Top 10 Things You Really Don't Wanna Hear When A Street Protest Meet The Boys In Red

I just returned from the Police Headquarters opposite Pudu Jail to take in an impression of the gathering supporters of Parti Keadilan Rakyat showing solidarity with Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who was was arrested earlier today by the cops. You can read about it here, here, and here at Malaysiakini. Check out also the following links as well; Haris Ibrahim of The People's Parliament who was there to check the scene out, Jed Yoong who noted the markets reaction towards this political hot potato, and finally Ahiruddin Attan of Rocky's Bru, who I believe is of the opinion that balaclavas are a fashion faux-pas. I think.

As for me, would you just believe it, I sent my camera for a check-up last week and would only be able collect it back next Monday. Just my dumb luck. There I was camera-less and I couldn't even do a Clint-Eastwood-Madison-County look to impress the female reporters there. Just great. Anyway, I did meet someone there who did find my punchlines funny (finally, some respect!) So Miss Ashley, if you are reading this, this one's for you. Hope you like it.

Top 10 Things You Really Don't Wanna Hear When A Street Protest Meet The Boys In Red...

10. "Hey, bubba! Watch this!"

09. FRU Officer to another : "Ya mean we missed breakfast just for this crap?!"

08. "I'm gonna assault the officer's fist with my face. You just watch me!"

07. 'The Ride of the Valkyries' blaring out from the FRU truck.

06. Guy at the back : "I've heard of Bloody Marys. But Molotovs?"

05. "Is that a truncheon in your hand, or are you just happy to see me?"

04. FRU Officer to another : "I'm gonna miss my daughter's first birthday..."

03. "What's that umbrella for?"

02. You : "What the heck? Where did everybody go? [Pause] Aye Caramba..."

And When The Boys In Red Meet A Street Protest, The Last Thing You Wanna Hear Is...

01. "INCOMING!"

A Most Singular Carnival

OK. As promised in my previous blog post, here are some photographs from the fuel price hike rally that was held at the Kelana Jaya stadium recently on Sunday of 6th July 2008. It was supposed to be a fuel price hike rally but turned out to be more or less as a carnival of some sort. Nothing wrong in that, I suppose, and perhaps it was just as well as it was a cooling off period for all Malaysians after a politically charged week whereby unbridled mudslinging and an ominous joint police-army exercise took place in the background. I noted many bloggers and Internet news portals made extensive coverage of the fuel price hike rally, so I really do not have much to add. However, the following twelve photographs shown here reflect the four main themes that particularly captured my interest that day.

We will first take a look at Unit Amal Malaysia. Amal is an auxiliary organization affiliated to PAS (Parti Islam Se-Malaysia) and was one of the two bodies tasked towards crowd control and event security for the day; the other being Skuad AMK, which was an arm of PKR (Parti Keadilan Rakyat.) This photograph was taken just moments before they were deployed and are seen singing the Amal song with gusto. I noted many of the members came from various states of Malaysia, Sabah included! I even encountered some of them on the RapidKL bus as I made my way to the Kelana Jaya stadium from the LRT station.

To those who had had attended the rally that day, most of you would have encountered them and I trust that many would have had a pleasant and polite encounter. I most certainly did. Here they are seen raising their arms in unison after a pep talk by their unit director.

I was later informed that around 1,000+ Amal members were pressed into service for the rally. When I made my way back home around 3pm, I encountered a contingent of 55 Amal members in their teens and early twenties from Penang who were also making their way back home after passing over their duties to another Amal unit. Their behavior and decorum, though reflecting their youth, was exemplary. My hats off to a Mr. Azman of the Penang Amal contingent for his show of leadership.

The fuel price hike and its domino effect didn't just hit a couple of wise guys in designer clothing moving about in SUVs and helicopters; the inflationary pressures particularly hit hard a significant segment of Malaysia's social and economic demographics. I will not elaborate further on this and prefer to let the following three photographs tell the story instead.....

.....and I think that says it all.

Another aspect the rally that attracted me was the diversity of those whom attended. From Malay Malaysian ladies clad in hijab...

...and, of course, MAKKAL SAKHTI!

And Chinese Malaysian university students. Seeing is believing.

As I hinted in previous blog post, I like to introduce to my fellow readers to two extremely singular gentlemen who also attended the fuel price hike rally. I really cannot say what was so singular about them and perhaps I am missing the point. Anyway, as I was making my way back home, I came across two guys from Pahang and asked them for directions. Of course, being Pahang folks, they were as clueless as I was. Noticing my camera, they informed me that it would be most interesting if I would photograph these two fine looking gentlemen. Suffice to say, even the 55 members of the Penang Amal contingent, whom I later showed the following photographs, saw what those two Pahang guys saw. I still do not see the singularity.....

.....I really need new eyeglass prescriptions.

