30,000 is referred to by MalaysiaKini (an anti-governmental puppet). However, let the photos, and videos help you make up your own mind.
People rocked up, around Jalan Ampang, where KLCC is situated, from as early as 7.40am, and the police mentioned that they were given an order to arrest on sight. Some democracy we live in, right?
The police are afraid. The government of the day are afraid. Malaysians, are awakening. And they’re sick and tired of this shit. The Star reports:
“Jalan Ampang, which had been closed from 3am because of the gathering, was reopened at 1pm Sunday. The Avenue K and City Square shopping complexes and the restaurants along Jalan Ampang were closed Sunday morning, while various hotels and Suria KLCC had strict security enforced at their entrances. The KLCC and Ampang Park LRT stations, which were closed from 6am, were reopened at 3.13pm. “
An attendee (or his sister+father), Danny, from The Danesh Project, writes a most interesting piece: Hindraf, proud day for Malaysian Indians. I consider this recommended reading for all. Remember, this was a peaceful gathering that the police, basically turned violent.
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and of course today, Sunday, were nasty days to be on the roads in KL. Any road that was inbound, was backlogged with traffic jams, thanks to police roadblocks.
Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) have urged the police to stop racial profiling of motorists in their roadblocks set up to quash a rally in Kuala Lumpur tomorrow.
Since then, there have been numerous reports of racial profiling by the police who only stop Indian motorists, often inspecting their vehicles and mobile phones. “They were targeting Indians only. They checked everything – our driving licenses, identity cards and even our car boot,” said Dinesh.
“As pointed out by Anwar Ibrahim, we disagree with Hindraf putting the blame for the plight of poor Indians on the Federal Constitution and Article 153,“As far as we are concerned, it is the corrupt Umno-led Barisan Nasional coalition government that is responsible for the marginalisation and neglect of poor Indians and also the poor of all other races,” he said.
Disgusting that a democratic nation has such “emergency” status. Anwar Ibrahim will not question Article 153, but he’s a bloody snake, and is highly untrustworthy. He might be an opposition leader, but the ex-convict, and sodomite, is not to be trusted (neither is his party) – after all, it was during Anwar’s reign in parliament, that there was further Islamisation of the nation.
Prime Minister, Ahmad Badawi, who’s not within the country as usual (he’s actually at the Commonwealth head’s meeting), gives a warning to the people.
KAMPALA (Uganda): Do not take the police action against three activists of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) as a racial issue, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi warned.
“It has nothing to do with race. People should stop linking or viewing everything that happens in the country as a racial matter,” the Prime Minister said.
“We are not out to victimise anyone. If someone is wrong, then the person must be charged and brought to justice,” Abdullah said.
He said that if people were allowed to openly commit offences, others who were law-abiding citizens would become angry and upset with the authorities.
Nothing to do with race? Really? Just read the silly social contract, and understand what the fuck is going on in Malaysia. Malay rights? For exchange of citizenship? Excuse me, but I was born in Malaysia. I am a bumiputra (i.e. I am truly, a son of the soil). Why do I not get a 7% discount when I need to buy a property? Why do I not get places in local universities? This list can go on…
Funnily enough, he mentions that if someone does something wrong, the person should be charged and brought to justice – why wasn’t Hishamuddin Hussein, our great keris bearing idiot, not charged already? Don’t question the ketuanan Melayu (Malay rights), or feel the wrath of the keris?
Badawi, at the Commonwealth meeting. Pakistan, suspended from the Commonwealth. Why is Malaysia, not suspended, yet? Why is the international community not interfering? It seems now the memorandum will be delivered to Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace – I hope they go there in droves, too.
Via Malaysiakini again, in a great article titled: MIC: Hindraf is stooge of the opposition, I quote:
“It is evident that with the presence of Lim with Hindraf supporters yesterday, the Hindraf gathering (tomorrow) is planned by the stooges of DAP and to a certain extent, PKR,” said Saravanan (right) in a statement.
Does this mean that the MIC is a stooge of the Barisan Nasional? After all, Samy Vellu, was referred to as a “mandore” on Al Jazeera earlier. Which I understand, is a supervisor of an estate, who’s main passion is raping the rubber tappers.
