Rural masses can spur change, says Anwar

The opposition leader says that the 1974 Baling peasants protest against poverty which led to a nationwide revolt proved that rural masses can spark change.

PETALING JAYA: Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim has said that the rural masses can be the catalyst for change in the country such as in the case of the 1974 Baling peasants protest against poverty, which eventually snowballed into a nationwide revolt.

At a forum here last night to commemorate the protest in Kedah which led to several activists including Anwar being detained under the Internal Security Act, he brushed off notions that only the middle-class and educated could bring about changes.

He said when the farmers in Baling decided to rise up against the authorities, it was because they were ridden with poverty, coupled with the lack of agrarian lands and the nosedive of global rubber price.

“The special branch and Umno thought that we the students and urban people were the ones who instigated them to protest, but it wasn’t the case. Uprising doesn’t only come from the middle class and the educated, it could be led by the rural masses,” he said.

The forum was organised by PKR Youth and featured speakers such as PKR senator Syed Husin Ali, PKR member Syed Hamid Ali, environmentalist and academician Gurdial Singh and activist Kamarazaman Yaakob.

While there was no official record of the incident, Syed Husin in his memoir “Dua Wajah”, noted that the uprising started with Baling peasants staging a hunger strike on Nov 22 and Nov 25, 1974 to highlight their plight.

Rumours soon spread to the capital city that a peasant’s child had died after consuming a poisonous jungle yam, triggering a wave of emotions among students, NGO activists and intellectuals.

On the other hand, residents of Tasek Utara, Johor Baru, who were asked to move to the area before the 1974 general election, had their houses demolished by the authorities after the polls. Upset by the action, the residents camped outside of the Johor MB’s office in protest.

The situation was not helped by the decision of the federal government led by Tun Abdul Razak to raise the civil servants’ allowance from RM1,000 to RM1,500, noted Syed Husin in the book.

On Dec 3, thousands of Universiti Malaya students led by Anwar and others staged a mass demonstration against the government at Kelab Sultan Sulaiman in Kampung Baru.

Syed Husin claimed that police fired tear gas at the protesters and more than 1,000 students were arrested at Masjid Negara where they sought refuge. Anwar and Syed Husin were subsequently detained under the ISA for two and six years respectively.

‘Reject tyranny and abuse of power’

At the forum last night, Anwar said the Baling protest was significant because it involved participation of the masses.

He said that it was more important for people to have the “inner conscience of struggle” against repression and leaders could play a role in imparting the values.

Citing the American War of Independence, he said the late French political thinker Alexis de Tocqueville had pointed out that the Americans’ “habits of the heart” were their strength against the colonial master Britain.

“Likewise, our people must accept the fact that we need to defend our freedom, reject tyranny and abuse of power,” he told an applauding crowd.

Meanwhile, Guardial drew laughter from the floor when he recounted his trip to the police station to bail out his students after the mass arrest.

“The police asked me my name. I said Guardial Singh. The policeman said it’s good for me to come to the police station because they had been looking for me for days. Then I was arrested.

“I was put in a remand center with four cells. I slept in one of the cells. The next day when I woke up, I saw Anwar and Syed Husin around me,” he said.

Syed Hamid said that the Baling protest was not an isolated incident but a manifestation of socio-politic repression.

“As long as there is repression, there would be a public uprising. As long as Baling is there, people would keep fighting,” he said in an energetic speech.