Walk For Justice

I have never seen so many lawyers gathered at one location.

There were hundreds of them -- male, female, old and young in their white and black "uniform", in front of the Palace of Justice.
Some media reports put the number at 1,000 and more.

Earlier, as I was tearing down the KL-Seremban highway, I overtook four buses which I somehow figured were ferrying lawyers to Putrajaya for the march. I wasn't wrong.

As I approached the first entrance to Putrajaya, I found it "closed" with several police officers and men directing vehicles away.
At the second entrance, I saw policemen stopping vehicles before letting them through.
"Oh-oh," I thought. "The buses will have trouble entering."
I drove on and went into the third entrance which was free of police presence.

Along the way to the Palace of Justice where the gathering was to take place before the march to the Prime Minister's Department, I saw so many policemen stationed at several locations.

The police presence was very noticeable because you don't see that on any other day in this federal administrative capital.

I made my way to the Palace of Justice where the crowd of lawyers had gathered. Several members of the opposition parties -- DAP, Pas and Keadilan - joined the gathering for the march.
Also there were local and foreign Press covering the event. Met some former colleagues.

In front of the building, the anti-riot police stood in line. Very intimidating. No, sir, I won't mess with these guys.

As we were chatting, a helicopter flew past. The crowd broke into applause. We waved and gave a "V" sign -- victory or peace. Whichever.
Actually, it whizzed past a couple more times.

The march was to have begun at 11am but we got word that the buses ferrying the lawyers were stopped at the entrance to the federal administrative capital.
They were denied entry. It meant that they had to walk some 5 kilometeres to reach the Palace of Justice.

Among the crowd were uniformed policemen, some of whom were taking pictures of the people there.
I smiled for one of them.

We waited for the lawyers who were making their way by foot to the Palace of Justice because their buses were refused entry.

Led by Edmund Bon, they arrived slowly but steadily to join the rest of their brothers and sisters for the peaceful protest march.
Bar Council president Ambiga Sreenevasan then said a few words.
Following that, a couple of lawyers spoke. There was some chanting, some applause. You know, working up the "semangat", and we were ready to walk. It was just before noon.

I could see that the crowd was really huge. It was incredible.
Thank God for the boulevard which was just perfect for the march.

I was with NST writer Aniza Damis (who was on assignment) and Ahirudin Attan (Rocky), making our way towards the PM's Department which was straight ahead.

Obviously, the peaceful "march for justice" caught everyone's attention.
It must have been quite a sight.
Hey, this was not the floral or national day parade. It was a protest march by Malaysian lawyers. By some very fine and brave men and women.

We reached the circular in front of the gates of the PM's Department.
As expected, there were already policemen and members of the Federal Reserve Unit standing guard along the road.

And as fate would have it, the heavens opened and it began to pour. It rained and it rained.

But the lawyers kept their faith and stood their ground, their spirit unrelenting and indomitable.
Their representatives proceeded to meet an officer of the PM to hand over their memorandum.

And the rain kept on beating down on Putrajaya.

Everyone was drenched to their skin.
But who cares. They walked the talk, didn't they?
And what a walk it was.
Syabbas!

You can read the AFP story here.

And from the blogs: Rocky's Bru, X-Eyed Jules, Shanghai Stephen and Tony Yew.