Guy Fawkeses march against Assembly Bill

In the midst of New Year Eve revelry, some 200 people wearing Guy Fawkes masks paraded near Dataran Merdeka to protest against the Public Assembly Bill 2011.

The flashmobsters, who are linked to the Occupy Dataran movement, started donning their masks and posing for photos at 11:30pm yesterday in the sidelines of a New Year concert taking place on the historic field.

However, at 12:20am when the parade was well underway on Jalan Raja, police detained three members of the group who were distributing the masks. The masks and the group’s banner were also confiscated.

The banner read, “#OccupyDataran untuk Merdeka” (Occupy the square for independence, with #OccupyDataran being the movement’s Twitter hashtag).

The trio were released from a nearby mobile police station 10 minutes later, after their personal details were recorded.

“We asked why we were detained,” said one of the released detainees, who refused to identify himself despite being unmasked.

'We gathered, like everyone else'

“He (the police officer) said it was because we carried banners and wore masks. We retorted ‘what’s wrong with that?’ He could not answer, so he had to release us.

 “We proved that we were innocent. We merely assembled here peacefully like everyone else. What sets us apart is that we wore masks, but what’s wrong with that?

 “We want to reclaim our right to assemble peacefully, and we have done just that. We did not trouble anyone.”

The Peaceful Assembly Bill had been passed by Dewan Negara on Dec 22, and now awaits royal assent before it can be gazetted into law.

Once in effect, the law would ban street demonstrations as well as assemblies within 50 metres of a list of prohibited places, which include schools, hospitals, places of worship, and bridges.

Another protestor, student Raihana Ambok Dalek, had a different grievance.

 “I’m not against the government, but I am against the corruption. Who can control the corruption? Who can uphold the law?” she said.


‘Ideas are bulletproof’

The group intended to re-enact a scene from the 2006 movie 'V for Vendetta', where the protagonist, V, used a Guy Fawkes mask to conceal his identity while attempting to bomb the British Parliament which was the seat of power for an autocratic government.

The explosion occurred just as the building’s iconic Big Ben clock tower marked November 5th in the film, and was witnessed by thousands in the streets of London, also wearing Guy Fawkes masks.

The mask has since been used as a pop culture symbol of rebellion against oppression, and had also been adopted by the hacker group Anonymous, and the global Occupy movements.

 “I think the message is symbolic and simple enough for people who have seen 'V for Vendetta' and what V stand for.

“V is only a symbol. The mask is only a symbol. Behind the mask is an idea, and ideas are bulletproof,” said one protestor.

Two flashmobs

At the stroke of midnight, the flashmobsters unfurled their banner and posed for more photos, using the nearby Sultan Ahmad Said building’s clock tower as background while fireworks lit the sky.

They also waved hand gestures that are normally used to signal opinions at the movement’s meetings, such as ‘agree’, ‘disagree’, and ‘get to the point’, before wading through the crowd of tens of thousands who had gathered to attend the concert and celebrate the New Year.

During the procession, a separate flash mob took place in front of the former Federal Court building, where Gabungan Mahasiswa Islam Se-Malaysia (Gamis) president Akam Ikram led a group of over 100 to pray, sing, and chant slogans like “youths love Malaysia”, “youths love peace”, “youths love Islam” and “God is Great”. However, his speeches could barely be heard over music from the nearby concert.

Several people who had come for the Occupy Dataran flashmob appeared to be confused by the commotion and joined Gamis’ crowd when the procession passed by, until they realised the mistake and moved on.

The Gamis group was later dispersed by police too.

Police dispersed Occupy’s meeting

When the New Year celebrations were over, the Occupy Dataran’s members gathered for their weekly meeting near Coliseum Theatre, about 500 metres from where the procession started.

The movement’s media working group later claimed that police dispersed the meeting of about 60 people, citing orders from the police officer in charge of the Dang Wangi district.

However, it said it was able to reconvene the meeting near a bridge along Jalan Raja.

Prior to midnight, the surrounding crowd also shot several signalling flares into the air. When asked, the working group disclaimed responsibility and said it were probably from “random (New Year) revellers”.

The Occupy Dataran movement was formed on July 30, and has had meetings - known as the KL People’s Assembly - at or around Dataran Merdeka every Saturday night since despite occasional police interference.

It seeks to reclaim public spaces as democratic space for people to discuss ideas, and experiment with direct, participatory democracy.

The movement is leaderless – there is no hierarchy, resolutions are passed by consensus, and roles such as moderators and coordinators are frequently rotated.

By Koh Jun Lin Msiakini