The Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) went ahead with their gathering in KL on Sunday November 25, defying a court order against the rally, and forcing the police to use tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd.
They called off their protest seven hours later without handing over their memorandum to the British High Commission after police broke up their illegal gathering.
Over 130 people were arrested during the incident, which saw thousands gathering at various locations along Jalan Ampang and Jalan Tun Razak.
The gathering was to submit a petition with 100,000 signatures collected by Hindraf to petition Queen Elizabeth II to appoint a Queen's Counsel to represent the Indian community in a class action suit against the British Government for bringing Indians as labourers to the then Malaya and exploiting them...The Star.
The gathering of more than 30,000 (some says more than 50,000) Indians taking a big walk along the roads of Kuala Lumpur is indeed an important milestone in the social fabric of Malaysia. Never before had we seen such a massive support for the basic neglected human rights of one particular race in this nation.
Earlier, about 3 weeks ago, we saw a similar march of more than 20,000 people (predominantly Malays), crying out for a clean and transparent upcoming election which is predicted to be sometime early next year. This group was largely politically backed.
But the balance has shifted its focus to be racial and no longer political. From past experiences in other countries, racially incited demonstrations are seldom non-violent if not fatally disruptive.
As Christians, we need to take a look around the changing trend that is happening here, and not brush them off as alien culture, like we used to in the past. When we see similar happenings in Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and even US, we tend to disassociate such activities from our Malaysian mentality. It is no longer so. The momentum for such massive demonstrations have started and the boat had been rocked!
Such social phenomena should induce us to pray more concisely and urgently like in the days of Jeremiah and Isaiah. We are not praying for more blood shed. We are praying for a Just government, abhorrence of corruption, downfall of unrighteous leaders, justice for all peoples, transparency of government accounts (the money coming from the taxes of the people), more godly leaders, wiser decision makers, fairness to other faiths, and particularly an urgency for the propagation of the Good News in this land.
Can we do our part - in this latest nationwide "Celebration of Hope" project, to provide Hope for Malaysia, and hope for your children and your grandchildren in this country?
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