Malaysia: demonstrators learn from ETA.

When the world's press - or at least part of it - was in Kuala Lumpur yesterday for the A1GP, an Indian political party tried to stage a stunt in the City centre. Their plan backfired.

Just two weeks ago, a predominantly Muslim group of opposition parties held a demonstration that claimed equal access rights to state media. That was led by Anwar Ibrahim, who had promised as a part of his agreement for release from prison not to take part in politics. Police broke up the demonstration with tear gas and water canon. An international outcry arose - but those that condemned the action, including a representative of the UN who made the unworthy comment that Malaysia was descending into a situation similar to the current state of emergency in Pakistan. One wonders if he has ever been to Malaysia - on that day, this writer saw, for the first time in almost 9 years of visiting and living in Malaysia, riot police on the streets. That is emphatically not indicative of a state of emergency.

The local press covered yesterday's demonstration with inside knowledge, one newspaper even showing the British High Commission which was planned to be the focus of the protest and where protestors wanted to present a petition.

But the purpose of the rally was hijacked to relate to the imprisonment of three Malaysian citizens in Malaysia.

The police blocked all access to the Embassy District and protesters were instead marshalled to the open area around KLCC and the iconic twin towers. Figures of attendance vary: Al Jazeera, who's South East Asia office is housed in the twin towers, said "tens of thousands" whilst other media claimed there were about 5,000.

The protest related to three Indians, all Malaysian citizens and lawyers, charged with sedition. All were released this morning by a Court due to procedural problems, having been arrested only on Friday. The demonstration had been planned long before that and we had been informed of it, and its purpose, several days before the event.

In fact, the rally was said to be about the relative poverty of Indians in Malaysia. Approx 8% of the population is ethnic Indian and about 60% of them claim to be living in poverty. They claim that pro-Malay policies have further prejudiced them.

Yesterday's demonstration was organised by a group calling itself Hindu Right Action Force (HindRAF). It had claimed in the middle of last week that around 100,000 people would demonstrate. The police prepared a response force of 4,000. In the event, reliable estimates say that less than 8,000 turned up.

The charges against the three have not been withdrawn, leaving it open for them to be returned to Court.

The action in Kuala Lumpur started early on Sunday morning, and the protesters refused to disperse. Even when the police used water canon and tear gas, the protesters hurled missiles including stones and water bottles back at them.

Tan Seri Muhyiddin Yassin, Vice President of Malaysia's largest political party, UMNO, said that such demonstrations are divisive in a basically united community. It's not just the Indians who have poor, he said, the Malays and Chinese do, too.

But in Malaysia, the poor Indians are in a concentration in Kuala Lumpur whilst poor Chinese and Malays are spread all over the country. It is that concentration that makes the Indians think they are a special case. Yet the restaurants and bars of Bangsar and central KL have a disproportionate number of Indians drinking in them, challenging the percentage that claim to live in poverty. And there are many successful Indians in the professions and in banking, again suggesting that the proportions claimed are not correct.

The telegraphing of the demonstration had resulted in the authorities going to Court on Thursday morning and obtaining a court order injuncting the organisation from holding a rally and specified members from attending one if one was unlawfully held.

Even so, the original purpose of the rally was not entirely lost. Two representatives were to be allowed through the cordon to pass the petition to the British High Commission. But the petition is, simply, stupid. It requests the British monarch to appoint "a Queen's Counsel" to represent Malaysian Indians in a supposed law suit against the British Government alleging that Britain brought Indians to Malaya (as it was) and then exploiting them. It claims damages in a class action law suit of GBP2 billion (i.e. 2 million million).

The ridiculous nature of the claim, and the timing, clearly demonstrate that the entire event was a stunt.

At about 1 pm, a lawyer for HindRAF, A. Sivanesan, told protesters that the rally had been called off indefinitely, saying that the presentation of the petition had been called off because of the road block. But sources tell us that the handing over of the petition had in fact by that time been negotiated between the authorities and the British High Commission once the situation had stabilised during the morning and a secure passage could be assured.

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan said that the police intend to arrest the organisers of the rally which not only breached the injunction but also was illegal in the absence of a permit. He also blamed supporters of the group for a riot at a large Hindu temple at Batu Caves just north of the city where demonstrators congregated and threw stones and other missiles at police. He also said that the leaders had remained hidden until around 1 pm, and that the offer to present the petition could not be communicated to them because they could not be found. They then made a speech and left without handing it over.

A website, apparently containing comment from Malaysia, claimed that there were three deaths. The police say that is rubbish and is again an attempt by certain quarters to destabilise a calm country, and have taken steps to close it down.

Another of the Indian lawyers said to represent HindRAF said that they no longer intend to try to present the petition to the High Commission in KL, but will now take it directly to the Queen. P. Uthayakumar. Malaysia's New Straits Times wrote that he was one of the primary leaders but that he was not seen at the rally all morning. The paper said that enquiries of A. Sivanesan elicited a bizarre response: "When pressmen asked him where Uthayakumar was, he said Uthayakumar had gone home because he had something important to do."

It was only when he arrived and told the crowd to go home that they did so. According to the NST, " "We have won today. Victory is ours," he said while the crowd cheered." He also put the numbers attending at 100,000 whilst no independent commentator exceeded one tenth of that number.

Shops and hotels were closed but not barricaded during the protest causing loss of business on one of the busiest days of the year. But it caused little disruption to those who had come to KL to watch the A1GP due to KL's extensive road network meaning that egress and ingress were barely affected and due to the police's effective containment of the group.

Today, the Royal Air Force's Red Arrows flew over Kuala Lumpur. So a message to those who can't count and allege brutality: there were just eleven of them including outriders and the smoke they released as part of their display is non-hazardous and it's not aimed at you. Oh, and one more thing: they were supposed to fly around the Twin Towers. They missed and flew around the KL Tower instead.