Himpunan Rakyat Benci Rasuah Rally An Eyewitness Account

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ON the day of the rally on Jan 25, a Ford Ranger was driven slowly at walking pace from Sogo to Dataran Merdeka at around 2.30pm, covering a distance of about 1 kilometre. On the back of the vehicle were student leaders and a drum player, and the vehicle was followed by a procession of people.
Regularly, the student leaders will chant a slogan to the beat of the drum, which will be repeated by the procession of people following the Ford Ranger.
Although there was heavy police present throughout the procession, the police did not serve to obstruct or place difficulties on the procession in any manner.
The procession stopped once it reached the road that separated Bangunan Sultan Abdul Samad and Dataran Merdeka. Here, the student leaders took turns to give a speech, rouse the crowd and state their demands.
I only followed the procession in the last 100 or 200 metres of its journey, and I listened to the first three student leaders speak before I estimated that I had gotten the gist of what the event was all about and left.
How big was the rally?
(Image: Utusan Malaysia)By my count, the procession was about 20 to 25 people in length and breadth. Going by that estimate, I would say that the number of people who joined the rally was probably around 400 to 600 people.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it was lower but I would be surprised if it was bigger. The size of the crowd struck me as being around half the size of the Monday morning assembly of my secondary school in my student days.
Considering that my old school had around 1,000 students, I would say that 500 is a good estimate for the size of the Himpunan Rakyat Benci Rasuah rally.
Whose rally was it?
It can probably be described as a multiracial rally. Although the dominant race in the rally were the Malays, the rally itself did not carry a racial or religious undertone. The rally also did not carry the colours of partisan politics.
Other than Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) with its chairman Arutchelvan Subramaniam in attendance, whose presence, there were no banners, placards, leaders or symbols of any other political parties in the rally.
Rather than partisan, racial or religious labels, from its vibe and energy, I would say that the best way to label the rally is that it was a youth rally, or better still, a rally by university students.
The targets
In case anyone is wondering, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was not the target of the rally. If there is any specific target of the rally, I would say that it was the newly elected Yang di-Pertua Negeri of Sabah Tun Musa Aman and Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
At a distant third, former premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak also can perhaps be considered as a target of the rally.
At best, Anwar is probably the fourth politician targeted by the rally, but he, unlike the first three, is targeted more because he is considered the “Bapa Pembebas Perasuah”, or someone who frees or refuses to take action against those who are corrupt
Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (Image: Bernama)The demands
The students had three clear and concise demands. They want the Attorney General’s Chamber to be separated from the Prime Minister’s Office.
They also want the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to report to the Parliament instead of the government. Finally, they also want the funds for political parties to be regulated by law.
Some insights
I thought the rally was organic, in addition to being promising and refreshing.
I thought it was organic because it really did seem to me that the entire rally was organised by the students and students only.
It was refreshing because the air in the rally was fresh with the unpolluted energy of the youths, who appear to genuinely desire to conduct political activities free from the constraints of identity politics.
Without explicitly advocating for multiculturalism by SAYING we are all “satu keluarga” or “satu Malaysia” or that “Ali, Ah Chong and Muthu are brothers”, as the older generation are wont to do, I thought they had done a much better job in showing how multiculturalism can work in Malaysia, and the fact that what they showed was intelligent, clear, straightforward and energetic, was promising indeed.
I also thought that the student leaders who spoke in the rally were quite the accomplished orators. Anwar should check them out. Maybe it will remind him of himself in his younger days. I bet some of them could have given him a run for his money even at his prime.
Nehru Sathiamoorthy is a roving tutor who loves politics, philosophy and psychology.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of  MMKtT.
- Focus Malaysia.

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