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A new Freedom Ride cycling team reaches Kamunting

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Mission accomplished with a candlelight vigil last night outside the Kamunting Detention Centre: Yin, Joseph, Meng and Michael. Their colleague and photographer, Jorge, is not in the pic. The camera flashes alerted the officers on duty, who came out to have a look. (Note: This cycling team is  not part of the Jerit cycling team.)

Ready to roll on the Freedom Ride

First it was candle-mania; now it’s cycle-mania

One of the cyclists, Michael, sent in this report at 4.00am today:

It’s been a very tiring and hectic two days (Saturday and Sunday) for me especially today as I had to reach Kamunting, do the candlelight vigil last night and still catch the 9.00pm bus back to KL. It was a great feeling having been able to achieve what we set out to do.

We started out from Klang on Saturday, 6 Dec at 8.00am from a bak kut teh shop, no less. Besides the five of us, two more friends rode with us to Sabak Bernam (110km) where we stopped for the first night. The next morning, the five of us started at 8.00am and, with only a few stops for lunch and quick breaks, we rode all the way to Taiping (160km away), reaching the town just before 7.00pm. (Coincentally, the southbound Jerit cycling team were spending last night in Taiping and Bagan Serai.)

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The exuberant Simon Bolivar youth orchestra lets rip

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Performing at the BBC Proms 2007 (Thanks to John Hilley for highlighting this)

This is the product of El Sistema, Venezuela’s music education programme pioneered by economist and musician José Antonio Abreu in 1975. According to a UK Telegraph report, the programme offers every interested child, no matter how poor, an instrument and free tuition. Some 250,000 children are participating in the programme. El Sistema general manager Javier Moreno was quoted as saying: “We’re interested in creating citizens with all the values they need to exist in society – responsibility, teamwork, respect, cooperation and work ethic.”

If only we had a Malaysian equivalent – comprising the youths of all ethnic groups and classes (rich and poor) from Perlis to Sabah – playing a fusion of Malaysian music with similar exhuberance. Wouldn’t that be more culturally authentic – and more affordable – than the big-budget Petronas “Malaysian” Philharmonic Orchestra, which comprises highly paid expats performing before mainly well-heeled audiences?

This is how The Telegraph describes the BBC Proms of 2007:

It was a night that anyone who was there will never forget.

The Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra prom
Fiesta time as the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra lets rip

Yes, the Proms are renowned for their party atmosphere, particularly on the Last Night, but that’s from the audience. At the concert by the astonishing Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, it was the performers who let rip in what must have been the most joyful Proms performance ever.

The high jinks started at the end of the scheduled concert when they produced from nowhere jackets in the national colours to replace their immaculate suits. To cheering and stamping from the audience, they performed three increasingly wild encores.

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Eight Jerit cycles torched; Riot police in Bagan Serai

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Someone doesn’t like the Jerit cyclists Photo by the Jerit crew (More pictures here)

The Jerit cyclists continue to be hit by one obstacle after another.

In a pre-dawn incident today, unknown arsonist(s) torched eight of the Jerit bikes in Penanti on mainland Penang, where the cycling team were spending the night. Three of the cycles were badly damaged.

The four dozen cyclists were not to be deterred and continued their journey south.

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The glass wall that separates the rich from the poor

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The glass facade of George Town’s premier business hotel, Traders Hotel (formerly Shangri-la Hotel), where Jerit cyclists were to hand over their memo to Guan Eng at 1.30pm

Pakatan leaders were inside attending a conference to outline their “New economic vision for Penang and Malaysia”.  US multinational electronics corporation, Agilent Technologies, and the Shangri La hotels chain were the sponsors of the event, to which participants had to pay RM250/person to attend. Ironically, the session scheduled just before lunchtime was “Getting the politics right to enable sustainable economic growth that is socially just.”

But nobody cared to ask the workers and representatives of marginalised communities outside what they thought of this vision. Instead, the front door of the hotel was locked while hotel management and security looked concerned. Not that the Jerit cyclists were desperate to get in. All they wanted to do was hand over their memo and leave. Still, it would have been a great gesture if the Pakatan reps inside had invited the cyclists and activists in to listen to the aspirations and hopes of workers and marginalised groups. The Pakatan folks would have been seen as pro-people.

As it stands, the Pakatan leaders in general look increasingly pro-market, pro-investor and pro-business while lowly paid workers, who are struggling to make ends meet, do not seem to figure very highly on their list of priorities.

Jerit cyclists peering through the glass to see how the rich wine and dine: The poor in Malaysia can only dream of the lavish life-styles of the upper middle-class and the rich.

The rich top 10 per cent of the population earn 22 times what the bottom 10 per cent earn, making Malaysia one of the most unequal societies in East Asia in terms of income disparities. The Jerit campaigners and the Malaysian Trades Union Congress have been calling for a decent minimum wage in the country that would enable workers to live in dignity. A minimum wage would also help the economy as it would give the public, especially workers, greater purchasing power.

