Wednesday, March 21, 2012

"Old Ladies Don't Walk Fast, Lah!"

Last Sunday, Liz and I observed the Wanita Super Rally, a peaceful gathering in favor of clean and free elections in Malaysia.This march was held in apparent compliance with the new peaceful assembly act.

The procession was scheduled for 2PM and as normal for such events anywhere in the world, this was an aspirational time.  People began gathering in the Taman Jaya park before 2PM with a lot of hugs and greetings.  Groups participating represented election reform advocates, human rights advocates, refugee rights advocates, anti-Lynas advocates, and gay/transgendered advocates.  I estimated that almost 2,000 gathered in Taman Jaya park.

The procession began with drummers, and chants.  The procession crossed one very busy street where the local police assisted in halting the traffic to allow the crowd to pass by.  Many car horns were sounded in support of the rally.  A new phenomena was observed with people holding iPads out the windows of passing cars (to take pictures and videos).  It looks somewhat absurd, but that is modern life.



The procession was confined to the sidewalks and it stretched out many blocks long.  It was a hot afternoon, about 33C and people began to lag.  At one intersection a policeman directing traffic said to those crossing the street "cepat, cepat"  (fast, fast), to which an elderly lady in the group with me replied, "Old ladies don't walk fast, Lah!"

2 comments:

  1. This rally illustrates my constant challenge as an expat in Malaysia - how to get involved in domestic political issues. When I first arrived I felt that as a foreigner these are political issues that should be addressed by Malaysians. While I still feel the same way I realize that as an ex-pat I want to live in a country that is free of corruption and where all its citizens are treated fairly and equally. Bottom line - some degree of participation is appropriate and perhaps necessary

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  2. Living in Slovakia, I was constantly depressed by the pervasive and near-crippling corruption that was everywhere and affected everyone. Sometimes I couldn't even get my head around how ubiquitous -- and accepted -- it was. Working with good NGOs committed to non-corrupt practices was the only way I survived. I'm not sure I could have lived there for more than two years.

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