MOVING HUGE STONES
A saga is being played out in a township in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur. Bandar Mahkota Cheras with 38,000 residents has been involved with an ongoing tussle with highway toll operator Grand Saga Sdn Bhd. Read the special report in http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/82584.
The ongoing real-life drama has everything you would expect in a world-class bestselling fiction novel : struggle between well-heeled corporation with ordinary neighbourhood residents. Residents to the fore! Aggrieved residents take their case to every possible avenue known to the human race: corporate world, police, court, parliament. Barricades erected. Barricades removed. Police action on residents. Bloody scenes. Hospitalisation of heavily banged-up residents. Wounded opposition MP hospitalised received bouquet from grateful residents. Visits to the scene by VVIP. Gangsters beating up residents. Two-week deadlines given to both sides to resolve the matter. A court case brought by the housing developers against the toll operator still pending.
This has the making of a blockbuster box office-breaking movie. Which Hong Kong, Filipino or Bollywood directors would resist the urge to make this movie? And with possibilities of sequels each becoming a bigger blockbuster than the last?
Unfortunately for the residents of Bandar Mahkota Cheras, this is no fiction or movie. The harsh realities are only too real for them. Up to this point, seemingly, their right to have an access road (instead of being compelled to travel an extra 6 km and pay a toll of 90 sen) is for now upheld. But the court case remains. And literally, they are still licking their wounds.
How does this kind of things happen in a modern, self-declared democratic society? How can this be allowed? Are there no clear laws governing the right of access routes to residents? What role should the police be playing? Should the police place themselves in the position where they could be seen as taking sides in their course of duty? Is it ever right that residents should be bloodied in these ways? In the 21st Century, for a so-called half-century old independent state, are there no better ways of settling disputes than gansterism and heavy-handed law enforcement?
It makes me wonder, what kind of toll operator is involved here? Who are or were their backers? How were the tenders awarded and upon what terms? Where may we ordinary citizens view such deals and contracts? How can justice be served if it is taking so long for judgement to be made? What good will it do for ordinary citizens (without access to political backing) to look to the courts for redress?
Residents of a modern-day housing estate have had to resort to the desperate measures of removing three-foot high concrete barricades not just once but three times over.
You see scenes like that in musicals like Les Miserables, based on the French Revolution of 1789. It is the same theme being played throughout human history: the rich versus poor, aristocrats versus the proletariat, politically-backed enterprises causing hardship to ordinary residents. And in Malaysia, hill-slopes and green lungs are being converted to luxury homes to the ire of other residents, not to mention damage to the natural eco-system. Resulting landslides threaten the safety of those who live lower down. Representation after representation seemingly are leading nowhere.
When I first read the reports and viewed the pictures of those barricades, my memory went back three years when I stood in bright sunlight and saw for the first time in real life the pyramids of Giza in Egypt. The first thing that hits you is the hugeness of each cube stone. How they were placed one on top of one another to form a symetrically perfect pyramid is another issue. How they were transported and moved on site was the preliminary wonder that hit me. It was largely accomplished by human labour assisted by engineering systems yet to be firmly determined till this day. A stupendous mammoth human endeavour which goes against our human imagination!
Physically, the barricades in Cheras are obviously not quite in the proportion of the cube stones used in Giza. Even so, despite tractors that were used, pictures clearly show Bandar Mahkota Cheras residents putting their hands on those huge stones in their attempts to dismantle their grievance. In so doing, emotionally these residents symbolise many other Malaysians who are fighting the so-called systems to retrieve their justifiable rights. The tasks of such ordinary Malaysians are herculean in perspective.They brave retribution, bodily and emotional harm, big business, corrupt powers and mammoth odds.
These small people show the rest of us that silence, inertia and apathy is not the way to build a society or a nation. They show us that despite the odds, attempts must nevertheless be made to recover rights in the face of blatant injustice.
And to boot, these BMC residents who acted did so together regardless of gender, race or religion. How much more Malaysian can you be than that?
Many more huge stones have to be moved to clear the way and make straight the path to democracy. Huge stones such as OSA, ISA and the Printing and Publications Act all of which suppress and oppress the truth about corruption, abuse of power and bad governance.
The question is are we, will we be part of the team of movers of these huge stones?
Pictures from Malaysiakini.com
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