All this aside, this is just the start of more to come. The people, are fed up. Tear gas, chemically-laced water, out of the cannons, all on peaceful protesters? This can only lead to trouble. Rumours of a 20 year old man, being killed? More than 400 detained? Innocent peaceful protesters, beaten up? Up to four police officers to detain one fellow?
I encourage all Malaysians to start reading Gandhi’s autobiography, which he aptly titled, “The Story of My Experiments With Truth”. I picked up a copy from India, a few years ago, for Rs. 100 (about RM10). Its a good read, and it will inspire more to have peaceful protests, via non-violent resistance. His principles behind satyagraha, are just inspiring. Read: A Gandhi-inspired mass civil disobedience in MalaysiaKini (an online newspaper, I can certainly recommend subscribing to).
Resources
If you have some bandwidth, catch some interesting videos (I hope to update this list, the moment more videos become available), all via Al Jazeera (if I’m feeling particularly energetic, I might analyse them later, for your enjoyment):
- An initial update
- A more interesting update, this time with an interview with S.K. Devamany, a Member of Parliament, representing the MIC
- There’s another video update, with the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Musa Hassan, speaking about why the police acted the way they did
- Yet another video update, had Samy Vellu on the phone, along with one of the Hindraf lawyers being in the Al Jazeera studios, giving his view on things
Must read resources:
- Jeff Ooi’s Hindraf Rally… (Ethnic) Minority Report
- Ditesh Kumar’s The Hindraf Gathering, and The Hindraf Gathering, part deux
- Malaysia Today’s report
- While not a must read, take a look at Google’s Blog Search, on hindraf.
Technorati Tags: hindraf, rally, memorandum, indians, ethnic indians, malaysia, jalan ampang, bangsa malaysia, malaysian, protest, klcc, arrests, force, FRU, peaceful gathering, police roadblocks, article 153, badawi, social contract, stooges, videos, tear gas, water cannons, chemicals
I doubt the Indians will forget this martyr:
20 years old boy dead in Lebuh Ampang
http://policewatchmalaysia.com/
I recall reading that Anwar Ibrahim was the subject of false charges, unless there is some real crime of which he has been convicted (in which case you should cite a reference) then calling him a “convict” is wrong.
Also in Australia (where I expect a significant portion of your readers live) sodomy is not a crime. I expect that most of your readers consider sodomy to be a personal issue between the people involved. Accusing someone of being a “sodomist” (incidentally “sodomite” seems to be the word you are actually looking for) probably does more to discredit you than the person you accuse.
Russell, he wasn’t dumped on false charges. There were real crimes, he spent time in prison, and couldn’t actually run for Parliament for a number of years after his release (this is normal practice).
“On April 14, 1999, Anwar was sentenced to six years in prison for corruption and, on August 8, 2000, nine years in prison for sodomy. The sentences were to be served consecutively, and Anwar was given no credit for the six months he spent in jail during the trial.” (via his wikipedia entry)
In the end, he only spent time in jail for corruption, he was by a token of luck, let off on sodomy (which, I think is a good thing…)
Sodomy, while not illegal, is a crime under Syariah Law (muslim law). I’m sure you’ve now seen that Syariah law is quite interesting – a woman can get raped, then thrown into jail, and given 200 lashings as well.
I don’t find anything wrong with him being a sodomite (thanks, firefox’s spell checker didn’t pick up sodomist), but the law clearly has something else to say
Have made an edit to correct spelling errors.
Anwar was convicted on corruption charges after falling out with Mahatir. It appears that those charges were more closely related to political influence against him than what he actually did. If he was guilty of such charges then it is a minor matter (a big thief dobs in a small thief as a matter of convenience). But it is still correct to call him a criminal (although to avoid confusion with Australian slang it’s best to avoid the term “convict”).
In your article you clearly use the word “sodomite” as a term of abuse (I am not aware of it being used in any other way). Claiming that the act in question is illegal is not an excuse as you demonstrate with the example of rape victims.
Incidentally his conviction for sodomy was reversed on appeal, so you can’t even claim that he committed a criminal act in that regard.
Russell, his corruption charges were that of an abuse of power. Whether they were really crimes, or not, they found him guilty of it. He was convicted in court, and remains a convicted criminal. Now, he leads an opposition party. I don’t expect it to clash with the Aussie slang word of “convict” either.
