September 20: The spark is lit
By Sabri Zain, Harakah Daily
September 20, 1998 will for a long time be remembered as the day when Malaysians shed their fear of anti-government demonstrations. 18 days after Anwar Ibrahim was unceremoniously sacked from the second most powerful position in the government on vile charges, he was arrested by masked police personnel at his Bukit Damansara residence.
Hours earlier, he led one of the largest gatherings that modern Malaysia had ever seen. Knowing his arrest was imminent on that day, he addressed people at the National Mosque’s compound, and for the first time publicly called for his mentor-turned-nemesis Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s resignation.
It was during those days that wildlife preservation activist SABRI ZAIN joined a budding community of independent writers, exploiting the growing power of the Internet to document the goings-on in the tensed streets of Kuala Lumpur.
Numbers are pretty difficult to tell when the whole stretch of the road from Independence Square to the National Mosque was an ocean of people, spilling into the side streets, into the mosque compound, and into the nearby Islamic Centre and Railway Station.
They had apparently been told to move from Independence Square, so the crowd proceeded to the National Mosque and gathered in the compound facing the Islamic Centre.
To their credit, the police kept a low profile, and the crowds behaved peacefully. It was a mixed bag of people – families, students, yuppies – of all races, though the majority was Malay.
It was heart-warming to see this 60-year old Chinese pensioner standing next to me punching his fist into the air and shouting “Reformasi!”. Who says it is only the young who want change?
Anwar Ibrahim arrived at about 4:30 p.m. to deafening cries of “Reformasi!”. They didn’t have a proper public address system, so he had to use a hand-held loud-hailer. He played the fiery orator to the hilt – but the person who won me heart and soul was his wife Wan Azizah. She was a tower of strength by his side – and when she spoke it was electric. She had all the passion of a woman whose husband had been wronged and the calm determination of the righteous confronting the full forces of darkness.
There was a moment of tension when someone shouted that there was a TV3 crew around, and a few rowdies pelted them with empty drink packets, to shouts of “Penipu!” (Liars!) “Anjing!”(Dogs!).
I, unfortunately, only had a glass Coke bottle, and I didn’t want to accidentally hurt anyone! But Anwar ordered them to calm down, quipping “Let them do their job … I definitely know that this particular crew secretly supports me!”
The crowd proceeded to Independence Square after that – no one could stop them now, there was a virtual sea of people. From the theatre stage of Independence Square, Wan Azizah again spoke, delivering the Pledge of September 20th.
“We who are gathered here in Kuala Lumpur pledge to defend the freedom and sanctity of the nation to the last drop of our blood … we resolve to revive the spirit of freedom … we will not suffer injustice and oppression in the land … we will not suffer the replacement of foreign oppressors with those raised from among ourselves … we oppose all cruel and oppressive laws which deny the people their fundamental rights and freedoms … we denounce those who corrupt our system of justice … we denounce corruption, abuse of power and the conspiracy devised by a greedy elite to blind the people to the truth in order to maintain their grip on power and wealth “
“We raise the spirit of freedom! We are united against oppression! We are united in our resolve to establish justice! Long live the people! Give victory to Reform! We demand the resignation of Dr Mahathir Mohamad!”
