The Jalan Stadium police station in Kuala Lumpur was turned into a magistrate's court yesterday to remand for three or four days the 136 people arrested on Saturday in the regular pro-Anwar, pro-reformasi peaceful demonstrations, this time amongst Deepavali shoppers at the Saturday night market along Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman. A 15-year-old arrested with them was released. All but one were Malays. One badly beaten but not arrested turned out to be a policeman agent provacateur. Some arrested were not involved; they was quietly having a meal at McDonalds', or shopping at the Saturday market, when they -- men and women -- were beaten with rotan canes and arrested. This is the largest number on remand over the current regular, illegal, peaceful anti-government demonstrations. The Saturday arrests are the most serious in the current cycle of demonstrations, but the police appear to have left everything to the corporal-in-charge at the concerned police station. The high profile police officers who would normally have jumped at the chance of their photographs appearing in the newspapers were not around. The highest ranking police officer seen during the proceedings was an assistant superintendent of police, and he needed clearance from "upstairs" before he would exercise his discretionary powers. Medical attention to those injured by the rotan charge was not available until ordered by the magistrate 20 hours later.

The refusal by police stations to allow families contact those under arrest backfired. One elderly Malay lady, angry that she could not see her arrested daughter, promised she would come with her neighbours and friends for the next demonstration. Men were openly preparing for the next demonstration. One vowed to bring his family to the next one. Many were proud of their arrested family members, and vowed to be involved in future demonstrations. The policemen were flummoxed, and awaited higher orders, which often did not come. The police are not used to middle-class Malays offering arrest, insisting on their rights, uncowed, unfrightened, completely at peace, happy they have been arrested for standing up for what they believe is right. The insistance of those arrested for just being around the area to join the demonstrations the next time around is a development even the government did not anticipate. The pro-reformasi, pro-Anwar demonstrations take its leaf from Gandhian civil disobedience in India. That went on for years until the Salt March to Dandhi turned violent in 1930; seventeen years later, India was independent. President Marcos was overthrown when police and military opened fire on rioters. President Suharto was overthrown when police and military opened fire on demonstrators. The larger political complications of a crackdown on the peaceful, Malay demonstrators is as bad, if not worse, to enforce the law as it is not to enforce it. These demonstrations cannot any more be stopped without blood on the streets; not stopping them erodes their effective authority to control the situation. The rotan caning of isolated demonstrators, who often enough are innocent bystanders, erodes official authority even further. In this eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation, either the police or the demonstrators must blink. The demonstrators do not seem about to. Not only do their numbers grow by leaps and bounds, it encompasses all stages and levels of Malay society. Subtly and silently, the demonstrations have changed their focus. No more are these as pro-Anwar and reformasi as they are anti-Mahathir. When the prime minister did some shopping, under heavy police escort befitting the man of the people, at the Mall before his recent Tokyo visit, stray members of the crowd kept shouting "Mampus Mahathir" ("Die,Mahathir") with such insistent regularity that his handlers advised him to leave. These pressures can only increase, adding to the government's concerns of security during next month's Apec summit.

M.G.G. Pillai