Campaign of Roses: A Child’s Plea Ignored

On Saturday, 16 February 2007, the ruling coalition did the unthinkable. In response to a 5-year old child’s plea, a barrage of tear gas and water cannons were used to disperse 200 children and a like number of supporters from gathering and voicing themselves.

Little Vwaishhnniva Moorthy Ponnusamy wanted little more than to see the man who signed the detention letter of the 5 ISA detainees, so that she could give him a bouquet of red and yellow roses.

However, come Saturday morning, our august premier was nowhere to be seen.

This is not to say that little Vwaishhnniva’s plea fell on deaf ears. If anything, the response to her letter was rather overwhelming. Roadblocks were set up as early as the night before. Not only that, a total of 31 roads was cordoned off, especially roads leading to the parliament. Over 1,000 police and FRU personnel were deployed, who kindly decided due to the overwhelming threat of 200 children, to quash the rally with water cannons and tear gas.

It was truly a reception that any Malaysian 5-year old would expect from their Prime Minister.

Where was our premier during all of this, you may ask? Well, our Prime Minister took the moral low…erm…I mean moral high ground by refusing to become involved with what he termed as “something bad” which could “hinder the election process”, as stated in the following article:

(The Star, Sunday February 17, 2008) PM: Rally bad for polls

YAN: Stern action will be taken against those who try to create chaos before the general election, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Commenting on the illegal rally by the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, he said the organisers had made a mockery of the democratic process by staging an illegal rally after the elections had been called.

Such rallies will only create fear among the voters, he noted.

Perhaps it is too bold of me, but what exactly is our most august of premiers saying? If he was saying that this was held with the expressed purpose of disrupting the general elections, he should perhaps check his facts before making any more eyebrows rise up in wonder.

Note to our premier: I heard through less than reliable sources - the Star and the NST - that you decided to dissolve the parliament 13 February 2007 and call for the election to be on 8 March 2007, with the blessings of our Agong. I also heard through more reliable sources – bloggers and blogsites - that little Vwaishhnniva sent her letter to you either on or before 23 January 2007, a full ten days before you dissolved the parliament.

Indeed, from these dates, it is clear to everyone with one leg and half a brain that little Vwaishhnniva purposely picked Saturday, 16 February 2007 with the expressed purpose of disrupting the general elections and causing widespread public public fear using flowers, even though it is clear that neither she - nor her guardians for that matter - would know when you would dissolve parliament.

Bravo, my dear chap. Thank you for clearing up your stand on this. I can now see how this child conspired to make a ‘mockery’ of your democratic process.

Come to think about it, that entire paragraph is rather obtuse, isn’t it? Call me strange, but perhaps you could tell me how is it possible that you can string a sentence using the words “made a mockery of the democratic process” and “an illegal rally” without sounding like an uneducated megalomaniac.

Ah, yes. Too late for that.

Abdullah also slammed those who brought children to such emotionally-charged rallies.

“If it is true they are using children to put pressure to get what they want, then it is regrettable for they are placing children in danger,” he said.

Now if I get this right, this means that you didn’t get the letter that little Vwaishhnniva sent to you, did you? After all, you didn’t even know that it was a possibility that children could be present at the rally, did you?

I don’t know about you, Mr Prime Minister, but I think someone’s been reading your mail, and not passing it on. And if I were you, I wouldn’t be very happy about it, especially since everyone and their second niece (twice removed) seems to have read that letter except for you.

What was it that was enshrined in your Manifesto back in 2004? Something supposedly about 'I’m Your No. 1 Public Servant? Right-o. If you say so. But it has to be rather hard to be a public servant if you don’t even read your mail, don’t you think so?

Personally, I understand it if you don’t know what’s going on within the very country you are suppose to govern. Nothing wrong with that. A lot of third rate leaders out there haven’t the foggiest notion of what their citizens really want, or what they are going through.

But it is quite offensive when you’re in the dark about things when someone bothered to write a letter, lick a stamp and send it to your office, especially when that letter is coming from a 5-year old girl.

Sure, it has political implications. But for goodness sake, if you really want to look at it, everything has political implications! Are you that naive to think otherwise? Do you really think that officiating your son-in-law’s boutique is something devoid of political implications?

Let me put it this way.

If an Israeli 5-year old girl was to try to see the Palestinian Prime Minister to give him flowers, or vice versa, what do you think should have been done? And don't forget to ask yourself this, is that devoid of political implications? And what do you think you would have done?

Don’t bother answering. I really don’t think I want to know the answer.