From Sentul To Damansara Heights

As most of the Malaysian Netizens would know by now, on Saturday evening of the 5th July 2008, Raja Petra Kamarudin was summoned to the Sentul police station with regards to his explosive statutory declaration made on the 18th June 2008. I will not elaborate further on this matter as many bloggers and internet news portals has covered it extensively, both the declaration and RPK's appearance at Sentul, and instead present to you a portraiture of the characters who appeared at the Sentul police station to show solidarity with RPK; and later of those who came for the The Alliance of Bloggers' 100 Days gathering at Damansara Heights. However, I would venture to comment that with the recent events that have overtaken Malaysia as of late, RPK's latest appearance at Sentul was something short of a political hangover. But that's just me speaking. Anyway...

...here's Haris Ibrahim of The People's Parliament blog. (Haris is grinning 'cause he just figured out an ingenious plan for RPK that would end all of the latter's predicaments with the cops. Apparently, it involves RM4 and a visit to Comissioner of Oaths or something. Ya the man, Haris!)

Mrs. RPK, naturally, was there as well. (These visits to the police station are gettin' so often, and I was thinkin' mebbe the cops oughta just open a police station at Bukit Rahman Putra just for RPK's sake, ya know what I'm sayin'? The man and his missus deserves at least that much respect.)

Ronnie Liu, State Assemblyman for Pandaraman, was there too. (Sentul? Pandaraman? I'm not gettin' the connection here...)

Ahiruddin Attan of Rocky's Bru blog. (Rocky went to Sentul to show solidarity with RPK but ended up being engrossed with rumors that NYSE suspended stock trading due to a computer glitch. Or was that NASDAQ? Mebbe Rocky's going short on Halliburton...)

Tian Chua, Member of Parliament for Batu, later made an appearance. He came bearing news that the detective who was at the center of a political storm involving two statutory declarations, went AWOL and the detective's nephew had already lodged a police report regarding his "disappearance". He also described the on-goings prior to and after the press conference on the first statutory declaration. I care not to reproduce what Tian Chua had said, but can only agree with Haris Ibrahim that the whole affair was not handled with a higher degree of professionalism befitting its nature and contents.

Somewhere about 7pm, around an hour and a half later after going in, RPK emerges from the police station. Moments later, he is mobbed by the press for a statement. (And I get pushed aside by a moron with camera. What the heck? I thought this kinda of thing only happened when ya shootin' hot babes at the catwalk. I gotta get myself embedded with the Coalition Forces at Afghanistan. Less competition, ya know what I'm sayin'?)

Here's Captain Yusof Ahmad of The Ancient Mariner blog, whom I met at the Blog House at Damansara Heights. I like to thank Melvin Mah of A Little Taffer's Room blog for giving me a ride to the Blog House for The Alliance of Bloggers' 100 Days gathering. Thanks a million, Melvin!

Marina Mahathir, President of the Malaysian AIDS Council and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Malaysian AIDS Foundation. Please do click on the following shortcut link to the Malaysian AIDS Council and see as to how you may contribute towards "creating an environment free from the negative impacts of HIV/AIDS for Malaysia and her people, through and with its Partner Organizations by strengthening and mobilizing them, as well as giving them proper representation."

RPK and his cousin Walter discussing the vagaries of English history and sharing a few obscure jokes on being Welsh and Irish. (OK, ya got me. Who the heck is Cromwell?)

Between a rock and a hard place. Malik Imtiaz Sarwar of the Disquiet blog, is wedged between Datuk Mukhiz Mahathir (left), Member of Parliament for Jerlun, and Ronnie Liu (right), State Assemblyman for Pandaraman. (Where's a bong when ya need one, huh? Relax, Malik. This is nothin' compared to what those boys in White and Green has got in store for ya...)

TV Smith and Raja Petra Kamarudin. At this point of time, I was down for two Tigers in a can, one in the bottle, three paper cups of red wine, and a vague recollection about me having a low tolerance threshold for alcohol...

Nurul Izzah Anwar, Member of Parliament for Lembah Pantai and illustrious daughter of Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. She's definitely beautiful and I am suspecting more than one heart was broken (or an unspoken ambition curtailed?) when she married her present beau, Raja Ahmad Shahrir.

Datuk Muhkriz Mahathir, Member of Parliament for Jerlun, obliges me for an impromptu portraiture. (So how 'bout it, Datuk? Ready for this comin' December crap game? Ya don't wanna roll for snake-eyes, ya get my drift?)

Check it out! Even Erra Fazira was there that night! Oh, and the guy next to her is her husband. Sorry, dude. That evening was the most productive of all as I managed to get more pictures of well-known Malaysian personalities and bloggers than I ever got in the past six months...

And finally, Nuraina Samad of 3450 Jalan Sudin blog. OK, that's it for now. I attended the early part of the fuel hike protest rally at Kelana Jaya today, but will only be posting them up tomorrow as I am just too tired. I only managed to snatch a few hours of sleep after The Alliance of Bloggers' 100 Days gathering before rousing myself up at 6am in order to scope out the rally at Kelana Jaya. Suffice to say, my next posting will be most interesting as you will most probably be introduced to two extremely singular gentlemen who also attended the fuel hike rally. Synonymously singular. Until then, good night and God bless Malaysia.