“My friends and I got involved in student activism ‘accidentally’. We were from different universities and got to know each other through theatre. Later we met each other again on the streets during the reformasi demonstrations. It was the first time we saw so many people on the streets protesting and we couldn’t help but wonder, why did close to 70,000 people take to the streets on 20 Sept 1998? Why?
“That was when we met Isham. He was like our sifu and shared with us his opinions about the reasons people were on the streets. Was it just to support (Datuk Seri) Anwar Ibrahim? Or was it because the rakyat was fed up with government oppression? That was when we started questioning and became politically and socially conscious.“We started with Gerakan Mahasiswa Lantang Negara and then decided to set up UBU in Bangsar. At that time we were very innocent but spirited, we wanted to spread the meaning of ‘reformasi’ among the rakyat.
From left: Fahmi Reza, Jonah and Hilman. Jonah set up UBU, a multiracial collective that used theatre to spread messages defending the working class
“UBU was a multiracial collective. We strongly believed that there was no difference among Malay, Chinese and Indians [Malaysians]. And that we’ve to defend the working class. We used theatre to spread our messages among the rakyat.
“We showed them images of state oppression and injustice, [including] police brutality, the situation in our courts, and how [the government] robs orang kampung of their land … (Corrected) Isham was the script writer, Zunar (Zulkifli Anwar Ulhaque) was producer and the rest of us were the actors. The theatre was our agitprop! It was a new approach and our production was later banned.
“Street protest was [also] an important [element] in our struggle. It was from there that we developed our confidence to fight for our rights, strengthen our solidarity, and learnt to understand the meaning of democracy. Every weekend we would have demonstrations at Central Market [and other places around KL]. We would wear a songkok or cap, and quickly changed into our spare t-shirt in the toilet after that to avoid arrest.
(Corrected) Fahmi Reza holding up a poster of an anti-ISA protest organised by Gerakan Mahasiswa Mansuhkan ISA in June 2001
“[Apart from political activities], we also organised community projects and gave free tuition to kids of working class parents. It was successful and even non-UBU friends wanted to volunteer with us.
“I was arrested under the ISA when I accompanied the ISA 7 to the police station [in 2001]. I realised the true meaning of freedom when I was in solitary confinement. I cried on the first day and I understood why Isham ran away [when he knew he might be arrested].
“The police questioned me for hours every day. They asked me why I demonstrated, why didn’t I believe Anwar was involved in sodomy, why a Malay like me was campaigning in a Chinese temple and SJK (Cina) Damansara … I just made up stories sometimes. The detention strengthened my belief that the government was indeed a cruel one and we need to fight it till the end.”
(The former electrical engineering student is now Parti Keadilan Rakyat Youth vice-president.)
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