Bravo HindRAF-ians!

Hindraf marched last Sunday with little, if any, trouble to the security of Kuala Lumpur - except for one officer sustaining a few stitches from a missile (most probably the canister of the tear gas?).

It was nice to see that many Indians were quite passionate about issues that were central to the events that transpired. In order to get the feel of the sentiments, I thot that the best place to meet my fellowmen would be, none other than the watering holes with predominantly Indian patronage - and so I headed into town, after making an appointment with a friend of mine for some "appetizers" ........

On the way, I landed up stuck in a traffic jam (slow traffic, really) as a result of police checkpoints - of course I managed to get a "second look" from these policemen who waved me by.

So I met up with my old friend and we got talking about "Hindraf" and the issues.
I must say that most if not all, were totally in support of the rally, although not many were too aware of the reasons, for the predicament that they were in.

It was very "heart-warming" to see these underprivileged and marginalized brothers being able to drown their sorrows, without any financial woes at that moment in time. It is like you're in another time zone - what matters is that, their problems (regardless of Hindraf) are drowned out amidst the "cheers", laughter, pool, and curses for the "oppressors".

Of course Al-Jazeera was showing, and the cheers were for the rally and Uthayakumar, while the jeers were reserved strictly for Uncle Sam.

With all the noise, I could almost hear Sammy echo Khairy & Nazri -
it was illegal,
use proper channels (or tunnels -bocor or not),
it is not "our way",
they should voice thru elections,
the assembly was illegal,
no permit was issued,
organized by opposition,
we are the true voice of the people,
we don't need change but only "improvement",
and so on and so forth.

Uncle Sam - why not try to be more original?

As I spoke to this guy who worked in the British High-Com, I really had nothing to tell him when he asked, "If the High-Com is closed, and they don't work as Uncle Sam alleges, why doesn't he let them go peacefully, and make a fool of themselves? What have they got to lose?"

Just a minute here .... I thot Star reported today that the IGP said, " ...police had wanted to allow the rally leaders to hand over the memorandum but they arrived only at 1.30pm, gave a speech and left".
How sweet - and I suppose, he even had prepared mineral water, laddoos and beers too, in the Diwali spirit of muhibah .....

That's a truly mind-boggling statement - considering the fact that tear gas and chemical laced water-cannons were used on the gathering as a gesture of goodwill .....

As for Batu Caves, I have my doubts with regard to the reasons for the police pelting, and for the guys to start throwing Molotov cocktails at buses, when there was no such incident at Jln Ampang- and for these guys to defile the sanctity of the very premise that they are fighting to protect and preserve?

I beg your pardon - but I find that a little hard to swallow (even with beer). Although I'm not a Hindu myself, I do know that it isn't something that they would do for fun, or to spite the police.
(Unless of course they were all intoxicated en-mass at lunchtime - then it would be possible ....)

Maybe these guys have a some pyromaniac tendencies, are fans of Indian movies where chaos and anarchy unleashed by "the hero" is applauded ...... I really wouldn't know- but I believe that Hindus are generally more God fearing than depicted in the report by Star.

What if those anarchists were planted there as "trojans" to create unrest, and unleash some sort of mass psychosis and rioting? Once again, I wouldn't know - but hypothetically speaking, it is indeed quite a possibility.
Anyway, whatever happened, only those who were there would know the real story and I wouldn't want to speculate any further.

One thing is for sure - there were Hindraf-ians, and there were Hind-ruffians ...... I wonder which ones were implicated in the vandalism.

Whatever the case may be, it was evident from sentiments on the ground that all those whom I met were unanimous in their opinion that they have been marginalized and economically suppressed - that they only received "when others have had their fill". That whatever little they had, was being slowly and systematically being taken away.

The question remains however, if their votes will will be acquired for a song, coming from the melodic voice of "you know who", or maybe even a drama of tears/ humble apologies with prostration - you can't rule out and underestimate the compassion & love of the "permanently colonialized Indians" for the "thalaivar".

One thing is for sure, Hindraf did achieve with 20,000, what the 60,000 of Bersih marchers couldn't ....... they made it to the STAR Frontpage news headlines!!

Let's "sheers" (sic) to that, brother .......