Ronnie Liu Was One Of Bersih’s Founders And A Mastermind Of Hindraf

 

The 25th November 2007 Hindraf rally was a huge success — and that had an effect on the 8th March 2008 general election — just like the 5th November 2007 Bersih rally did. And Ronnie was very much instrumental in the Bersih and Hindraf successes, and by extension Pakatan’s success in the 2008 general election.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

This is the second time DAP is trying to get rid of Ronnie Liu Tian Khiew (READ MORE HERE). The first time was more than ten years ago and for a while Ronnie was placed in ‘cold storage’.

Ronnie once admitted to me that in his younger days he was a communist, but as he ‘matured’ he changed his views on communism and now believes in capitalism — isn’t that true for China as well? And weren’t we all communists in our younger days? In fact, I was more than just a communist, I was an anarchist (if you don’t know what that means go look it up).

Ronnie and my wife, Marina, during a candlelight vigil in front of the Sungai Buloh Prison

Ronnie was my closest DAP comrade back in the Reformasi days. He also believed in cooperation with other non-Pakatan parties such as Umno. When Umno Youth did a blood donation drive at the Kampong Baru mosque (I think it was around 2006 or so), Ronnie brought a bunch of DAP people to attend the event and donate blood.

The DAP people knew it was an Umno Youth event. In fact, the reason they went to donate blood is because it was an Umno Youth event.

Ronnie was one of the founders of Bersih

In 2007, a few of us got together to plan the Bersih march to Istana Negara (which was held on 5th November 2007) and Ronnie was one of the key people and mastermind. Ruhanie Ahmad (Ron), one-time BN MP for Parit Sulong and President of Kelab Penyokong Kerajaan (BNBBC), was also involved and I was amazed that Ronnie and Ron got along very well — in spite of one being DAP and the other Umno. That made me believe that not everyone in Umno and DAP are ‘Taliban-minded’.

When Ronnie became a wakil rakyat of Selangor, he got along very well with some members of the Istana Selangor. Ronnie gave the impression he was not a republican or anti-monarchy and accepted and respected Malaysia’s constitutional monarchy. Ronnie also met certain members of the Istana Selangor for dinner a number of times — probably one of the few DAP leaders to socialise with members of the royal family.

Ronnie told Hindraf to move to Batu Caves instead of calling off the rally

Something only a handful of Malaysians might know is that Ronnie ensured that the Hindraf rally of 25th November 2007 succeeded. On the night of 24th November (Ronnie and I were at Waikiki in Petaling Jaya), one of the Hindraf organisers phoned to say the police had set up roadblocks at all roads leading to Kuala Lumpur and no one could reach Jalan Ampang (or the British High Commission). So they were calling off the rally.

Ronnie told them to not call it off and instead change the venue to Batu Caves. He asked them to instruct everyone to go to Batu Caves instead and before dawn Batu Caves was flooded with Indians from all over Malaysia. When the police rushed to Batu Caves, another group went to KLCC and created chaos there.

The 25th November 2007 Hindraf rally was a huge success — and that had an effect on the 8th March 2008 general election — just like the 5th November 2007 Bersih rally did. And Ronnie was very much instrumental in the Bersih and Hindraf successes, and by extension Pakatan’s success in the 2008 general election.