Youthful protesters put BN on notice

One eye-witness said the vast majority of the people at the ‘blackout rally’ at Kelana Jaya Stadium on 8 May were youths below the age of 35.

Many of them wore black T-shirts, probably the latest ‘cool’ thing in town, and blared vuvuzelas.

Blog reader J Steen reports from Johor:

I was at the JB rally. The atmosphere was simply incredible. This rally witnessed the true spirit of one Malaysia in action. I have never seen a more rousing rendition of our national anthem than the one sung at the end of this rally. People of all races, young and old, drenched, some perched on rooftops and trees singing loudly in unison. The incessant blare of the vuvuzelas is still ringing in my ears. Blackout tee shirts were being sold like hot cakes from the 25-plus stalls. BN, you have been duly put on notice. The Rakyat is not taking the election results blindly.

In another sign of the times post-GE13, I heard that at one local university, students openly questioned a visiting government official about the unfair media coverage before GE13 and challenged the official’s reasoning. This would have been something unheard of only a few years ago.

Then we saw courageous university students from Solidariti Mahasiswa Malaysia marching to the Election Commission office in Putrajaya on 11 May to submit a protest memorandum.

The youth are less encumbered by the baggage of the old politics of race and religion and any sense of ‘hutang budi’ or ‘racial polarisation’ that the BN appears bent on inculcating among the people. Read Azmil Tayeb’s excellent ‘Whither neo-feudalism?’ on the Aliran website.