Everyone is whacking HINDRAF now. Including parts of the fractured and defunct leadership of the movement itself.
HINDRAF was a galvanising voice for the majority of Indians in this country. And its spillover effect into the population in general, embodied by the cry MAKKAL SAKTHI, will have to be written down somewhere so that people will always remember to expect the unexpected.
Perhaps the vacuum that is the Indian leadership in this country, became so insufferable that every temple that was demolished, every death in custody, every slight and every insult against the darker hued denizens of this nation forced this fractured and mute community to coalesce, at least temporarily, to show that there will always come a time; when enough is enough……………………………………………………………………….is not the cliche it’s supposed to be. And it so happened that HINDRAF was at the right place at the right time to become the core of this awakening.
Or maybe I’m wrong and HINDRAF was the raison d’etre by itself. A people grateful for forceful and vocal leadership throwing caution to the tear gas soaked wind to make themselves heard, at least for once, even if the message was not everyone’s cup of tea.
Whatever the reason for HINDRAF’s success, it is clear that it is no longer the force it used to be.
Exhibit A : Kg Buah Pala, turned into a farce with the villagers now branded as greedy fools for life (by most Malaysians). And DAP as a bunch of gutless nitwits (at least in my books). And the rest of PR as having the moral fibre of a card carrying UMNO branch leader (in my books again). And HINDRAF as a what? As a nuisance perhaps?
On top of that we have the usually silent, yellow bellied Malaysians who rarely made a hoot before March 08 (you know who you are,c’mon), become the new movers of alternative opinion, joining the hard core “PR is Malaysia’s saviour” troops as the voice of the majority in the non mainstream trough.
Exhibit B : Gnana Prakasom and R.Gunasegaran. And you go, “who’s that?”. And I say, “same like Kugan but not so famous la”. And you go, “oh, ok. Sorry, don’t really care”. And my inner voice goes, “if HINDRAF, or anyone for that matter from the other side of the river Styx from BN still had their act together, these two will have their names right up there with Altantuya, and Kugan and of course Teoh Beng Hock, but no, no one seems to know what act we are on, hell, I don’t think we are all in the same play for that matter,so I have to hope and pray that Harris Ibrahim can carry the burden by himself”.
Exhibit C: The rape of the Penans, in every sense of the word imaginable. And everyone but the Penan go “what in the name of all that is holy does this have to do with me? Just blame BN. And I thought this was about HINDRAF you rambling idiot!!”.
Precisely.
Until the day comes when the average Mykad carrying, teh tarik drinking, roti canai loving Malaysian learns that justice is an universal concept, and applies equally to all, and learns to fight for any other Malaysian’s right as if we all lived and breathed in the same land and under the same sky, I don’t care who or what becomes irrelevant.
Let HINDRAF become another casualty of this country’s meandering history, a history that has taken it from somewhere to nowhere in no time at all. Let it lie by the highway as another victim of our growth into something meaningful. Let PR and BN become footnotes in the history books of our grandchildren, let them be seen as ancient ogres of inconceivable stupidity and corruption.
Because, ultimately, I see only one force that can save Malaysia, and that is the child that runs chasing its friends with snot running down its nose and laughter spilling on every side, along every street and jalan and lorong of this beautiful country.
I just hope that we don’t fuck it up too much before that child grows up, and has no choice but to look us in the eye, and punch us in the face while kneeing us in the groin for being such bigoted, selfish and myopic pricks.
Jeevindra Kumar
