Aliran Media Statement

A Most Ridiculous Charge

Tian Chua, chairperson of Gagasan Demokrasi Rakyat, has been remanded for seven days and faces the charge that he was attempting suicide by sitting cross-legged in front of a police truck after it fired volleys from water cannons at protestors.

Trust our police to come up with this most ridiculous of charges. The act of sitting cross-legged in front of the truck that Tian was displaying, in fact, comes from a glorious tradition of peaceful civil disobedience that was practised by courageous leaders with moral authority such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

This same moral force has spurred on ordinary people to protest against the Soviet invasion of Prague in 1968, the American involvement in the Vietnam War, the authoritarian Chinese regime in the Tiananmen uprising, and the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines.

Aliran congratulates Tian for his courage and for continuing the ideals of peaceful civil disobedience in the streets of Kuala Lumpur. But Tian had to pay a brutal price. He was dragged into a police truck, where he was seen kicked and beaten. Photographs reveal bruise marks on his back, injured swollen lips and blue-black marks around one eye.

We call upon the police to immediately release Tian, Malek Hussain, the former ABIM secretary, and all others who are still detained following the demonstrations. Aliran reiterates its call to the police to act with utmost restraint in dealing with peaceful demonstrations.

Dr Francis Loh
Secretary
16 April 1999