I clearly just want to ensure that Anwar himself, his statements, are just not trustworthy. He was a part of UMNO, and he will gladly be a part of UMNO if they take him back. Or maybe he won’t be, due to pride. But he was largely the cause of much misery in the country, and its worth pointing it out. In fact, when the opposition DAP joined hands with Keadilan (Anwar’s party) and PAS (pro-Islamists), DAP faced their worse loss of seats, *ever*. That’s largely because the voting public realised, that its really hard to trust Keadilan or PAS (and its so true).
Russell, I don’t know how much you know about Syariah Law, but sodomy is an illegal act in the eyes of Muslim Law. I do not care if people choose to practice it in their own hot tubs, but back in 1998, Anwar was convicted of sodomy, and that’s that. Was it a political smear campaign? I don’t care.
I’m not using it as a term of abuse. I am stating a mere fact, that were in popular media for months, back in the day. While the sodomy charges against Anwar were dropped, the other affected parties weren’t so lucky. Even the judges that listened to the appeal, and thus reversed the charges, said: “We find evidence to confirm that the appellants were involved in homosexual activities and we are more inclined to believe that the alleged incident at Tivoli Villa did happen.”
Welcome to Malaysia, Russell. You can *literally* get away with murder (for a modern, popular case, search and read up on the Altantunya Shariibuu case). Getting away with sodomy, should be /seriously/ easy.
Anwar will run in the 2008 elections. I do not wish him the best of luck. Mahathir might have been a big criminal, but it just seems to get worse with Badawi, and I don’t see it improving if Anwar was in power. Malaysia needs new political blood, and race-based politics (and everything else) should seriously disappear.
I’m beginning to see less and less point in this argument, because Anwar isn’t even the subject of this post. In fact, my disgust with Anwar came when he said Article 153 should not be questioned. Do you know what Article 153 is, Russell?
Do read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_153
I just read it to ensure its accuracy (beware, Malaysian politicians are just like their international counterparts, and have Wikipedia edit teams).
After reading about Article 153, I can’t imagine /anyone/ not being angered by that bullshit.
In Australian slang “convict” is someone who was transported to Australia as slave labour after being convicted in another country. I suspect that most Australians are not aware of any other meaning for the word.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_Ibrahim
The above web page says “he was sentenced in a highly controversial trial to six years in prison for corruption and in 2000 to another nine years in prison for sodomy. However, in 2004, an appeals court reversed the second conviction and he was released”. That is significantly different from saying that the charges were dropped.
I agree with you about Article 153, and almost everything in your post, your previous posts about Malaysian politics are also sensible.
But I stand by my point that if you accuse someone of being a sodomite then you will not get much support from the majority of readers in Australia and the US. Those who do support such things will be of the GodHatesAmerica,com type.
Also as an issue of strategy, when writing political posts you want to stick tightly to the point to avoid being side-tracked by such issues. A political post WILL get disagreement from some readers and you want to make sure that those who disagree do so because they oppose your main point.
Russell, FYI, sodomy *is* illegal under Civil Law in Malaysia too. Section 377 of the Malaysian Penal Code, filed under Unnatural Offences. 20 years imprisonment, or caning, is what you can be done in for, for being a sodomite.
You might find http://www.sodomylaws.org/world/malaysia/malaysia.htm interesting reading.
And, its not a term of abuse – check out the dictionary sometime, its generally defined as “a person who engages in sodomy.”
The same Wikipedia page you quote, under http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_Ibrahim#Release_from_prison shows “On September 2, 2004, a panel of three judges of the Federal Court (Malaysia’s highest court) overturned the sodomy conviction by 2 to 1, finding contradictions in the prosecution’s case. However, the judges noted “We find evidence to confirm that the appellants were involved in homosexual activities and we are more inclined to believe that the alleged incident at Tivoli Villa did happen.””
Contradictions in the prosecutions case (as a reason to overturn the decision) sound very different to “reversing” the decision. I only wish there was a Freedom of Information Act, and we could access the Federal Court decisions easily, now…
“Funny” site, that GodHatesAmerica,com. I only got to read the cached version, and I don’t think I sound anything like that, just by using the word ‘sodomite’. And I doubt those that read the site regularly will have much to say about my post…
Thanks for your thoughts, re: strategy. Have a good day!
