In my heart, I knew that the seeds of change had started to take root, the country had woken up, and the fear that had gripped us since Mahathir came to power was slowly being questioned and eroded. There were, of course, many who rallied against Anwar, staunch Mahathirists who felt that it was better to have a devil they knew than one they didn’t.

Could Anwar be trusted? Could anyone be trusted? All we knew was that the country was on the verge of a new beginning, and this is what we had hoped for.

It had arrived, finally on our doorsteps, like a bouquet of fresh flowers from an unknown admirer. And we were ready.

Sign of the times

Times, they are a-changing. Delonix Regia ponders the signs.

20 September 1998 is an important date in our post ‘69 political history. Malaysians walked, some of us covering a total of six miles, beginning a search for self-determination lost to a regime that has both coddled and cowed us into submission. The steps I retrace here are part of a landscape of political and cultural signs that we are discovering anew, and in which I am both eyewitness and participant.

The events around the incidents at Sri Perdana and Masjid Negara can no longer be told in a naïve fashion. Too much is at stake for those who oppose the Reformasi movement, as well as those who support it. As this nation is polarised by the current crisis the ability to speak with reasonable objectivity diminishes, as do forums in which to negotiate our differences, whether they be political or cultural.

Old Sites, New Signs

It’s important to remember that the day began with the relocation of the Reformasi rally from Dataran Merdeka to the Masjid Negara. Yet, with his undeniable charisma and oratory skills, Anwar, through both the tone and substance of his speech, went beyond the symbolic confines of the site to establish that the Reformasi movement intended to speak to all Malaysians regardless of political and religious convictions, and beyond ethnic group affiliations. For sceptics as well as supporters, the atmosphere was electrifying. More so when Anwar declared that we—the rakyat —should reclaim Dataran; but he did so by first demanding the crowd agree to be peaceful.

We poured into Dataran—estimates run from a low of fifteen thousand to a high of a hundred thousand. No head count, though, can detract from the significance of the moment. Here was a broad spectrum of Malaysians demonstrating their feelings; maybe against the increasingly debased political style of the Mahathir administration, maybe against the management of the economic crisis; certainly, for many, in support of their displaced leader.