25 November 2007

Malaysiakini photo

Just last week, I happened to be in a bank when the windscreen of a car parked outside was smashed. When a man rushed in to report it to the security guards, the same question came out of the mouths of several people: Orang India ke?

No one squirmed at hearing this, and I was furious. Since when has racial profiling in crime become acceptable? It may be common in other countries too, but it is perhaps at its ugliest in Malaysia. We live in a land where the ruling coalition is constantly seeking to cripple our ability to think. Come across any problem? Just race-stereotype it and all the real causes vanish.

- Josh Hong, columnist for Malaysiakini in his article Indian revolt: The morning after


I walked on 25 November 2007
In the man-made acid showers
Which burnt my skin and those
Of my brothers and sisters too
But the chemically poisoned rain
Could not burnt away the tears
That’s in our hearts for 50 years
But merely fertilised our resolve

Through the thick fog of tear gas
We held our hands together and
Marched on to tell the world of
An unjust economic caste system
That places us at the very bottom
As menial pariahs, harijans, dalits
Oh, don’t be shy, take your pick
Any, each would still read our lot

Just like a fusion bomb, our ‘H’
Gave a mega blast to hitherto
Silent acquiescence and equally
Silent dismissal of our cries for
Help against cold cruel inequality
Are we nothing more than serfs
Slaves, sherpas to failed Hillary’s
Or as prêt-à-porter criminals?

The explosion of our 'H'-synergy
Tore away too masks of hypocrisy
Ripping to shreds the snow white
Fleece of ethnic wolves, howling
At black sheep not cukup Bersih
Not even of de facto human status
To merit the march in messianic
Footsteps to the Arc de Triomphe