Murali at the Bridge: MIC turns violent as PKR makes inroads with Indian community

Well, it wasn’t quite a bridge, and there was no way three could have defended such open ground as was to be found outside the PMO last week. Yet no less brave than Horatius was PKR Puchong division chief S Murali, as he defended his fellows against the thugs of MIC Youth led by their goonish leader, T Mohan.

Murali may have his detractors but nothing they say could take away from what he did on the 10th of May when he put himself unhesitatingly in harm’s way. MIC had claimed that Murali had shouted vulgarities at them but this was proven to be a lie by extensive photographic evidence.

Murali had stood, indeed, as silent as Horatius, Herminius and Lartius as they waited for Tuscan attack. Murali would not be the only one beaten by MIC’s cowardly thugs; others too (including S Gobikrishnan, an NGO leader) would nurse split lip and swollen jaw before the day was out.

Nor were the MIC’s goons fazed by the fact that they were attacking a multi-racial group which included Rafizi Ramli, PKR’s Director of Strategy, Zuraida Kamaruddin, Wanita Head and Latheefa Koya, its Legal Head. Latheefa Koya could be seen, in the released photographs, fearlessly delivering scathing tongue lashing to any thug fool enough to come within earshot.

Not so easily scared

The main targets of attack appeared to be (based on witness and photographic evidence), incredibly, a 17 year-old schoolgirl and PKR vice-president N Surendran. The child had had the temerity (in MIC eyes) to take her case to PKR instead of suffering in silence or wasting her time with MIC’s incompetents. Indeed, one MIC thug positioned himself at the PM’s office door in an attempt to block her entry.

It is unclear what T Mohan wanted to achieve by this piece of thuggery. Uneducated oaf he may be, but surely even he must know that this is the age of the camera-phone and twitter. The truth, therefore, will out.

The MIC tale that they were there to thank the PM was given the lie by the fact that they were carrying printed banners calling for Surendran to be sacked by PKR. And that T Mohan’s wife had tweeted a not-at-all veiled warning before the event for Surendran to stay away.

If MIC Youth’s intent was to intimidate Surendran, they have certainly not succeeded and are unlikely to. Surendran’s great-grandfather after all, a lawyer like him, spent years in British jails during the Indian Independence struggle, while his grandfather fought in the INA under Subhash Chandra Bose.

And Surendran himself was an experienced, hardened human rights lawyer before joining PKR. In fact, Surendran has been on the attack against an MIC which finds itself in an indefensible position for an action which, in hindsight, can only be described as strategic lunacy.

Hisham and Najib seem to have gone to sleep!

The MIC is split with the party’s discipline chief, KS Nijhar, declaring that he would haul up the culprits while Vel Paari, torch holder of the Samy Vellu faction, immediately condemned Nijhar. The police have proceeded on an investigation but have yet to arrest anybody, despite the spectacular photographic evidence publicly available. This, of course, will surprise nobody.

Of more concern perhaps, is the disturbing question of the extent of the PM, Najib Razak, and the Home Minister, Hishamuddin Hussein’s involvement in the attack on PKR’s leaders and members. It seems implausible that such an attack could have gone on, and for so long, in so heavily policed a location as the Prime Ministers Office without some form of official eye-closing.

Nevertheless, we will end with a salute to Murali, who if asked why he did it, may perhaps answer, that a man can find his end in no better way than facing fearful odds; for the ashes of his fathers; and the temples of his gods.

Malaysia Chronicle