Sunday, February 17, 2008

Roses Rally in Malaysia, Chingay in Singapore



my chat with activist/artist Seelan Palay:

Seelan: hey Yi Sheng
me: hiya
Seelan: today was another rally in KL
to present roses to malaysian PM
but
me: !
Seelan: I will fwd you a response
me: why roses?
Seelan: plea for the release of hindraf 5
roses to be presented by 100 kids
me: whoa

i'm reading stuff on the net
Seelan: check out the mail
me: the kids were arrested too
right
Seelan: yup
tear gas was shot into human rights commission bulding
cause sort of "retreated" there
then the shot went into the building compound

me: did you ever watch amir muhammad's "big durian"?
i remember there was one bit there
where he had an indian actress say how every now and then the malays and chinese get their parangs out and fight each other
and the indians just watch
different story now, man
Seelan: YES
hats good contrast though, that youre making
interesting
me: in fact if i'm not wrong, the last time indian malayans came out in protest for their rights was the sepoy rebellion of 1905!
Seelan: :)
me: (i probably am wrong lah)
probably got less famous case
Seelan: well I guess they joined in the indepedence struggle
me: yes
Seelan: but after that, youre right, this is the first

me: so odd
tonight i was at the esplanade
over here got chingay
over there got rally and protest
Seelan: art
is it not
both "performances"
me: are you talking about chingay or the roses rally? :)
yep
i have a shot of s r nathan's float
he was on a silver-plated merlion
the mc shouted, "everybody, make some noise!"
so i yelled out, "Abolish ISA!"
Seelan: THATS THE SAME THING FROM LAST YEAR

No comments: