It is about time that the story of the Reformasi movement as well as the many other people’s movements in our history also be given the spotlight, and we look beyond the great men at the helm.
Without a significant effort to collect and retell these stories, we risk losing them to neglect and apathy.
Growing up during the early Reformasi period, politics was inescapable. Even in primary school, the sights and sounds of the weekend demonstrations were regaled by friends along with undoubtedly exaggerated stories of people being beaten up by the police’s Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) on the streets of KL.
It was a period of political awakening and outrage for many. Perhaps it was a culmination of the bottled anger and dissatisfaction that resulted from the severe economic and financial crash that affected all of Malaysia.
But through the events of September 1998...