Marching in unison

I would have thought that these pictures below, reproduced from Jeff Ooi's Screenshots, were from Rangoon in Burma where the Burmese army had taken up positions to prevent thousands of angry monks from marching and protesting against their government but no, this happened yesterday morning right at our own doorstep.



The Federal Reserve Unit was out in force to block off bus loads of lawyers and their supporters who were travelling into Putrajaya to begin their March For Justice to the Prime Minister's Office.

The Bar Council had organised this walk (it was more of a walk than a march) to show their protest at the begrudging action by the government after the infamous video of lawyer VK Lingam was posted on YouTube, which showed him in a one-sided conversation with someone who many suspected was possibly a senior judge.

It is a sad day indeed that our lawyers had to resort to this type of action in order to be heard by the government. But when you have a government that seems frozen with inaction, a government that seems to promote and condone corruption and injustice, a government that seems in deep denial over almost everything that strikes a cord in society, this March For Justice may be just the catalyst to jolt public consciousness and awareness. To have an idea how deep the government is in denial, the pompous idiot declared again to The New Straits Times yesterday: "There is no crisis in our judiciary. No crisis. No problems. I don't see any scandal." I think this picture here sums him up perfectly.

At least, the FRU practised restraint and did not resort to physical action to end the march. Not so in Burma where yesterday, the Burmese army fired tear gas and shot live bullets into the air. (UPDATE: It was reported that at least three people were killed.) It looks very much that the government there had begun their crackdown against the monks.

These are just two pictures from Ko Htike's blog. Please visit it for more photos and the latest news from Rangoon. It's the least we can do to support their predicament.