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Clinton’s KL speech dogged by controversy

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In case you missed it, Clinton’s US$200,000 appearance in KL has been shrouded in controversy.

Check out this NYT report.

Wasn’t it Clinton who promoted and expanded neoliberal free trade?

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PM urges state gov’ts to stop hill-slope projects

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Now that the PM has urged state governments to consider stopping all hill-slope development projects, how are the state governments in Penang and elsewhere going to respond?

Will the Penang government resort to its usual mantra: that stopping such projects will expose the state to claims of compensation?

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Bukit Antarabangsa landslide: Why did it happen?

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Can anyone in the Klang Valley familiar with the Bukit Antarabangsa area tell me why you think the landslide, which buried eight houses at dawn today, ocurred? Three people are reportedly confirmed dead while several others are believed to have perished.

What do you think? Was it just a natural disaster or was it the result of environmental degradation?

Blog reader Selangor resident has few doubts:

Let me tell you why:
RAMPANT & IRRESPONSIBLE DEVELOPMENT!
That’s why!
DEVELOPMENT OF HILLSLOPES DISRUPTS BODIES OF WATER
– resulting in flooding, water shortage …
– in its worst form, soil erosion and landslides
– causing destruction of property and lives

We the folks of Ampang Hills have been fighting for years for the local government to be extremely cautious when they approve hillslope projects. It’s been 16 years since Highland Towers tragedy but it still continues. How many more lives?! We have been asking – haven’t the developers learnt from the tragedies … well, OBVIOUSLY NOT! It’s time we stop asking! It’s time the Federal Government steps in and put a full STOP to it!!

Our dealings with the past Selangor state govt were not fruitful as despite many appeals, they approved over a hundred questionable hillslope projects. (No need to wonder how they got approved ….) For more info on the latest case which we are appealing (this hillslope project was approved by the former Selangor state government just before the election!),  please visit this site.

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16 Jerit activists arrested; police road-blocks in Johor

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1428: More than 50 cyclists and Jerit activists have been stranded in a bus for more than two hours along with a lorry carrying their cycles in the Skudai, Senai area as traffic has come to a stand still.  A 20-minute journey has become a two-hour journey as there are police blocks everywhere, reports Kohila from Jerit. Police have blocked many areas in their attempt to get rid of the Jerit southern team, she adds. Armed police were spotted near the Senai road and also near the toll.  Only the Jerit bus, lorry and accompanying cars were stopped. Police have also been filming and snapping pictures almost non-stop.

1202: All the activists have been released by noon and the ICs of the cyclists have been returned. But police don’t want any Jerit supporters cycling in Skudai, so the team will be moving to Kulai after lunch.

0937: Reports of a situation emerging at the Suaram office in Johor Baru…

Around 16 Jerit campaign organisers have been arrested just before their southern cycling team was due to begin their journey to Parliament this morning. Police also raided the Suaram office and took down the particulars of the cyclists.

For more details, enquiries and appeals, contact the Skudai district police headquarters at 07-556 1222.

So candlelight vigil cannot, cycling also cannot…

Meanwhile, the northen region cycling team, after their encounters with the police yesterday, are due to hand over a memorandum to Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng at the Traders Hotel at around 1.00pm. The cyclists are now ready to roll in George Town as police keep a watchful eye.

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A snatch theft victim in hospital; Paula’s bail extended

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I am just back from visiting a friend in hospital in Penang today – a snatch theft victim.

She was walking home to her flat after work at 7.30pm a couple of nights ago when someone on a motobike sped up and suddenly tugged at her handbag slung over her shoulder. It didn’t come off easily and she lost her balance, fell to the ground and was dragged on the rough tar road for a bit (ouch!).

She won’t be able to walk for a week (but thank God, no fractures or concussion).

This is not improving my perception of the crime rate – and it’s going to get worse with the economy sliding downhill next year.

Meanwhile, Paula Khoo, the singer-guitarist-emcee who was arrested at a Penang Abolish ISA vigil a few weeks ago, continues to face uncertainty.

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Good news! Bicycles freed… but no “perarakan” allowed

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You will be pleased to hear that the Jerit bicycles, yes bicycles, have been released.  I guess they were innocent after all, poor bikes – and it’s all systems go for tomorrow.

So with that, the cyclists are expected to hand in a memorandum to Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng tomorrow at around 12.30pm in Komtar.

Sungai Siput MP Jeyakumar Devaraj spent most of this afternoon negotiating with senior police officers in Penang. “I told them, come on-lah, there are so many criminals around for you to deal with; just let our cyclists do their thing and they won’t cause any problem,” he said over the phone.

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