There is cause for hope - not necessarily to get what we want, but to be able to bring up the issues to the public domain and national agenda, and if possible boot the government out.
For 13 days people have been walking from the east coast town of Kuantan, where a rare earth refining plant is going to start operations - finger up to the Australian Lynas - despite public protest - to take the concerns across the nation. (And I have a particular bone to pick with them: apparently at a meeting of a group from Kuantan with the CEO, it was claimed he said there was no need to hold briefings or explain to the people as they were from the village and wouldn't understand! The nerve!)
Its called the Himpunan Hijau - green gathering - naturally, concerns over the impact on the environment one of the most important issues. With the Barisan Nasional, any decision taken, politically, business or whatever - is suspect. Too many large scale projects have shown themselves to be attempts for local politicians and businessmen to pocket huge and quick bucks, without any regard to the impact to the people, the environment, and need I say, business ethics! If this was an indicator of anything, I would say the BN is a goner. But too many technical and political manipulations still linger that could work in the party's favour, after over 50 years in power.
This is an interview with the organiser, Wong Tack, by MkiniTV. They eventually gathered at Dataran Merdeka after marching for 13 days, where of course the police have put up barricades. SOP. I guess. To hell with them. The crowd was obviously composed and peaceful and chose not to push through. Reports said the rally will be investigated for violating the new Peaceful Assembly Act as they did not inform authorities. Like the PAA is a legitimate piece of law. It can go into the bin where easily another 50-60 laws can go into. Some accounts said up to 10,000 people had converged. It doesn't matter - 100, 1,000, 10,000 - voices need to be heard.
The pix above is from the February gathering in Kuantan, which really astounded a lot of people.
I'm really missing the action - having missed Bersih 2.0 and Bersih 3.0 in Malaysia and the anti-Lynas movement. But I take heart the fact that the momentum is amazing, the claiming of public spaces is inspiring and the exercise of expression is encouraging.
The opposition parties in the Pakatan Rakyat have said that they support the Himpunan Hijau movement.
Kit Siang's tweet from today: "PR fully support anti-Lynas campaign. Among PR leaders @ DataranMerdeka include PKR Chmn Azizah PR MPs FongKuiLun TeresaKok WongHoLeng ChongChiengJen ErTeckHwa etc
2hours ago"
I have a question for them. If they win in the next elections, and particularly in Pahang, what would they do with the Lynas project? If they win, it might be solely on the anti-Lynas sentiment (and of course out of complete disgust of the current Mentri Besar, and that's being kind to him). If they don't do something to reverse the operations, they would be betraying the voters. But if they do, then the company could very well sue the state government for breach of contract - it could cost millions. The PR better have a proper plan in place if they are taking over the state. I don't think the voters should be forced to settle for a compromise in this case.
Having said they, do they have a plan for anything? I'm not sure. They are as unclear as they were four years ago when it comes to overall policy and plan. Not smart.
But the lesson will be, if they screw up, we're having enough practices to rally against bad policies. So, the PR could be the ones having to answer crowds like this in future.
For 13 days people have been walking from the east coast town of Kuantan, where a rare earth refining plant is going to start operations - finger up to the Australian Lynas - despite public protest - to take the concerns across the nation. (And I have a particular bone to pick with them: apparently at a meeting of a group from Kuantan with the CEO, it was claimed he said there was no need to hold briefings or explain to the people as they were from the village and wouldn't understand! The nerve!)
Its called the Himpunan Hijau - green gathering - naturally, concerns over the impact on the environment one of the most important issues. With the Barisan Nasional, any decision taken, politically, business or whatever - is suspect. Too many large scale projects have shown themselves to be attempts for local politicians and businessmen to pocket huge and quick bucks, without any regard to the impact to the people, the environment, and need I say, business ethics! If this was an indicator of anything, I would say the BN is a goner. But too many technical and political manipulations still linger that could work in the party's favour, after over 50 years in power.
This is an interview with the organiser, Wong Tack, by MkiniTV. They eventually gathered at Dataran Merdeka after marching for 13 days, where of course the police have put up barricades. SOP. I guess. To hell with them. The crowd was obviously composed and peaceful and chose not to push through. Reports said the rally will be investigated for violating the new Peaceful Assembly Act as they did not inform authorities. Like the PAA is a legitimate piece of law. It can go into the bin where easily another 50-60 laws can go into. Some accounts said up to 10,000 people had converged. It doesn't matter - 100, 1,000, 10,000 - voices need to be heard.
I'm really missing the action - having missed Bersih 2.0 and Bersih 3.0 in Malaysia and the anti-Lynas movement. But I take heart the fact that the momentum is amazing, the claiming of public spaces is inspiring and the exercise of expression is encouraging.
The opposition parties in the Pakatan Rakyat have said that they support the Himpunan Hijau movement.
Kit Siang's tweet from today: "PR fully support anti-Lynas campaign. Among PR leaders @ DataranMerdeka include PKR Chmn Azizah PR MPs FongKuiLun TeresaKok WongHoLeng ChongChiengJen ErTeckHwa etc
2hours ago"
I have a question for them. If they win in the next elections, and particularly in Pahang, what would they do with the Lynas project? If they win, it might be solely on the anti-Lynas sentiment (and of course out of complete disgust of the current Mentri Besar, and that's being kind to him). If they don't do something to reverse the operations, they would be betraying the voters. But if they do, then the company could very well sue the state government for breach of contract - it could cost millions. The PR better have a proper plan in place if they are taking over the state. I don't think the voters should be forced to settle for a compromise in this case.
Having said they, do they have a plan for anything? I'm not sure. They are as unclear as they were four years ago when it comes to overall policy and plan. Not smart.
But the lesson will be, if they screw up, we're having enough practices to rally against bad policies. So, the PR could be the ones having to answer crowds like this in future.
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