Rose Protest Goes International

February 18, 2008 · Filed Under In the News

Indians across the world demonstrated outside the offices of Malaysian embassies and high commissions on Saturday to condemn the government and police, hours after tear gas and water cannons were fired in Kuala Lumpur at people bringing flowers to persuade Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi to release five Hindraf leaders from detention.

The demonstrations – which took place almost simultaneously in New York, Los Angeles, London, Belgium, Northern Island, Indonesia, New Zealand, New Delhi and Mumbai – were believed to be the first internationally-coordinated action in support of the Indian cause in Malaysia.

Calling it a “rose protest”, Hindraf had said it wanted to give the flowers to the premier, asking him, among others, to release the five Hindraf leaders held under the Internal Security Act. The plan was initially to get a group of children to hand over the roses to Abdullah at Parliament. That, however, fell through when police blockaded roads leading to Parliament, forcing the supporters to group at Jalan Raja Laut instead. The police eventually arrested about 200 people and released all but nine whom they said defied repeated orders to disperse

Fiona Lee (photo), an ethnic Chinese from Malaysia, said in comments to Malaysiakini that she decided to join the protest in New York “because these are issues affecting all Malaysians.”“To me, the marginalization of the Indian community is very real,” said the 25-year-old, who has lived in the United States for seven years now and is pursuing a doctorate in English at the City University of New York.

“I grew up in Cheras and I belonged to a church group that used to visit Indian slums where the children had little access to education, food and even clothing,” Lee said. “To say they are being equally treated is the biggest sham.”

There were no officials from the Malaysian Consulate General’s office in New York to receive ay memorandums from the protesters. However several officials were seen snapping photographs of the protesting crowd.

Malaysians are who we are , when it comes to the well being of our own country men, i dont think its the colour of the skin or where we go to pray anymore and if you go to any street stall or settlement people love each other like brothers and sisters of Malaysia. We have very rear cases of extremist in this part of the owrld and if anyone thinks this is being extreme, they need a reality check!!

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