Friday, September 4, 2009

Today's Peaceful Protest

We hope you like our sweet pathetic-looking lembu as much as we do! :)

The event as you can see was small scale, but enough to get embassy officials asking if we were students, where we were from, where we lived in the UK, taking our pictures, showing our poor cow the finger when he tried to shake one of their hands and suddenly sending a man out in an olive green jumpsuit and sunglasses armed with a big DSLR to circle us intimidatingly taking photos.

Souvenir pics or Special Branch? We highly doubt it's the former.

Truthfully, we believe they knew we were coming as someone with a small digital camera was already waiting when we arrived. We also believe our cow took them totally off-guard- clearly they weren't used to statements being made through such cuddly means.

In any case, whilst of course it may amount to nothing we feel we made our point very clear. Mr Choi Tuck Wo, editor of the EU Bureau from The Star newspaper was there interviewing us from the beginning and will be writing an article in the next few days so look out for that. He took similar pictures to the ones posted here, but got us to angle the placards in such a way that Hishamuddin's face was concealed. I guess specifying which racist we were referring to was a bit too... well, racy for local press. Of course Hishamuddin has since flip-flopped on his initial opinion and claims he now supports stern action against protesters... too little, too late, too dirty?

Mr Choi has been sent the link to our petition and we feel our message will be far stronger if the numbers increase- please sign it if you haven't already at

We have heard some concerns from people reluctant to add their name for fear of being "caught"- ultimately we cannot force anyone to sign, but the site allows you to use a pseudonym so we hope you will at least do that if you are truly worried.

Thank you to those who turned up (you know who you are), to the two nice British policemen who read our leaflet and agreed we were nice peaceful people who could stay as long as we wanted and to all Malaysians around the world who have sent such supportive messages telling us they wish they could be here.

Let's prove to the administration that no matter how much they try to divide and conquer the races, our anger will only be aimed at them and NOT each other.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Why Collective For The New Malaya?

Collective: A united movement.

New : For change can only come with new ideas.

Malaya : Because in the age of Malaya we, the people, found common ground despite our overwhelming differences in the hope of becoming a free nation.

To Malaysian Londoners: the Collective is holding a peaceful protest on Friday 4 September 2009 from 9.30am at the Malaysian High Commission (45-46 Belgrave Square London SW1X 8QT) for the reasons below. Please join us if you are in town and willing to show us your support :)


Public protests without a police permit are illegal in multi-ethnic Malaysia, and Malaysians are routinely arrested and jailed without trial for “crimes” as small as holding candlelight vigils, peaceful gatherings to demand fair elections or wearing black in symbolic support of the opposition party. “Maintaining racial harmony” is the oft-used justification by the ruling UMNO administration for the necessity of this law limiting freedom of speech.

However on Friday 28 August 2009, a blatant display of racial and religious hatred now famously known as the “Cow-Head Protests” was allowed to take place, as riot police stood by and watched.

In this despicable act of sacrilege, 50 Malay-Muslims in the suburb of Shah Alam in the state of Selangor protested the relocation of a Hindu temple by brandishing a severed cow's head (considered a sacred animal to Hindus) and threatening bloodshed.

Despite the clear-cut racist overtones and severity of this incident, no coverage has been allowed in the government-controlled mass media. What's more, far from taking swift and stern action against those responsible the Malaysian Home Affairs Minister Hishamuddin Hussein has since publicly defended and justified the actions of this uncivilised mob, saying they were simply making their voices heard and warning “irresponsible parties not to provoke racial sentiments” by questioning this event further.

It is a spectacular exposure of the double-standards and hypocrisy in Malaysian government, where a united “1 Malaysia” is the catchy claim but where different races and religions are subject to different rights and laws.

The Collective For The New Malaya represents a group of peaceful Malaysians campaigning for an end to ethno-religious apartheid and divisive, race-based administration. Muslim or non-Muslim, Malay or otherwise, we believe all citizens of Malaysia should be entitled to the basic human right of equality regardless of colour, creed or political affiliation.

The Incident




For Further Details, Please Read THIS

The Prime Minister's Response

For the delayed and muted response from the administraton read HERE.

Further Press & Opinion

Article 1 - Malaysia's Ethnic Relations At Critical Point

Article 2 - Taman Ixora Residents Want To Live In Peace

Article 3 - Temple Protests : Various Parties Try To Resolve Issue