Colin, thanks for writing about the politics of Malaysia – I had no idea this was going on, and that Malaysian Indians were so actively targeted by policies of discrimination. I will spend a bit of time pursuing the references you’ve included.
My dictionary defines “sodomite” as “One guilty of sodomy”. Generally I think that a term which claims someone as being guilty of a crime is a term of abuse – especially when used in a jurisdiction where the act in question is not a crime or when the person in question has been found not-guilty. Also note that what comprises a term of abuse varies a little by culture, for example a Dutch friend once told me that every name of a disease is a valid term of abuse in Dutch (not certain if this meant the Dutch language, culture, or both).
Please note that I never accused you of being anything like the GodHatesAmerica,com crowd. I merely stated that I believe your blog post would appeal more to them than to the majority of your readers (who are generally fairly liberal and open-minded people in the Linux community).
Please try and find an example of someone using the term “sodomite” in a friendly manner, you will find it quite difficult. Then try and find an example of the word being used as a term of abuse – you will find it very easy.
Regarding the Malaysian “civil” law, what exactly does this mean? In the legal systems of Australia, the US, and the UK “civil law” means individuals suing for damages after being wronged by another person in what is generally a non-criminal manner (it may be a crime but that is not required). In such cases the law is based on what is most likely, this is why for example OJ Simpson was found not guilty in a criminal case (where there is a presumption of innocence and the prosecution must prove a case beyond reasonable doubt) but lost in a civil case (it’s most likely he did it).
It seems that the judges decided that in the conditions of an Australian “civil” suit Anwar would be found guilty but under the conditions of Australian (and apparently Malaysian) criminal law there was insufficient evidence.
PS If you ever want me to review a political post before publication then feel free to email it to me. I’ve written many political blog posts and also help out an advocacy organisation in preparing such material so I have some practice with this. I could also suggest some issues you could mention if you want to trigger interest among Australian readers.
Byte,
I respect your opinions on Hindraf and as a fellow Malaysians I can understand why. But have you really looked into the contents of Hindraf’s memorandum to Gordon Brown? Do you sincerely agree with them? It is very easy to get emotional and hype up on racial issues, but don’t you think there are other players and motivation behind Hindraf?
Your blog is well-read all over the world. It would be a shame if it portrays the wrong pictures of Malaysian politics. Have a look up on what did Tun VT Sambanthan said in 1 June 1965 about the social contract of Malaysia. And also what did Dr. Kumar from Parti Sosialis Malaysia thinks about Hindraf.
http://www.parti-sosialis.org/?p=31
And tell me that you do not agree with any of them.
[…] realise I was really angry, on Sunday. I mean, I spent a little over a weekend, being a prisoner in my own homeland (thanks to […]
Donna, thanks for reading. There are way more references, that I clearly haven’t included, say for example http://123indianonline.com/podcasts/hindraf-photo-story/ and so on. I guess, your friendly neighbourhood search engine, Technorati, and blog searches (from google) might be your best bet.
Russell, “sodomite” is also defined as “someone who engages in anal copulation”, and the focus is on male-to-male anal copulation. But I also checked dict(1) to find that there are so many more definitions, one of which is “One guilty of sodomy”. I am now of the general belief that such a word itself, that can only be used on a “guilty” party, seems silly – so you’ve made your point.
So kudos, you’ve made your point, about the *word* sodomite.
Well, I’m referring to Malaysian civil/criminal law, i.e. the system of law in general. Seeing that its in the Penal Code, and this should be fairly similar to what is practised in the UK (and to an extent Australia). Malaysia as a country hasn’t made much ground breaking law, having favoured Commonwealth law in general (quite unlike Australian law, in where Commonwealth law does apply, but there are some ground breaking new acts, etc.)
“Insufficient evidence” in Malaysia, really means a lot of things Russell. The judiciary is corrupt (please read up on the recent Fairuz/Lingam case/video), the police and public prosecution find that botching up things is really easy, and so on. Getting away on an “insufficient evidence” technicality is *really easy* in Malaysia. Like I said in a previous comment, even murderers go scot free.
All that aside, this is not the venue for discussing odd/corrupt practices. Did the legal system work for Anwar with one charge, and not another?
Thanks for the offer Russell. I didn’t know you were affiliated with advocacy organisations. Do tell me more :)
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