Dates of Extreme Significance

Over the years, thanks to history textbooks, politicians and main stream media (MSM), we've been told to remember the May 13th incident that was (supposedly) triggered by a certain opposition party, causing bloodbath and racial rift and thus, marking it as a black date in the history of Malaysia. Time and time again, we are reminded of this dreaded incident as a warning not to cause racial tension, successfully preventing discussions of certain sensitive issues, questioning of certain rights and voicing of injustice (directly prohibiting us from practicing our freedom of speech). More recently, the PM used the date to warn his fellow citizens not to vote for the oppositions to prevent history from repeating itself. In fact, this is a popular tactic used by the ruling party to stir fear in the hearts of Malaysians during each General Elections. However, is May 13th still relevant in today's society? It has been used and misused by the power hungry government to bully us into submission, monopolising our thoughts with its hidden agenda. Here, I proposed a new set of dates for all Malaysians to remember instead.

May 28 2006 - Bloody Sunday
500-strong crowd ranging from everyday men and women to opposition leaders demonstrated against the 30-sen petrol price hike. The protest met a brutal end when police attacked the peaceful crowd, spraying them with chemical water (sounds familiar) and violently beating some of the protesters. 2 were hospitalised and some of the opposition leaders were arrested. The incident went unreported by the government-controlled MSM.













November 10 2007 - Bersih Rally
Around 40,000 people in yellow rallied in Masjid Jamek, KL demanding for a fair a corruption-free Election Committee for the upcoming General Election. Again, the peaceful crowd was sprayed by chemically-laced water and bombarded with tear gas. The MSM went into spin-doctoring mode the next day, dumbing down the number of protesters to a mere 4,000 and wrongfully accusing the protesters of property damage.













November 23 2007 - Hindraf Rally
The first protest demanded the government to listen to the plight of the repressed Indian communities after a 100-year-old Hindu temple was abolished. As a result, 5 of the Hindraf leaders were arrested under ISA for an undetermined period of time. MSM demonised the protest as an attempt to incite racial unrest.

February 16 2008 - Hindraf Rose Rally
Held as a plea to the PM to release the detained Hindarf leader. Around 200 men, women and children attempted to walk peacefully to the Parliament armed with roses, only to be greeted by the police force and their water canons and tear gas (the sense of deja vu is getting a little scary). Women and children were not spared by the police's brutality. MSM again demonised the demonstration, alleging the protesters of putting the children's lives at risk.












All these incidents make us realise us of the increasing public awareness and desire to voice our distaste of the current government. Although the ruling party would do anything in its power to crush and demonise the opposing public or politicians, it could not ignore the pent-up anger in us anymore. Also put in mind that in each of these protests, the culprits of unrest are the authorities; the police force, not the participants of demonstrations. Let us learn to recognise the real ugly heads of our hypocritical government through its actions against peaceful demonstrators, not to mention its blatant disrespect of our fundamental rights. And I believe we are matured enough to discuss previously tabooed subjects; it is the ruling party that refuses to come out of their tempurung. If you don't agree that we are capable of debating certain issues without resorting to killing one another, you are basically submitting to the idea that we are uncivilised barbarians incapable of reasons and intelligent thoughts, living under an oh-so-fake pretext of racial harmony. Finally, let us not be fooled by the May 13th propaganda any longer, but use these new incidents instead as lessons and stepping stones to demand for a (genuinely) free, equal and democratic nation.

Do not forget these dates. They mark a turning point for Malaysia.

Pictures courtesy of Jeff Ooi's Snapshot and Meshio.com